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Still a lot to learn about Influenza A

One year after the first Influenza A case was confirmed in a Texas dairy herd, state veterinarians are still trying to understand the virus.

Texas State Veterinarian Dr. Bud Dinges says the industry has learned a lot about Influenza A in over the last year, but “I think there’s still a lot we don’t know. The respiratory spread, I don’t think that component was there and the virus can be in urine, but mainly it has an affinity for milk.”

Dinges says there hasn’t been a positive case of Influenza A in Texas since December, but the virus is still affecting dairy herds in California, Nevada and Idaho.

“We’ve got four migratory fly-ways in the United States. They had the spillovers of the new genotype in Nevada and Arizona cattle. The virus is mutating and changing.”

He says it will take more time to know all ways the virus is being spread. State veterinarians and ag industry professionals got an update on Colorado State University research on the virus at the NIAA Conference this week.

Dr. Justin Smith, the Kansas State Veterinarian, says continued awareness and innate immunity has helped the situation in his state.

“Frankly, our dairies are clean and so, we don’t have the viral load out there pushing the virus into new dairies and susceptible species.”

Smith says the virus is likely here to stay.

“I would like to think we can clean it up in our dairy herds and we’re on a great way of going there, but who knows what the next version is going to look like?”

Both states are participating in the national milk testing strategy. Texas is starting this week and Kansas has been testing milk the past three months, with no positive cases reported.