Federal officials will fund farms’ protective measures to contain H5N1 bird flu

The federal government will provide livestock farms as much as $28,000 apiece to bolster protective measures and testing for the avian flu virus spreading among dairy cows, officials said Friday.

The Agriculture Department also allotted $98 million to aid states restricting the interstate movement of affected cattle, and health officials announced they would put an additional $101 million toward expanded surveillance, tests, treatments, and vaccines for the virus, which has now spread to at least 40 farms in nine states, with one confirmed human transmission.

The announcement comes amid increasing calls from infectious disease experts and public health officials for a clear picture of the virus’ spread and the risk it might pose. While officials maintain that the risk of spread to the general public is still very low, farmworkers are repeatedly exposed to potentially sick cows. Yet early efforts by federal and state health officials to shore up protective measures have had limited success.

The USDA has been criticized for the fact that up until now it has not offered financial incentives to dairy farmers with outbreaks of H5N1 in their herds, unlike the compensation programs that were key to enlisting poultry farmers in helping stop the virus’s spread among livestock birds.