Bird Flu Overwhelms Tulare County, Photos Show Dead Livestock

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — Cows in the Central Valley are dying so quickly from bird flu that they are overwhelming standard protocols for disposing of carcasses, according to a dairy industry official.

On Thursday, KVPR obtained photos taken this week of dead cattle and calves dumped in the open near a road on the edge of a dairy farm near the Tulare County community of Tipton.

Crystal Heath, a veterinarian and animal rights activist, provided the images. She acknowledged that she did not know for sure that the cattle had died of bird flu, but questioned why the animals were being stacked in this way without there being signs warning of the biosecurity risk.

On Friday, Anja Raudabaugh, CEO of industry group Western United Dairies, confirmed to KVPR that these photos were authentic. She also acknowledged that laying out carcasses in the open and on the edge of a farm is not a common practice, but that the situation highlights the severity of the outbreak.

Without bird flu, “we would never have had a pile of bodies like this in a public area — and there just wouldn’t be as many dead cows,” Raudabaugh said.

She said keeping the cows close to the road allows trucks to get to them more easily without endangering dairy workers or bringing more vehicle traffic to a farm already affected by an outbreak.

The dairy operators “followed strict quarantine protocols and placed them away from the healthy cattle and employees, which is why they were positioned on the side of the road – so that the rendering truck could reach them quickly and easily,” she said.

Cattle infected with bird flu cannot be sent to slaughter but must be sent to a rendering facility where they are burned. Photos shared with KVPR showed the cows with flies crawling on them and even a calf among the dead.

Although Raudabaugh did not provide an estimate of how many cattle in California have died from the virus, she said dairies with outbreaks are reporting a 10-20% decline in milk production so far – not just due to cattle deaths, but also for many of the Survivors have limited milk supply.

Raudaubaugh said farmers had no plans to place warning signs near the carcasses and that doing so was “in no way consistent with current biosecurity protocols.”

As of Friday, the virus had been confirmed in cattle at 99 dairies across California, a number that rose rapidly in just six weeks to become the largest livestock outbreak of any U.S. state.

Six human cases of bird flu have now been confirmed in Central California, and another is currently under investigation. Health officials say symptoms among those infected were relatively mild.

Although health officials say there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission of the virus, Stanford University infectious disease expert Abraar Karan warned that this could change if the virus is given the opportunity to share genetic information with other strains.

“We know that with influenza viruses there is a risk of what is called viral reassortment, where a host becomes infected with several different strains at the same time,” Karan said previously The California Newsroom. “It is difficult to predict what changes might occur.”

Does the California bird flu pathogen come from Idaho?

Although state officials did not provide details about where and how the first cases arrived in California, the Department of Food and Agriculture confirmed to KVPR that it had identified the strain discovered in the state.

“Genome sequencing of the virus strain in California cattle is most similar to the strain found in cattle in the state of Idaho,” CDFA Public Affairs Director Steve Lyle wrote in a statement.

Dairy farmers in the area say they may know why: the interstate movement of cattle from Tulare County to Idaho and back earlier this summer.

According to Joey Airoso, a dairy farmer near Pixley, the consensus in the dairy community is that a seller drove cattle to Idaho to sell, but the buyer rejected some. Instead of finding another buyer for the remaining cattle, which is common practice, the seller transported them across state lines back to Tulare County, according to Airoso.

“It was really reckless because you had the potential to bring the virus back to the number one dairy district in the United States,” he said.

Airoso said the community learned of the transaction in August — after the virus had already been confirmed in a few dozen herds in Idaho and just weeks before the Tulare County Fair. Airoso believes the seller tested the cattle for bird flu before leaving for Idaho – which was mandated for interstate travel earlier this year – but it is unclear whether the animals were retested before returning.

“It is very disappointing that people would transport animals back and forth from a contaminated area without any judgment,” he said. “It has already had a huge negative impact on a lot of families and there are a lot of angry people out there about how this thing got here.”

Tricia Stever Blattler, executive director of the Tulare County Farm Bureau, said she has heard the same theory.

“I will definitely confirm that this is the same information that I heard,” she said. “I have no direct knowledge of the route of transmission, but this is a common and well-known story that I believe is probably accurate.”

Western United Dairies’ Raudabaugh would not provide details about the virus’ appearance in California cattle, but acknowledged that the transmission likely occurred through a “safety breach.”

“It has to be,” she said. “This is a type of milk…The only way to spread it is through dairies. And so we know for sure that this strain is not spread by wild birds.”

The government’s investigation into the cause of the outbreak is ongoing.