(Radio Iowa) – State Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig is asking the U-S-D-A to compensate dairy operations struck by bird flu. Naig says it’s a typical move when there’s an animal disease outbreak that leads to the loss of livestock or production. “You see a loss of milk production when a herd is affected, so we think it’s right that those producers, kind of like a crop insurance type concept, would be compensated for those losses,” Naig says, “and we are finding that some animals do have to be culled or sold off of the farm.”

Modern dairy operations have all sorts of ways to monitor cows, including how much they eat and how much milk is produced daily. Naig says those sick cattle are then isolated from the rest of the herd. “Their milk, then, is also captured and siphoned off and so that milk, from the sick pen, does not make it into normal production,” Naig says. “I think this is the good news is that there were already very well established food safety protocols on dairy farms and those certainly serve us well in normal times, but in times like this where there’s a developing situation with an animal disease, those protocols really are important.”

Bird flu has been confirmed among cows at dairy operations in Sioux and O’Brien Counties. A team of U-S-D-A veterinarians is in Iowa this week, trying to determine what might be the connection among poultry and dairy operations that recently have been hit by bird flu.  “We requested those resources,” Naig says. “We’re going to probably request some additional resources to really, really run down these leads and really figure this out.” Naig says it will hopefully identify how the virus is moving and help develop new biosecurity strategies for poultry and dairy operations.

When bird flu was first confirmed at poultry farms and in backyard flocks nine years ago, testing was done in nearby poultry operations to try to contain the virus. Now, both dairy farms and poultry operations near a bird flu outbreak are included in testing protocols. “What you’re trying to do, again, is to prevent the spread,” Naig says. “You’re trying to identify early whether there may have been a connection between farms.”

Dr. Jeff Kaisand — the State Veterinarian — says they don’t yet know how bird flu is transmitted from cow to cow within a herd, but there is a key sign a dairy operation has cows infected with the virus.  “In certain animals, they’ll see very serious drops in milk production. The milk may have a yellowish color or colostrum like color to it…but it does not usually cause major issues in the dairy farm,” Kaisand says. “We have had some reports that there is for a period time, about four or five days, a marked decrease in milk production.”

Kaisand briefed a state legislative committee at the Iowa Capitol Tuesday. The state vet says once bird flu has been confirmed in a dairy operation, workers are advised to wear protective gear, like face masks and public health officials ask the owner of the dairy to monitor the health of their employees. “We don’t know for sure how it’s being transmitted to people,” Kaisand said. “We don’t know whether it’s milk or other body secretions from the animals.”

While no cases of bird flu in humans have been reported IN IOWA, three dairy workers in other states recently have been infected with the virus after working around sick cows.