Minnesota has had a total of eight reported cases of H5N1 avian influenza in dairy cattle. “To my knowledge, many of them are pretty closely related cattle that would have transmitted farm-to-farm,” said Lucas Sjostrom, executive director, Minnesota Milk Producers Association. “Myself, the Board of Animal Health, our state veterinarian and our commissioner of agriculture spoke at Farmfest and we all agreed that we suspect the eight recorded cases are just the tip of the iceberg. It’s really hard to track this disease. The symptoms that we see in cows are the same symptoms that we see every day on dairy farms just from an animal that might be just a little bit sick that’s going to quickly get better. It is a version of the flu after all.”
