December 19, 2024 • 5 mins
Nebraska State Dairy Association Executive Director, Kris Bousquet, calls in to give his perspective on the Bird Flu news out of California.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
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. You decided to call us here. Executive director
of the Nebraska State Dairy Association, Chris Busque is joining
(00:22):
us in. Chris, what are we talking about here? Exactly?
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Yeah, so 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. Yeah, for sure, I think the
(00:45):
overall number one thing, pasteurized milk is safe. I mean,
if you drink pasteurized milk, you have zero risk. I
mean pasturization kills the virus. Okay, Okay, dairy food is
everything is tafe. Okay. The thing that's really interesting about
this whole situation is that the spread of the bird
(01:06):
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 the remnants of that exact genome
(01:26):
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 cow to cow, and that's how
(01:48):
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, mechanical transmission.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Okay, Chris, Can I ask a couple of questions just
to clarify.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Absolutely?
Speaker 1 (02:05):
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 2 (02:20):
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 1 (02:29):
Cool.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
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, they're they're
(02:52):
making sure that movements are stopped and the animals aren't moved,
and so the mechanical transmission is 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
(03:13):
Department of Agriculture is doing an amazing job of managing
the situation, and I have one hundred percent trust in that.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
So Nebraska doesn't really have a problem on this front
as far as you're seeing so far. Just now.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
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 that 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
(03:45):
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 (04:03):
It's not like birds that basically can't come back from it.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Stay again, it's not.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Like birds where they can't come back from it. They
can actually come back from being infected, right.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
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.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Yeah, so when they get infected with it, it's a
high mortality rate. It's not the same thing on dairy.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
I'm hearing you, Chris, I'm running out of time here.
This is really good information, Chris. I'm glad that you called,
because obviously I had more questions than answers 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. Appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
No, no problem, all right.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
That is Chris Busque, the executive director of the Nebraska
Statedairy Association. We'll have more for you coming up next.
News Radio eleven ten k f A b
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. You decided to call us here. Executive director
of the Nebraska State Dairy Association, Chris Busque is joining
(00:22):
us in. Chris, what are we talking about here? Exactly?
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Yeah, so 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. Yeah, for sure, I think the
(00:45):
overall number one thing, pasteurized milk is safe. I mean,
if you drink pasteurized milk, you have zero risk. I
mean pasturization kills the virus. Okay, Okay, dairy food is
everything is tafe. Okay. The thing that's really interesting about
this whole situation is that the spread of the bird
(01:06):
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 the remnants of that exact genome
(01:26):
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 cow to cow, and that's how
(01:48):
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, mechanical transmission.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Okay, Chris, Can I ask a couple of questions just
to clarify.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Absolutely?
Speaker 1 (02:05):
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 2 (02:20):
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 1 (02:29):
Cool.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
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, they're they're
(02:52):
making sure that movements are stopped and the animals aren't moved,
and so the mechanical transmission is 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
(03:13):
Department of Agriculture is doing an amazing job of managing
the situation, and I have one hundred percent trust in that.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
So Nebraska doesn't really have a problem on this front
as far as you're seeing so far. Just now.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
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 that 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
(03:45):
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 (04:03):
It's not like birds that basically can't come back from it.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Stay again, it's not.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Like birds where they can't come back from it. They
can actually come back from being infected, right.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
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.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Yeah, so when they get infected with it, it's a
high mortality rate. It's not the same thing on dairy.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
I'm hearing you, Chris, I'm running out of time here.
This is really good information, Chris. I'm glad that you called,
because obviously I had more questions than answers 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. Appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
No, no problem, all right.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
That is Chris Busque, the executive director of the Nebraska
Statedairy Association. We'll have more for you coming up next.
News Radio eleven ten k f A b
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