IL requiring H5N1 testing of exhibition dairy cattle

The Illinois Department of Agriculture state veterinarian says any lactating dairy cattle participating in any livestock exhibitions in the state must be tested for H5N1 beginning July 17th.

Dr. Mark Ernst tells Brownfield Illinois has no reported cases of the disease, but twelve states do…

“We wanted to make sure that exhibitors still had the opportunity to exhibit, but at the same time, we want to try to prevent any potential exposure,” he says.

Ernst says the testing must be done no more than seven days prior to arrival at the exhibition.

“They need to contact their veterinarian who can come out and collect samples from those cows that are going to be exhibited.” He says, “It’s important that the animals have official identification in them because we are going to be asking to see those test results.”

Ernst says a producer’s best defense against the disease is enhanced biosecurity.

“The potential for the disease to be tracked around either by animal movement or equipment movement, people movement.” He says, “There’s an issue with potential exposure of animals through the milking equipment, but we really haven’t been seeing a huge respiratory component. We haven’t really seen a lot of wild bird component.”

He says USDA has several financial assistance options for the testing.