Hunter Squirrels | Gaetz Statement | Bird Flu in California

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ground squirrels are proving to be opportunistic omnivores. They hunt, kill,
and eat smaller rodents, and have a particular taste for voles.
Scientists believe the meat eating behavior emerged temporarily as the
population of available prey increased. Explain this to me, explain

(00:22):
it you, well, I'm actually going to kick it over
to Shrek to start things off. Oh that's great, isn't it.
Though this is deeply troubling news, It's not as much
troubling as it is interesting. I'd file it under the
troubling department. Why why squirrels All of a sudden they

(00:44):
are just like, yeah, I like meat?

Speaker 2 (00:45):
What of it? Yeah? What of it?

Speaker 1 (00:48):
How many times have you been out in about and
you saw a squirrel and he was acting a little squarely,
a little suspect, Because that's kind of how squirrels act.
They are maybe the sussious animals out in the animal kingdom.
What are you talking about, always chirping at people from
trees or darting back and forth. They're shifty, that's what
they are. They're shifty. And let me tell you, Emory,
how many times have you thought to yourself, I know

(01:09):
I'm not the only one. Thank goodness, that squirrel doesn't
have a taste for meat.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
Never never, if.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
If that squirrels in my backyard, my dog would eat it.
It doesn't matter if it likes flesh or not.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
It doesn't matter at all. You ever seen a piranha? Yes?

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Okay, yeah, the cartoons made them seem a lot worse
than they actually are.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
For whatever it's worth, there.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
Are videos out there of piranhas like eating meat. It's
not like you get like vaporized by these fish. They
nibble on you and you're like ow. But you can
win a fight with a piranha? Can you win a
fight with thirty piranhas? When have you seen thirty squirrels
in the same area? They're everywhere? Man, I had a

(01:53):
walnut tree when I lived in the mone. The walnut
tree was that was the that was their thing. Man
I had like six or seven of them in my backyard. Okay,
it's most have ever seen in one place. They like
to live nearby because that walnut tree was giving them
some sentence all year long. Let me tell you this.
After PJ entered my house, there were very quickly two

(02:14):
fewer squirrels in the backyard. Let me just throw that
out there. Not that I'm rooting for that to happen,
but food chain, man, what do you want? This is
the thing. I like animals, I really do. But tell
your vegan friend that the world isn't a better place
because you decided not to eat lamb chops yesterday.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
All right, Well.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
Those squirrels realize with their own instincts that hey, there
are a lot more voles around lately, maybe I should
eat some of them, and they do, big deal, big walp.
I want to fight about it. I'm worried at your
cavalier sense about this whole thing. Bring it on. I
like the idea of meat eating rodents, just like yesterday, AI,

(03:00):
what what's wrong with the I? Pretty soon we're gonna
be locked indoors and we're gonna have to rely on
AI for everything because there's man eating squirrels afoot. You
know how big a squirrel would have to be for
it to be able to eat a human?

Speaker 2 (03:14):
Piranhas man, That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
Can we talk about that? How ridiculous that sounds coming
out of your mouth right now? Ridiculous gig gig gear
It called a lot of people ridiculous at first. Well,
I'll call you as soon as I see a man
eating squirrel on the loose. You think you're just gonna
be walking around outside and all of a sudden squirl

(03:37):
are gonna start nibbling your finger. These days, you never know.
Sounds like they got the taste for it. By the way,
my bucket mouse trap, the peanuts are gone. The peanuts
were gone yesterday h and nothing was inside. So I
either have a giant mouse, a rat, a raccoon, or

(03:59):
some very very resourceful mice who are using my peanut
butter that I put in the bucket as a way
to climb back out. Given the news, one of those
options is now on the table.

Speaker 3 (04:16):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
I'm not too worried about him.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
It sounds like Matt Gates is going to get to
get got here by this House Ethics Committee. They have
voted to release their report into former Representative Matt Gates,
who again is u is resigned. What are they gained
by doing this, Well, we'll see seeing. In the New
York Times both say that this could challenge any future

(04:38):
plans Gates may have to pursue public offits in the future.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
I have to ask you before I read this Matt case.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
Did he resign because he really wanted to put pressure
on those who wanted him to be the attorney general?
Or did he resign knowing that this was coming. I
guess we'll have to see what comes out. Well, he's
already posted on his ex account. You were ready for
me to read this.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
I'm a preemptive fake news post. I'm sure.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
Oh no, no, no, let me read this. This is
today from Matt Gates on his x account, and it
is long because he pays for the premium, So be ready.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
I am not going to do the Matt Gates.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
Voice Doug Biden Garland. DOJ spent years reviewing allegations that
I committed various crimes. I was charged with nothing fully exonerated,
that was in caps, not even a campaign finance violation,

(05:36):
and the people investigating me hated me. Then the very
witnesses DOJ deemed not credible were assembled by House ethics
to repeat their claims absent any cross examination or challenge
from me or my attorneys. I've had no chance to

(06:00):
ever confront any accusers. I've never been charged, I've never
been sued. Instead, how cethics will reportedly post a report
online that I have no opportunity to debate or rebut
as a former member of the body. In my single days,

(06:20):
I often sent funds to women I dated, even some
I never dated, but who asked. I dated several of
these women for years. I never had sexual contact with
someone under eighteen. Any claim that I have would be
destroyed in court, which is why no such claim was
ever made in court. My thirties were an era of

(06:41):
working very hard and playing hard too. It's embarrassing, though
not criminal, that I probably partied, womanized, drank, and smoked
more than I should have earlier in life. I live
a different life now, but at least I didn't vote
for as that bleep over the country.

Speaker 2 (07:04):
End quote.

Speaker 1 (07:07):
Well, what do you say? Sounds pretty convincing. I will
have to see what they say. I'm sure this is
coming out basically preemptively saying don't believe anything that you read.
I can't help but to think he withdrew his name
from the Attorney General spot though, because he probably knew

(07:29):
this was going to be coming, and the sooner he
moved the better. It's weird, though, It's weird right this
guy was supposed to be the attorney general. Have you
ever thought about that? Why does somebody who's apparently like
a good lawyer or interested in being a good lawyer,
do they need attorneys to represent them in like court cases.

(07:51):
Let's say let's say a famous lawyer gets sued for something.
Let's say Ted Cruz has to go to court. Ted
Cruz good lawyer, really good lawyer? Does he need other
lawyers to represent him in court? Or could he represent himself?

Speaker 2 (08:07):
Well? Does it surgeon perform on himself?

Speaker 1 (08:10):
I watched this documentary about this guy that removed his
own appendix because there was no one else there to
do it. He was an antarctica that seemed pretty dangerous.
But yeah, I mean generally no, But I guess it's
always nice to have, you know, a second opinion on

(08:31):
things for you know, presentations in coreps or whatever. I
just don't know, Like, if you think you're a really
good lawyer, then wouldn't you just want to.

Speaker 2 (08:42):
Be responsible for yourself? I guess, like, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (08:45):
It's more entertaining when the accused represents themselves. So for
entertainment alone, Yeah, let's.

Speaker 2 (08:51):
Go something like that.

Speaker 3 (08:53):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (08:54):
Well, I guess we'll find out what magg Gates did,
because it sounds like this is going to happen. We're
going to learn about this, and if this is just
a big smear job or you know, there seems to
be a little bit more because he's right. I mean,
he's never accused of anything in a court of law.
He was never accused of anything through a lawsuit or anything.
None of that stuff's actually happened. And yes, pretty much

(09:15):
everybody who's a Democrat hates Mat Gates. There are a
lot of Republicans I think that hate Matt Gates. So
I don't know, maybe this is some sort of politics.
If you in high school, if there's this really obnoxious
kid that pretty much everybody disliked, you'd find a way
to try to pin something on him if he did
even something a little bit wrong. I don't think Matt

(09:35):
Gates is incorrect by saying that he was probably a
target of something like that. I also tend to think that, yeah, probably,
you know, he towards the end there he talks about
how Hardy partied and all that stuff. There's a chance
that maybe something little, not great actually did happen, and
they might have some substance to those even if he

(09:55):
can't properly debate them. I don't know, we'll find out.
It's two eighteen. I'm Emory Songer. We got plenty more
that has come out today. We got to talk about
the the spend the spending bill that's going to prevent
a government shutdown, but very well could get people real
fired up about the money the government spending. And also
did a human now actually catch the bird flu in

(10:16):
the United States? Should talk about that too, News Radio
eleven ten kfab Emri Songer got a fund the government
otherwise this government shutdowns? How often do we have government shutdowns?
I mean, it's got to be it's got to be
a lot.

Speaker 4 (10:28):
Right.

Speaker 1 (10:28):
What if you and me just decided at some point
at the money that we hit allotted for this year
and the energy tanks that we had is a run out,
and Matt Nike, we can't.

Speaker 2 (10:36):
Work unless we get a deal to put together.

Speaker 1 (10:38):
You think that go over, Well, it's kind of like
how trust fun Babies act. I can't pay my deals
and they just shut down until mommy and Daddy swoop in.

Speaker 5 (10:46):
They can't pay my deals, help daddy.

Speaker 2 (10:50):
Oh that's weird, don't clip that. Well, it's a budget
there pal.

Speaker 1 (10:55):
Anyway essentially, Congress in this situation that by the end
of the I mean, you have to approve the spending
now before the new year so we can do the
stuff that we need to do in the government. Well,
one House Republican said that they all want pay raises

(11:16):
and actual health insurance, but refuse to vote for them.
That's a House Republican that didn't want to get their
name out there. Again, the anonymous factor and the provisions
of raising congressional pay and allowing members of Congress to
opt out of the Affordable Care Act are trying to
figure out this. The fallout is going to be permeating
from the people in Congress and their constituents. Well, the

(11:39):
spending bill is set to repeal language in a stop
gap spending bill that would freeze an automatic cost of
living adjustment for the members of Congress, and it would
be the first time since nine that Congress got a
pay increase. Are you in favor of our politicians getting
pay increases?

Speaker 2 (11:56):
No, don't.

Speaker 1 (11:58):
I don't know what exactly. I don't know how to
feel about that, because at some point, right we all
talk about there needs to be more cash for the
jobs that people are working, and if a place is
paying somebody the exact same amount that they were paying
them in two thousand and nine for doing the same job,
we would say that that's unacceptable. However, how much should

(12:19):
people in Congress be getting paid to begin with for
doing their job as like their provisional salary, because that's
what we're talking about here now. A lot of Republicans
obviously are just like, what the heck is this? What
are we doing here? Why are we? Why are we?
What in the world are we doing here? There's a
lot of different things in here that I think that
I mean, I can't even begin to go through all

(12:41):
of this, but any two thirds majority or two hundred
ninety votes or so to pass legislation, and that would
be difficult the way that it is now. It appears
Jared Golden is a Democrat and says he's opposing the
bill of the pay raise and ACA visions. The Affordable

(13:01):
Care Act provisions are included. Okay, so there seems to
be a lot of dissent here. And Zach Nunn, the
Iowa representative who barely you know, won reelection here this
past year, said, I have a post stock trates I
have a post benefits for members. This kind of falls
in that whole category, but he still says he is

(13:23):
considering the bill. There are many people with different opinions
on this. This is my bottom line. How much do
we trust our people in Congress to do this correctly, right,
like to do this in a way that actually helps
the American public. Now, the Federal Reserve did cut interest
rates by a quarter of a point zero point two

(13:44):
five percent, and that means that lowers the cost of
borrowing for people who are to owe interest rates. Right,
you have an interest rate on a loan or something.
I wouldn't say this is helping people buy a lot,
but it's something. Are we feeling okay about that? Is
that something that we're sitting here saying like the government's

(14:06):
getting it right? Do you trust the government with our monies?
Does anybody out there feel like, you know what? I
want to give more monies to the government. I think
the government needs to pay themselves more. I think the
government needs to have a lot more options for their
own personal health care than the rest of us.

Speaker 2 (14:22):
Surely they won't misuse it this time.

Speaker 1 (14:25):
Look, is there somebody I can talk to that can
be like a surrogate to the government and be like,
why are you so stupid? Do you not see us
over here? The little guy in America? No, we're so small.
How could they see us? Watching you give yourself pay
raises and different provisions and arguing about how much money
America needs to function, and oh, yeah, we're in this

(14:48):
huge deficit. You know what I'm going to do. I'm
going to vote for more money for me. Stock trading options,
insider trading completely possible. All the money you get from
lobbyists and special interests, and the power you have as
an elected official. Please tell me why I should think
you're doing a good job. How am I supposed to

(15:09):
trust you?

Speaker 2 (15:10):
Now? Again?

Speaker 1 (15:11):
Like I said, there are plenty of other legislators that
are pushing back against some of these things.

Speaker 2 (15:15):
I get it, But holy smowly, aye, look over.

Speaker 1 (15:19):
I'm looking at this as a a barely educated guy
in his early thirties who's trying to understand the world
around him and how he fits into it. And I
have little sympathy for anybody who's in Congress when they
say they have it so rough, and then they get
all upset that the American public is upset about the
things that they're doing in there. You ask for this,

(15:41):
your clowns, but go ahead and enjoy that three percent
rais or whatever it is. Thirty to twenty nine, that
minu it could come in handy to twenty nine. We'll
come back. We got to talk about this Burdifley thing.
Should we be concerned. We will talk about it coming
up on news radio eleven to ten kfab.

Speaker 5 (16:00):
Sung on news radio eleven ten kfab.

Speaker 1 (16:04):
Daniel says, show me an attorney that didn't party their
butt off in their younger years, and I'll show you
a horrible attorney.

Speaker 2 (16:10):
You would you?

Speaker 1 (16:11):
I mean, there is kind of a lifestyle associated with
with lawyers. That doesn't mean that it's not a generalization,
because it probably is. But you're in school a long time,
your your very career oriented. Your social life basically as
being around the other people that you're you're doing the
same stuff with the studies of overlaw and whatnot. I

(16:35):
don't know, Matt acceptable, I mean are you You're not?
I wouldn't consider you too big of a party animal.

Speaker 2 (16:43):
No.

Speaker 1 (16:46):
If I ever was, those days are long behind me.
I don't honestly, I don't really genuinely enjoy parties. I'm
a bit of a party pooper, to be honest. Yeah,
I know you come into this studio all the time,
and when I start throwing a party, you're always like,
no party, no streamers allowed. Yeah, you get those balloons
out of here if you're to work, not have fun.

Speaker 2 (17:08):
Yeah, I just like, I don't know. To me, I
partied more I go.

Speaker 1 (17:15):
I went out and partied a lot more when I
was like twenty six twenty seven. I had a really
fun boss at the small radio station I was working for,
and we would go out, like not just me and
the boss, but like our entire workplace was kind of
some younger people, and I went out a lot then.
I didn't go out before that. I felt like parties
were just kind of I didn't have felt weird. I
didn't like being around people like that. But I don't know,

(17:38):
there's something to be said for somebody who's in school
that long and it's kind of smart and all that jazz,
you know what I mean? Why So, like, why is
partying that way and just general debauchery and whatnot? Why
is that associated with being an attorney? Like what's the
link there? Probably just money? Right, You're not seeing a

(17:58):
lot of people that have no money going to eight years,
six years, eight years of school to be like a
really good attorney. But also your entire job is you know,
you watch the TV shows, you're banging your head on
your desk all day and you're trying to figure out
all the legal lees and these things. You got all
these really stressful things. Then you go blow off steam.

(18:19):
It seems like maybe you could hit the gym for
twenty minutes and get a good night's sleep. But tomato, tomato. Hey,
you know how much caffeine I take on a day
to day basis, how much, way more than a human
probably should day to day. And I don't do law
like a lawyer would look at my job and laugh
at how hard they think I work to do good
at this job. There is also this era of ego

(18:41):
that goes with generally attorneys. Right, attorneys just feel like
they're the smartest people in the room, and to be fair,
most of the time they are only around other attorneys.
Would you feel maybe inferior in a lot of ways?
Have you met an attorney you didn't feel like was
smarter than you?

Speaker 2 (18:57):
In general?

Speaker 4 (18:58):
No?

Speaker 1 (18:59):
Come on, yeah, pretty bright people generally and I suppose
they're also pretty good at letting you know that too.
That's what I'm saying. And why wouldn't you, right, Michael
Jordan should be telling people how good he is at basketball.
You know why, because he's really good at basketball. I
let my game do the talking. But you know you
do you? Mj You got no game? Oh?

Speaker 2 (19:17):
Really? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (19:18):
We could check ball right now. I mean you have
what you're like an inch on me. I laugh, because
you don't know an inch.

Speaker 2 (19:25):
Or two on me.

Speaker 1 (19:26):
Maybe you haven't seen my game, but yet you see
the package that this look. I get it. I don't
look like I have game. But what's that supposed to mean?
I'm confident? What do you have that I don't have
a mid range jump shot? That's not true. I splash.
I'm a splashola from outside. I'm a splasher from I

(19:46):
got myself a step back leg kick. Dirk Novitzky would
would be a fan of I thought you were talking
about Draymond Green with the kicking. That's a different kind
of kicking. You know what I'm saying at Dirk Novitzky.
You know he puts the leg out when he does
the little does a little fader you know sometimes he
draws a little.

Speaker 2 (20:03):
Foul with that.

Speaker 1 (20:03):
Yeah, yeah, that's a It's one way to play. How
are you gonna get that over me? You're not seven
feet tall like him? I got long arms. Why are
we doing this? People are listening to this like I didn't.
I don't want to tune in unless you guys argue
about your basketball skills. We don't have to play and
tell people at what happened? Can I wear sports goggles
if you could see out of them? I guess why not?

(20:24):
Can I wear shorts?

Speaker 2 (20:25):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (20:25):
Yeah, I'm gonna cut off tea. This sounds great, This
sounds great. I I want you to wear all that
and I'll wear normal gym clothes and towards your butte.
You know what you're gonna be wearing by the end
of it, my old spice, because I'll be all over
the court.

Speaker 2 (20:40):
What in the world is that as supposed to me?
Are you giving? You're taking me to pity city somehow?

Speaker 1 (20:44):
I don't know what the hell you know? I thought
of it, and then the way it came out, it
just pity city. Uh, Daniel says. Attorney's caffeine comes in
white powder form L O L. Yeah, I've heard that too.
I've heard that he's talking caffeine pills. That's exactly what
he's talking about. Ye right, David said, I'd get behind
a bill that raises center and congressional pay by three

(21:06):
percent per year, but only if they pass up budget
and a balanced budget the previous year. If the budget
isn't balanced and it's not passed.

Speaker 2 (21:15):
They's no raise for you the following year. I don't
disagree with that.

Speaker 1 (21:20):
I don't know about giving the three percent raise every
single year, but if you know, like balance a good budget,
then maybe there could be some bone to be thrown.
I don't want people in Congress to get paid very
well at all. I want it to be a complete
passion project. Yeah, but that's the thing, brother, Nobody who's
good at doing stuff will ever do it because they

(21:41):
can make more money as a lawyer.

Speaker 2 (21:42):
If that's the.

Speaker 1 (21:43):
Case, I want the how many is at five hundred
and thirty eight? Yeah, I want the five hundred and
thirty eight people most passionate about making this country the
best place possible and they're not paid much and they
got to go live in like some small town in
Kansas that has a moth infestation what, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
That's right. Who do you think to do this?

Speaker 1 (22:00):
They're taking vacuums out with the hoses, and they're catching
all the moths all over the place because they're everywhere.
Moths can actually be really good pollinators. Don't be catching moths.
But to me, what you're saying here is ludicrous. You
realize that some of these jobs are like, why can't
we ever get good people? And the answer always is
you're not paying well enough to attract good people. And

(22:22):
I would argue, all due respect to the surgeons out there,
or the librarians and our firefighters and all these other
first responders, I don't want anybody to think that their
job doesn't matter, because it does. But if I had
to have the five hundred and thirty eight brightest people
who are interested in law and legislation in this country,

(22:42):
I want them to be in Congress. And if it
takes me giving them money or incentives to be that
those people to do the job well and to understand
what the heck they're doing, then I'm willing to make
those concessions. At the same time, I realized that that
also perpetuates the power crave that most of these people have.

(23:03):
I mean, look at George Santos. He had none of
this to sale, found a way to lie his way
to getting elected, but he wanted it so bad that
he was willing to do anything to get there.

Speaker 2 (23:12):
I want that to be the case.

Speaker 1 (23:14):
I want it to be that type of atmosphere where
everybody's trying to get there. It's just we need a
better system of how to hold them accountable for not
doing what they said they were going to do for us.
I feel like what you just described as exactly how
it is. It's a bunch of power hungry people who
are using the position to make more money for themselves.
So why don't we flip the table. It's not a
well played job, and it's not in a great location,

(23:36):
and you're there because you want to make the country better,
that's it, and you only get to be there for
a short time.

Speaker 2 (23:41):
So I don't know.

Speaker 1 (23:46):
I have major concerns with the idea of like, right
now is a bad time. You shouldn't be giving yourself
a raise right now? All right, let's just go ahead
and start there. We're about to have DOSEE come in
and try to make the government in efficient possible. Of course,
they're trying to stuff this in before they get in there,
because they know as soon as they take over this
new administration, there is no chance of them getting a raise.

(24:10):
All right, there shouldn't be, at least at the same time, though,
I think you need to attract the best and the brightest,
and I understand what you're saying. It needs to be
a passion project because those are the people that actually
want to do good. Well, you know what would make
them want to do as good as possible already?

Speaker 2 (24:25):
What term limits?

Speaker 1 (24:27):
You're not constantly having to suck up to the right
person so you can stay elected. You're not constantly having
to play this political game to make the right types
of friends in DC. No, you know that there's an
expiration date on what you can actually accomplish. So make
the money you can while you're there. I'll give you
plenty of money. I'm okay with that. But you actually

(24:49):
have to care about what you're doing because there's nothing
about you getting reelected. You have to worry about times
winding down pal get something done. The current system doesn't
incentivize that. The current system incentivizes sucking up to the
right guy or gal, getting money from outside forces and
lobbyists and finding ways to stay elected so you have

(25:09):
the power and the money keep flowing in. That's all
it is. How much do we really think that these
guys in Congress are actually going to bat for us,
the little guys that are sitting here in Omaha or
a Lincoln or along the dish to Botana River or
at the Naia Brera Right, how many people in Grand
Island think that all of the people in Washington, d C.

(25:30):
Actually care about them? Something's broke? How do we fix it?

Speaker 2 (25:33):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (25:34):
Two twenty nine to forty nine. I have a clock
writing from me. I swear, and I can't. I just
can't read it. I don't know why it's to forty nine.
I apologize. Heated on news radio eleven ten kfab Emery Sunger.
The CDC now says a person in the state of
Louisiana has been hospitalized with a severe infection of H

(25:56):
five in one, which is bird flu. Hear about the
bird flu and how it kind of can ravage certain
species birds, specifically domestic birds. Domestic bird catches virus like this,
it doesn't have much chance of fighting it, which is sad.
And this is what happens to a lot of farms
when they have a positive test for a bird flu strain,

(26:21):
they really have no choice but to eliminate the flock
because it's going to become contagious. They're all going to
catch it, and it's not going to be healthy for
anybody to eat, and it's also not going to be
great for these animals to try to survive. It's a
difficult situation, and a lot of people who are animal
lovers certainly have a hard time grasping this and understanding it. Usually, though,

(26:46):
wild birds have a better shot at surviving it, even
though it's those guys who are carrying this around from
state to state, right because they are a little bit
more immune to this type of virus, but they also
spread it wherever they go, especially when there's migration.

Speaker 2 (27:00):
It creates this issue.

Speaker 1 (27:02):
They say this patient officials down there in Louisiana are
saying it's the first case of what they're calling severe
bird flu which has resulted in a hospitalization of the
United States, and the first tied to exposure to a
backyard flock. They say that this patient was exposed to
sick and dead birds in backyard flocks, which explains how
they would have contracted it, and this is somewhat alarming.

(27:25):
There have been a sixty one total human cases a
bird flu detected overall in the United States since April
of this year, and essentially we're trying to understand how
people are contracting a virus that usually is only in birds. Now,
there was a case in Canada that scientists became alarmed
by a discovery that said that they think it had

(27:48):
a variation that made it easier to transmit to human bodies,
but they couldn't figure out how it spread. There was
no evidence of how that could spread at that point.
They also can't figure out how that specific person who
they felt like had that. They couldn't really detect how
they contracted it because they were not in connection or
in contact with backyard flocks who might have been.

Speaker 2 (28:09):
Might have been infected. So anyway, we're.

Speaker 1 (28:12):
Going to learn. I'll keep an eye on this, We're
going to learn more about it. There's not a whole
lot to debate here, but yeah, that's just another sign
of Hey, we're living in some weird times. Man, weird times.
Got these drones? The government will tell us what they're for.
We got the bird flu in human beings now, viruses

(28:34):
have come from animals to humans. Well humans are animals too,
but you know they've jumped. Bird flu is a little
different though, because we haven't had a lot of that
at least that made people real sick. They might have
been affected, but it really didn't affect them as much.
Now we have somebody hospitalized with a severe case of it.
That's alarming. That hasn't happened before. So yeah, I don't know,

(28:56):
and I know the last thing anybody wants to hear
is something that the CDC is saying is coming June
fifty five, we come back. We'll have plenty more for you.
Stay with us here on news radio eleven to ten kfab.
You shared this story with me, and I'm just gonna
go ahead and get back to this for a second
because I'm reading a bigger study here, or a bigger
piece on it. Research done long Term Behavioral Ecology of

(29:21):
California Ground Squirrels project, that's what it's called. And now
according in this Journal of Ethology, within this Long Term
Behavioral Ecology of California Ground Squirrel's project, they say in
parts of northern California, vole infestations have been observed. Have
you do you know vols? Have you have you had?

(29:43):
Have you had any sort of encounters with a vole before?
I don't believe I have. They're kind of a hamster
like I think that's the best way for me to
explain it. Right. They're not like a groundhog, right, They're
not a mole, right, the blind looking guys that really
just dig and stay underground. But a vole has like

(30:04):
a tail. They kind of look like a mouse a
little bit, but they behave a bit differently, and they,
you know, they do the underground thing. Some people call
them field mice or metal mice or whatever. And in
northern California, apparently these things are going crazy. You know
how rodents are. You can have a lot of babies
real quick with those gestation periods.

Speaker 2 (30:24):
Am I right? Or am I right?

Speaker 4 (30:25):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (30:26):
I am right?

Speaker 1 (30:27):
Well, With this all being said, these vole infestations have
created apparently a taste for flesh among squirrels, ground squirrels
and at a research site, the authors of this study
noted a significantly higher number of voles than average and

(30:47):
ground squirrels have documented and actually have photographic evidence of
them feeding on other live of vertebrates, which basically just
shows the squirrels can share aims to a changing can
adjust to a changing ecosystem. The quote comes here from
the lead study author, Jennifer Smith. She is the associate

(31:08):
professor of biology at the University of Wisconsin eau Claire,
and she says, and I quote this research radically changes
our perception of squirrels, one of the most familiar mammals
in the world. In the face of human insults such
as climate change and drought, these animals are resilient and
have the potential to adapt to live in a changing world. Okay,

(31:29):
I didn't need your politics in there, Jennifer, but I
appreciate you giving us this information. Basically, these California ground
squirrels observed in real time the meat eating behavior throughout
the summer. So I have to ask you seventy four

(31:49):
interactions here, by the way, between squirrels and voles that
they actually saw with their own eyes. Seventy four they
wrote this down. Forty two percent of them involved squirrels
actively hunting and eating vult That included both male and
female juveniles and adults. See, now that's weird. Squirrel's hunting
right like that? Got a picture for you? Look at it,

(32:12):
look at it. No, I don't want to tell people
what it is. It's that's not right. Tell people what
it is. No, the squirrels are evolving, folks, where's my
arm aged in bed? It's a it's a it's got
a it's got a vole in its mouth, and it's
running around.

Speaker 2 (32:26):
This is serious. The squirrels are evolving. Emery, this is
not good.

Speaker 1 (32:37):
What is this Latin? The music you're playing? Yeah, I
don't know. I don't know. I Latin more like it? Well,
ike snay on the at and lay pal al pay.
I thought it would, you know. You know, sometimes it's
nice to have a little bed to talk under. It

(32:58):
mix things more interesting. They put a warning in this story.
It says this story contains graphic images that may upset
some readers. Wow, look at that. See okay, see they
get it. Get what are we doing here? I don't
understand why you're being so cavalier about this.

Speaker 2 (33:11):
It's a squirrel eating food.

Speaker 1 (33:13):
No, it's a squirrel murdering a little vol And we
are next.

Speaker 2 (33:19):
We are next? Could be.

Speaker 1 (33:22):
Okay, Jason says, no, wonder they executed peanut the squirrel.
Oh hmmm, makes more sense now, yeah, yep, dang good.

(33:46):
Paul Jason, Well, here's my thought on this. It is
impressive that a rodential species is evolving or adjusting to
a changing ecosystem.

Speaker 4 (33:59):
Right.

Speaker 1 (34:00):
They can tell that there are more voles than there
need to be, so you know what they do, they hunt.
That's actually good for the ecosystem. Matt, I don't know
how this is a bad thing. In fact, this is good,
not because a vole hater, but there needs to be
a balance. You know, when deer overpopulated an area and
they're not being hunted properly and there's not enough deer

(34:21):
being hunted and harvested, their overpopulation kills vegetation. In turn,
it takes away food options from several other species. There's
a lot of ramifications to just that one thing happening.
There's nothing that says that voles being overpopulated in northern
California is a good thing at all. And the squirrels,
for some reason have detected this and decided they're going

(34:45):
to play their part and say, look, we can take
these guys down.

Speaker 2 (34:48):
No worries.

Speaker 1 (34:49):
There's not a weasel or a wolverine, there's nothing like
that in Northern California. Will be those guys over here. No,
I just don't think that you're understanding the bigger picture here.
What okay, So yeah, you're thinking, oh, it's just eating voles,
no big deal, tiny little rodents that are smaller than themselves.
What do bears do when they're really hungry in the
winter and they can't find a meal anywhere? And look

(35:11):
at that two tourists from Ireland are here and they're
just walking around and having a wonderful old time with
it after and a bear is gonna come and kill them. Well,
it's haven't been known to happen, has it.

Speaker 2 (35:24):
It has, of course it has.

Speaker 1 (35:25):
You ever watch that documentary about that bear man who
went out lived with the bears. He thought they were
best of buddies until one of them got hungry. Yeah,
he was trying to live with the bear exactly. You
know what they found They found his watch.

Speaker 2 (35:36):
That's it. All I'm saying is there's no chance of
that actually happening.

Speaker 1 (35:40):
If you're a random person start to come from behind
you andt like like cover your mouth and say sh.

Speaker 6 (35:45):
Don't say anything.

Speaker 2 (35:47):
That's not how it works.

Speaker 1 (35:48):
What a squirrels do when they get hungry, they go
for your bird feeder, they go up onto your porch
and they eat your pumpkin. They get they encroach on
your territory, they get desperate. Right, what's gonna happen?

Speaker 2 (35:58):
Bird seeds that to bulls, Yeah, exactly. Yeah, they used
to be vegetarians.

Speaker 1 (36:03):
But now where they get hungry and it's December or
it's January twelfth, and it's freezing cold outside and they've
run out of nuts and there's no mice in sight,
but there goes that tasty human. How many squirrels would
it take to take you down? Realistically? Realistically? Like how
many squirrels would need to get on the attack, because
remember we had that story about the woman in the

(36:24):
hundred raccoons. Yeah, they didn't kill her, But are they
meet eaters? Yes, oh they are. I don't have all
the facts here. I will admit what a little bit
of my outrage is without the necessary facts in this
subject area.

Speaker 2 (36:41):
Like a typical lib right, watch.

Speaker 1 (36:44):
It, buddy, I would say about a baker's dozen thirteen
Huh about a baker does if I say thirteen hungry squirrels?

Speaker 2 (36:52):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (36:54):
Like, would you need to have like maple syrup on
your skin or something to attract them to you, or
do you think they would just like decide, Yeah, I'm
gonna take We're gonna we're gonna team up. We're gonna
be a pot of orcas and take this guy down together.
If the squirrels have learned to hunt, why can't they
learn to hunt like hyenas.

Speaker 2 (37:12):
You know how many hyaenas it would take to take
you down? Probably just like two, more than one, though.

Speaker 1 (37:16):
It takes a team, and it would take a team
of squirrels, A lot of squirrels. And in my neighborhood,
I don't know about yours, but I got a lot
of squirrels around those trees. I'm just wondering how a
squirrel would take somebody down. Ben says, they're gonna eat
your nuts. Well, good thing, Ben, I keep those safe
in my house in jars. Peanuts, delicious peanuts. Yeah, they

(37:41):
like peanuts. I can't confirm, but they don't get mine.
They stay inside. I like them as a snack. It's
three eighteen. We'll take some calls on this. Four h two, five, five,
eight to eleven ten. How many squirrels would it take
to take you down? I guess that's where this conversation
seems to be going on news Radio eleven ten kfab.

Speaker 5 (37:57):
Eh Maurice Songer on news Radio eleven and ten kf
A B.

Speaker 2 (38:04):
Doug on the phone line, Doug, welcome to the show today.
What's on your mind?

Speaker 3 (38:07):
Yeah, I got a couple of things to say. A
rat is related or excuse me, squirrels related to a rat.
The furry tale doesn't merely make a difference. I only
think I got to say about that is. The second
thing is, if they invite you in their disease, it
only takes one.

Speaker 1 (38:25):
That's actually true, Doug. Now that you mentioned that, that's
a that's a good point. I didn't uh didn't think
about that, so uh and that's why Peanut squirrel had
to be euthanized so they could test peanut for after
peanut bit one of the people that came to uh
inspect that New York apartment.

Speaker 2 (38:42):
But that's a good point, Doug. Matt you're on the phone.

Speaker 1 (38:45):
He says, Uh, it only takes one if it's got
a disease to take you down exactly.

Speaker 3 (38:51):
I mean, you know, if you got that, you get infected,
you know your yours did, don't take but more one bite.

Speaker 1 (38:58):
Yeah, that's a good point. That's a good point. Well, Dougah,
thanks now for adding that factor into this conversation.

Speaker 2 (39:05):
For sure. I appreciate you calling in, Bob.

Speaker 3 (39:08):
Absolutely, you have a good one.

Speaker 2 (39:10):
Yeah, you as well. Merry Christmas? All right? All right?

Speaker 1 (39:14):
So, so a rodent biting you and carrying some sort
of disease that wouldn't be great, Yeah, I do admit.
But my my bigger, you know, overarching thing here would
be is there a reason for this thing to bite
you if you're not tasty or you're not trying to
pick it up or you know, bother it at all. No,

(39:35):
I don't think so. I don't think so. I don't
think under You know, a variety of circumstances here. Mostly
how do I say this gently? You have to be
pestering a squirrel to get it to bite you, And
I don't think they're going to want to take you
down because they would need to do it on their own.

Speaker 2 (39:52):
They have No.

Speaker 1 (39:53):
We have not never seen squirrels working together to achieve something.
At least I haven't. I had a couple that were
fighting with each other over my third seed, but they
weren't working together to get to it. Travis is on
the line, Travis can help us out with this conversation.

Speaker 7 (40:07):
Hey, Emory, squirrels here in the Midwest have been eating
baby birds every spring forever. Really, it's actually yep, it's
actually a crazy thing. They do it here every year.
It's one of those I've seen it in a story
where it was like, you don't want to know what's
the cute little animals eat? And one of them will
Squirrels eating birds?

Speaker 2 (40:30):
Really?

Speaker 5 (40:32):
Yeah weird.

Speaker 1 (40:34):
I've seen like garter snakes and stuff doing like, you know,
like trying to eat eggs or whatever.

Speaker 7 (40:41):
Yeah, dope. They wait for them to hatch and wait
for the mama to walk out of the nest or
run out there and wrab one. Dang, ain't it in
my backyard?

Speaker 1 (40:50):
Dang? Well, yeah, that's the thing man. Everybody wants to
talk about being nice to the animals and stuff. It's
just like, hey, if the humans aren't eating these things,
somebody something else will something. Travis, that's a great point, man,
Thanks for calling in and telling us about that. That's
fairly disturbing but important to the conversation.

Speaker 2 (41:11):
Thanks.

Speaker 1 (41:13):
I didn't know that was going on. Birds are just
rating nests or squirrels are just raiding bird nests. It's
not great. I don't know, Sean says, peanut the squirrel
was such a joy? Why didn't Biden pardon him? This
was a little before he got by. Pardon happy, wasn't that?
That was before the election? The peanut, peanut, the squirrel stuff.

(41:33):
That was sad to watch. That was that was not great.
That was not great. Yeah, So squirrels eating meat fairly interesting.
Uh development here, mostly because I think we don't give
a lot of other species credit for being able to
adapt to a changing ecosystem, and that's something that squirrels

(41:53):
are proving that they can do. Rod is on the
phone line of four two, five, five, eight eleven ten.
What's say you, Rod?

Speaker 4 (42:01):
Afternoon?

Speaker 2 (42:01):
Hey, how's it going.

Speaker 4 (42:03):
I'm calling from down here on the Alabama Gulf Coast,
just coming back from the beach. Oh n, listen on
our heart radio. But I've I've been following what you're
talking about with the squirrels. And a couple of years ago,
we had a kind of a dry year and my
wife and I were sitting in the backyard and we
noticed a squirrel eating a dead bird. So maybe they

(42:27):
don't even only eat a lot of things maybe they
eat carrying. It's surprised us. We couldn't believe it.

Speaker 2 (42:34):
Yeah, I've never seen that.

Speaker 1 (42:35):
That's crazy, and that obviously is corroborated with our previous
call from Travis that he's seen him eat baby birds
in the backyard.

Speaker 4 (42:43):
Yeah, I could believe it because it was really chowing
down on that dead bird and we see them, you know,
we got they've caught tree in the back and they
make a mess out of those and you know when
they're bearing, and then we have some other fruits that
we see him eating. But it was the first time

(43:04):
I've ever seen that, so I don't know.

Speaker 1 (43:07):
Yeah, No, that's an important context here as we learn
more and more about what the heck is going on
out there with these squirrels. All right, Rod, thank you
for the update. Appreciate you listen to us down there
while you're are.

Speaker 2 (43:16):
You on vacation, Snowbird.

Speaker 4 (43:19):
I'll be here till the tenth March, so Rod, you
live a.

Speaker 2 (43:22):
Good life and I appreciate you taking us with you.

Speaker 4 (43:25):
Yeah, Merry Christmas. Thank you.

Speaker 2 (43:26):
Merry Christmas to you as well.

Speaker 1 (43:29):
Wouldn't you like to be that guy just the six
months out of the are you just snowbird down there to.

Speaker 2 (43:33):
Gulf coast must be nice. That wouldn't stink. That wouldn't stink.

Speaker 1 (43:38):
I mean you couldn't, But I might be able to
someday if we do this show until we're like sixty,
we'd have to be here a while, but technology by then,
you'd figure they would find a way to I could.
I mean, like, I can go do that right now,
for just give me the equipment. I can do it
from my resort home. And why can't I from maybe
like a room in my own resort just have my

(44:01):
own little board, I got my computers.

Speaker 2 (44:03):
We're all hooked in, you know, why not?

Speaker 1 (44:05):
And you would be in a different place catching my
audio to send it to here. Yeah, I feel like
I feel like we're gonna have to work on that
because I'm sure the company would be like, why could
I just give it all to the other guy?

Speaker 2 (44:15):
This can all be saved by just finding one unpaid intern,
an unpaid intern for what to feed to the squirrels
to like sit here and do what I do.

Speaker 1 (44:24):
Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, sorry, I've
tried that before. That that that seat requires some sort
of an understanding of radio theory. And trust me things,
I get stressed out very easily when somebody can't doesn't

(44:46):
know what's going on. This is why when you're gone,
I do it myself most of the time, not because
I'm like, not because we can't find people to try
to figure it out, but because I kind of am
pretty picky about the quality of somebody doing that job.
It's it's not the easiest thing to do in the world. Sure,
so don't don't don't give them any ideas. Okay, fair enough,

(45:06):
But we'll work on the snowbirding thing. And that's still
talking to people in Omaho. Wow, we're snowbirding. And now,
on second thought, that may not work so well. Hey
it's five, Uh, it's five, it's three twenty nine. What's
wrong with me? In the clock?

Speaker 2 (45:19):
Why am I saying things that it isn't? What's what's
your say?

Speaker 3 (45:22):
Over there?

Speaker 2 (45:22):
As a military time, it's fifteen twenty nine over here?

Speaker 1 (45:25):
No I got I got the atomic clock that tells
me the exact time three twenty nine and then the
seconds PM, and I keep just my brain is saying
the wrong thing.

Speaker 2 (45:33):
It's embarrassing.

Speaker 1 (45:35):
Anyway. We'll have more for you coming up. But if
you'd like to call us four oh two five five
eight eleven ten is the number four oh two five
five eight eleven ten, News Radio eleven ten, kfab.

Speaker 5 (45:44):
And raise longer on news radio eleven ten kfab.

Speaker 1 (45:50):
Bird flu, dairy cow's humans, state of emergency. Put those
pieces together somehow and tell me that you got to
the right place. Just very strange. Gavin Newsom said, this
proclamation is a targeted action to ensure government agencies have
the resources and flexibility they need to respond quickly to
this outbreak. Building on California's testing and monitoring system, the

(46:10):
largest in the nation, we are committed to further protecting
public health, supporting our agriculture industry, and ensuring the Californians
have access to accurate, up to date information. While the
risk of the public remains low, we will continue to
take all necessary steps to prevent the spread of this.

Speaker 2 (46:24):
Virus end quote. So there you have it.

Speaker 1 (46:29):
Public health risk is low, but it is hurting big
time agriculture. And we have officially a person in the
hospital in Louisiana who has been infected by H five
in one bird flu.

Speaker 2 (46:41):
Riddle me this and it's crazy. It doesn't make any sense.
Out there. I tell you what.

Speaker 1 (46:48):
I tell you what also, I'm going to change hard
left turn Luigi Mangioni. It's been a few days since
we talked about this guy. Well, did you know that
Luigi's mom was talked to by the police and investigators
the day before they found him. We're learning this now.

(47:10):
Remember she had reported her son missing to San Francisco Police,
where she thought that he had been. She said she
hadn't spoken to him since July and was unsure of
his well being in welfare.

Speaker 2 (47:24):
Do you believe that.

Speaker 1 (47:28):
It kind of goes with what people were saying that
he kind of just went, you know, whatever the term is.
He disappeared from a lot of people's lives that he
was in a what has happened? Yeah, I believe it.
I totally believe it. And this isn't a person who
otherwise would need to be lying to authorities. Well, according
to investigators of California, they believe they recognized Luigi Mangione

(47:52):
after the NYPD released those images. Joseph Kenney, who's the
chief of detectives in the NYPD, said that investigator called
Mangioni's mother to ask if the suspect, who police were
hunting could be her son. Kenny said that this happened
very late on December the seventh. This was a couple
of days after a couple of days after the shooting,

(48:17):
and she said it might be something she could see
him doing. Now, she didn't indicate that it could possibly
be the guy in the photograph, And why would she
write even if it is him, it said in that moment,
should I out this guy as my son? I'm not
one hundred percent sure. Even if I was, like eighty

(48:37):
percent sure, would I want to do that?

Speaker 2 (48:39):
Probably?

Speaker 6 (48:39):
Not.

Speaker 1 (48:41):
Well, she said it was something she could see her
son doing. That's not great if you're Luigi MANGIONI to
know that your mother's felt that way about you. This
was a guy who was an Ivy league educated dude,
and his life just completely fell off the rails after
that back injury and the surgery he ended up having
to have. And I don't know what breaks in people

(49:01):
to do something crazy like this.

Speaker 2 (49:03):
It's just unreal.

Speaker 1 (49:05):
Anyway, let's get back to bird flu for a second.
Sam's on our phone line four two five, five, eight
eleven ten, Sam, what's on your mind?

Speaker 6 (49:13):
I don't know if anybody really realizes that they've been
feeding chicken manure out of laying hands to livestock and
the people lives. They blended with silench and all the
ammonia ends up turning into protein for the livestock. So
I'm just curious if maybe that has something to do
with the bird flu getting transferred.

Speaker 1 (49:35):
Well, that's something I wouldn't have thought about, and that
certainly adds in another layer to this being a very
big problem.

Speaker 2 (49:46):
What can we do about this?

Speaker 6 (49:47):
Sam, I'm not really sure, but I think Department of
Bag probably knows what's going on, but they don't seem
to really do anything, and the EPA doesn't seem to
do anything. They all point fingers to each other. Sure
seems like nothing ever really happens.

Speaker 1 (50:03):
So yeah, and that would explain why it feels like
every single year when there's a new strain of some
of this stuff, that it affects everybody.

Speaker 2 (50:11):
I Oh, I don't get it.

Speaker 1 (50:14):
It's tough, But at the same time, I can't come
up with a better way to do this. I'm obviously
incredibly unqualified to think about this. But Sam, thanks for
bringing this up, because you would think that actually would
be a way that this could end up spreading from
one place to another as well.

Speaker 2 (50:28):
Thanks for calling in, gay Bag.

Speaker 1 (50:31):
Yeah, well, if you got thoughts on this, that bird
flu thing is pretty darn serious. On top of so
many different things that's going on in the world today,
just another thing for us to worry about bird flu
infecting cows, dairy cows, and potentially humans. How seriously we're
trying to figure out, but it's really harming the agriculture industry.

(50:53):
Three forty seven More on the way coming up on
news Radio elevensen Kfab.

Speaker 5 (50:57):
Emery's Sung on news Radio and ten Kfab.

Speaker 1 (51:04):
Gavin Newsome is declared a state of emergency as far
as the bird flu goes, and how bird flu has
infected some dairy cows around the United States and something
that we're paying attention to. And you know, the bat
signal was out, and it sounds like we have a
special guest who decided to call us here. Executive director
of the Nebraska State Dairy Association, Chris Busque is joining

(51:27):
us in.

Speaker 2 (51:28):
Chris, what are we talking about here exactly?

Speaker 3 (51:32):
Yeah, so.

Speaker 8 (51:34):
The bat signal was definitely out. I got quite a
few phone calls and text messages that I needed to
call in and kind of shed some light on this
whole situation from the dairy farmer perspective, that'd be great
even kind of shed some light on why it's important
to us.

Speaker 2 (51:50):
Yeah, for sure, I.

Speaker 8 (51:51):
Think the overall number one thing, pasteurized milk is safe.
I mean, if you drink pasteurized milk, zero risk. I
mean pasteurization kills the virus. Okay, So dairy food is
everything is tafe.

Speaker 2 (52:08):
Okay.

Speaker 8 (52:08):
The thing that's really interesting about this whole situation is
that the spread of the bird flu is due to
mechanical transmission. So that means that everything that we are
experiencing today can link back to one specific case, one
crossover event that happened in Texas earlier this year. They
can sequence the DNA, they can look back and find

(52:31):
the remnants of that exact genome and trace everything that
one case. So long story short, a bird the crossover
event happened in Texas. In every case has been basically
mechanical transmission, meaning that the virus has been carried on
the boots, in the manure and things like that from

(52:53):
cow to cow, and that's how it spreads. Okay, So
it's not litter in dairy in the feed products that
we're giving the animals. It has everything to do with
biosecurity and mechanical transmission.

Speaker 1 (53:09):
Okay, Chris, can I ask a couple of questions just
to clarify that.

Speaker 8 (53:13):
Absolutely?

Speaker 1 (53:13):
So absolutely, So you know, for somebody that like me,
doesn't know too much about how how farms operate or
anything like that, when you talk about the biomechanics, is
there like preemptive measures that you generally do on farms
to try to prevent that kind of thing from happening.

Speaker 8 (53:28):
Absolutely, and we're we're doing them today in Nebraska. That's
why we have zero confirmed cases of bird flu in
dairy cattle in Nebraska yet.

Speaker 2 (53:37):
Cool.

Speaker 8 (53:38):
So long story short, if a farmer is experiencing symptoms,
so I should say, if a farmer notices symptoms and
his dairy cattle, then obviously those cattle are then tested
we figure out if it's actually bird flu or not. Meanwhile,
during the presumptive positive or the presumptive case there, they're

(54:00):
making sure that movements are stopped and the animals aren't
moved and so the mechanical transmission has stopped. But I mean,
most dairy farms in Nebraska are practicing good bio security
they're quarantining their cattle when they move them. They're rigorously
tested when they cross state line, so we know that
the animals coming into the state are safe. The state

(54:21):
Department of Agriculture is doing an amazing job of managing
the situation, and I have one hundred percent trust in that.

Speaker 1 (54:27):
So Nebraska doesn't really have a problem on this front
as far as you're seeing so far.

Speaker 2 (54:32):
Just now.

Speaker 8 (54:33):
I'm not saying Nebraska doesn't have a problem with bird flu.
I'm saying that cows, the dairy cows at this point
in time, do not have a problem with bird flu. Okay,
now the incident the issue with the dairy industry, so
we don't really have I mean, don't get me wrong.
We have a high morbidity issue with dairy cattles that

(54:54):
do get it. That we've seen that across the country.
So that means if a herd gets the virus, that
it affects a certain subset of that herd. But long
story short, their production drops off and two weeks later
they come right back and the cow is healthy, and
there's no problem right now.

Speaker 1 (55:12):
It's not like birds that basically can't come back from it.
Say again, it's not like birds where they can't come
back from it. They can actually come back from being infected, right.

Speaker 8 (55:22):
Absolutely, high morbidity, low mortality. So we aren't experiencing the
death loss at all surely from this virus that now
poultry is. I mean, yeah, they're a different bird. I
mean they're a different animal all together. Yeah, so when
they get infected with it, it's a high mortality rate.
It's not the same thing on dairy.

Speaker 2 (55:43):
I'm hearing you, Chris. I'm running out of time here.
This is really good information. Chris.

Speaker 1 (55:47):
I'm glad that you called because obviously I had more
questions than answers of myself. So I'm glad that you
cleared some of that up, especially locally here. Keep doing
the great work with the Dairy Association here in Nebraska,
and we thank you so much and the people that
alerted you to this conversation for you being able to
shed some light on us.

Speaker 2 (56:02):
Appreciate that.

Speaker 4 (56:03):
No, no problem, all right.

Speaker 1 (56:05):
That is Chris Busque, the executive director of the Nebraska
State Theory Association. We'll have more for you coming up
next on news radio eleven ten kfab