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State veterinarian: H5N1 spillover into dairy herds is driving new risks for poultry and public health
Summary
Colorado’s state veterinarian told the committee that recent H5N1 spillover into dairy cattle has produced high viral loads in milk, prompted mandatory testing and movement restrictions, and created new risks for poultry operations and public‑health surveillance.
Denver — Colorado’s state veterinarian warned lawmakers that highly pathogenic avian influenza (H5N1) has shifted in 2024 from episodic wild‑bird spillovers to sustained mammal transmission in dairy cattle, changing the outbreak dynamic and prompting new federal and state controls.
Dr. Steph Baldwin told the Water Resources and Agriculture Review Committee that H5N1 historically traveled seasonally with migratory waterfowl but that recent clusters — first identified in Texas and now seen in Colorado — involve sustained transmission among lactating dairy cattle and have produced very high viral loads in raw milk. Baldwin said diagnostic CT values from affected milk samples have sometimes been in the single digits (very high viral loads). She emphasized that pasteurization is effective at inactivating the virus and that commercial milk remains safe when pasteurized, but that the presence of virus in raw milk and on farms creates acute…
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