Is the Cattle Complex Ready to Move Past the Influenza A Scare?

It's been roughly three weeks since news first began to spread that dairy cattle were becoming ill in parts of Texas and Oklahoma, which quickly caught the attention of beef producers. The illness is currently named Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) or bird flu even in cattle, but the American Association of Bovine Practitioners (AABP) is recommending a new name for the illness that made dairy cows sick in several states: AABP wants it called Bovine Influenza A Virus (BIAV).

AABP believes the illness should be addressed in this manner as the symptoms in the dairy cattle are different than that of avian influenza. DTN's Senior Livestock Editor Jennifer Carrico wrote about the matter which you can access here: https://www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/web/ag/news/business-inputs/article/2024/04/09/bovine-influenza-virus-identified.

Regardless of what the illness is called, officials have seemed to conclude that the virus thankfully poses no threat to humans through meat or milk consumption. As DTN has reported earlier, milk from sick cows is not permitted to be shipped for consumption, and pasteurization inactivates bacteria and viruses. (See https://www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/web/ag/news/business-inputs/article/2024/04/03/ohio-dairy-tests-positive-hpai-third)