The study released Aug. 1 analyzed 14 dairy farms from two different regions in California. At those farms, bird flu was detected in the air inside milking parlours as well as in exhaled breath from cows, which would infect both cattle and workers. The virus was also found in the water used to clean the parlours and milking equipment.

Why it matters: While Canadian dairy cattle have escaped bird flu infections so far, poultry farms in some regions have been hammered by the disease.

Some cattle that showed no symptoms of illness were also carriers of bird flu, the study added. However, mastitis found in cattle did not always correlate with bird flu infections.

A potential vaccine against the H5N1 bird flu strain has tested well in non-human primates.

Novavax released pre-clinical data on Aug. 1, which showed strong immune responses in the test subjects with one and two doses of the vaccine, which was administered by injection and by nasal spray.

“Our findings indicate that a single (intramuscular) dose of (the) vaccine might serve as an effective pandemic vaccine in individuals with pre-existing seasonal influenza immunity from vaccination or infection,” Novavax said in a news release.

Brazil’s agriculture minister Carlos Favaro told reporters on Aug. 4 that Chile will re-open its borders to Brazilian poultry.
Chile becomes part of a growing list of countries that have removed restrictions on poultry imports from Brazil, which were implemented after a commercial farm tested positive in May. However, China, the European Union, Canada, Malaysia, East Timor, North Macedonia and Pakistan are still prohibiting all poultry from the South American country. Sixteen other countries have partial restrictions.

In Canada, there are only five premises currently infected with bird flu, the CFIA reported. No Canadian cattle have been infected with the virus.

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The suspension is another disruption to the nation’s food safety programs after the termination and departure of 20,000 employees of the Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the FDA, as part of President Donald Trump’s effort to shrink the federal workforce.

The FDA this month also suspended existing and developing programs that ensured accurate testing for bird flu in milk and cheese and pathogens like the parasite Cyclospora in other food products.

Effective Monday, the agency suspended its proficiency testing program for Grade “A” raw milk and finished products, according to the email sent in the morning from the FDA’s Division of Dairy Safety and addressed to “Network Laboratories.”

Grade “A” milk, or fluid milk, meets the highest sanitary standards.

The testing program was suspended because FDA’s Moffett Center Proficiency Testing Laboratory, part of its division overseeing food safety, “is no longer able to provide laboratory support for proficiency testing and data analysis,” the email said.

HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Trump administration has proposed cutting $40 billion from the agency.

The FDA’s proficiency testing programs ensure consistency and accuracy across the nation’s network of food safety laboratories. Laboratories also rely on those quality control tests to meet standards for accreditation.

“The FDA is actively evaluating alternative approaches for the upcoming fiscal year and will keep all participating laboratories informed as new information becomes available,” the email said.

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According to Dr. Kee Jim, senior lead of animal agriculture at Telus and managing director for G.K. Jim Farms, we’ve been eating beef-on-dairy cattle for decades. Now, it’s only increasing.

“In my 41 years of doing feedlot work and being involved with feedlot cattle, this is the most significant development I’ve seen in terms of the opportunity to create something that’s distinctly different than what we’ve done in the past,” he said at the Canadian Beef Industry Conference in Saskatoon last August.

Jim has been expanding his company to include a beef-on-dairy model in its feedlots. He is also involved with the construction and operation of a feedlot designed specifically for beef-on-dairy in the U.S.

History

While many believe it’s new due to recent interest, Jim said there’s been crossbreeding since the ’40s and ’50s. However, something needed to happen to make the beef-on-dairy system more popular. That occurred when sexed semen became widely used in the dairy industry.

Using sexed semen allowed dairy producers to get 90 per cent high-quality female dairy calves.

This led to the collapse of the Holstein bull calf market, especially after a packer in the U.S. cut Holstein bull calves from its program because beef cattle usually have better carcass characteristics. At that time, one of the packer’s customers was Walmart, who said it didn’t want any more dairy-influenced meat in its system.

“That obviously had a pretty major effect on the Holstein steer picture,” Jim said.

He said, historically, Holstein steers had accounted for anywhere between 17 to 22 per cent of fed beef production.

“If you (went) into a grocery store at random and (chose) a steak, one in five times that animal originated from a dairy and was likely in the past a Holstein steer.”

After the market for the Holstein bulls collapsed, dairy producers had to find a new way to re-enter the market. With both the U.S. beef herd and the Canadian beef herd shrinking — the U.S. herd is the smallest since 1951 and Canada’s the smallest since 1987 — there is room for the dairies to step in. In comparison, the dairy herd in the U.S. has remained relatively static.

Benefits of beef-on-dairy

Crossbreeding Holsteins with beef breeds improves the meat quality without affecting milk production. Jim said beef-on- dairy can improve marbling, average daily gain, yield grade and quality grade. It also improves carcass cutability, which makes it more desirable to packers.

“Some of the issues with Holstein steers, like shape and size of strips and rib eye, all of those issues go away. And again, because of hybrid vigour, you also get improved animal health outcomes compared to the straight Holstein steer. So there’s a lot of positive things about crossbreeding.”

Jim said the eating experience of beef-on-dairy cattle will likely be better than native beef cattle. That has to do with the age at which they will be slaughtered.

“Tenderness is a function of age and slaughter, and most of these cattle are slaughtered under 18 months of age.

“They’ve been on a very high-energy dense diet, virtually for their 18 months… So, not surprisingly, it’s a very desirable eating experience, because you’ve got the high energy for a long period of time and a youthful animal when it’s slaughtered.”

Jim said beef-on-dairy cattle also have a reduced carbon footprint compared to beef cattle because the carbon associated with their mother is from the dairy side.

“Roughly you’re at least 40 to 50 per cent less carbon than for a traditional animal coming from the native beef cattle chain.”

That gives beef seed stock producers an opportunity to monetize their genetics in dairies. Important traits for beef-on-dairy cattle are good growth, carcass characteristics and feed conversion. Important traits for beef cattle, such as maternal instinct or udder quality, aren’t important for beef-on-dairy because the heifers go to slaughter as well.

Jim also said with a beef-on-dairy system, producers don’t have to align with the supply chain because there is no grazing aspect.

Concerns and challenges

With beef prices high right now, cross-bred calves have doubled in value, so interest in beef-on-dairy is high.

However, there are concerns. Dairy producers want to ensure that conception rates, the number of stillbirths and gestation rates are comparable to breeding their cows with Holstein semen.

Jim says he has no concerns regarding this.

“Obviously it’s not particularly difficult to meet those criteria with the native selections that we have available.”

Because the beef-on-dairy calves won’t be raised in a traditional sense and will also be butchered earlier than the average beef cow, there is also the challenge of raising them until they are ready for slaughter.

To solve this, beef-on-dairy cattle go through a unique production system, where they are taken from the dairy to a calf ranch. They are bottle-fed for the first 40 to 50 days, then transitioned to a full-fed diet, which they’ll be on for a year before slaughter.

 Jim said some calf ranches have up to 200,000 hutches on a single site, and each calf gets a bottle twice a day, so often there can be around 2,000 employees to tend to the animals.

“From a calf ranch perspective, it’s easier to deal with a (beef on dairy) animal than it is a Holstein steer because of improvements that you get in gain and conversion, and also the heterosis effect on morbidity and mortality. So they’re pretty happy with this whole deal.”

Data

Because dairies exclusively use artificial insemination, Jim said it is easy to link all the data related to the background of cattle and calves, and of their futures.

“You keep track of them through the calf ranch, through the feedlot, all the way through to the front door of the packer.”

Some of this is done on the beef side of the spectrum, but not at the same scale as the dairies. He said there is a benefit to having complete records on feeder cattle from birth to slaughter and to have access to the phenotypes of cattle for expected progeny differences (EPDs).

“You have the true ability here to create an aligned value chain, where you can all benefit from owning that animal from birth to death.”

With the dairies already using data like this, the beef-on-dairy system allows this level of data tracking to enter the beef space.

“Really, nobody’s been able to do this on this scale in the beef cattle world, and you can do it in this system.”

Beef cattle

Jim said he sees benefits in this system for seed stock producers. Because dairies commonly use sexed semen and genetics are important, seed stock producers can use that to their advantage.

“If you’re a seed stock producer in North America, you got to be pretty happy with this deal, because now you have a customer that is going to be able to sell a large amount of semen. We’re not talking hundreds of thousands of doses here. We’re talking millions of doses.

“On the native cattle side, I don’t really see it as a threat.”

However, according to an AgProud article by Adrianne Trennepohl, the rise of beef-on-dairy in the beef sector has made the competition steeper for native beef cattle. And with the size of the beef herds in Canada and the United States shrinking and not expected to increase, there is opportunity for dairy producers to fill the market.

Jim, on the other hand, said he thinks the market is expanding, and there is room for both commercial producers and beef-on-dairy cattle. Some native cattle producers are worried beef-on-dairy will overtake the feeder cattle market, but Jim says they shouldn’t worry because it won’t change the number of animals in the feeder market by much.

“You will have more heifer calves… but you’re not meaningfully changing the total number of animals that would have gone into the feeder market as Holstein steers compared to (beef-on-dairy) cattle. Maybe a little bit more, but it’s not going to be a massive amount.”

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The Canadian Dairy Commission announced Nov. 1, 2024 that a decline in feed prices and the stabilization of other costs on dairy farms across the country means that the benchmark on-farm price for milk will decline by 0.0237 per cent starting in February 2025.

Why it matters: The set price for milk will help dairy producers plan for their business operations in 2025.

An increase in the consumer price index, which determines half of the milk price kept the decline in milk price from being greater.

A part of the supply management system, the Canadian Dairy Commission is the quasi-governmental body which determines farm-gate milk pricing in Canada.

The price that consumers pay at the grocery store for milk is influenced by the farm-gate milk price, but also other costs added by different steps in the supply chain.

The final price that farmers receive for their milk is also affected by regional dairy consumption trends and the world price for milk.

The 2025 farm-gate milk price reflects the lack of exceptional circumstances that have affected the price of milk during and after the COVID pandemic.

The Canadian Dairy Commission has been criticized for its lack of transparency, but a technical briefing held in advance of the announcement was attended by only two trade media journalists and one mainstream journalist from Quebec.

How is milk price determined?
The price for milk at the farm is determined by a cost production survey of 250 farms of different production types across the country. Survey results have a statistical margin of error of two per cent.

The 2023 indexed cost of production was $93.09 per hectolitre. The 2024 price, which takes into account the 2023 survey, and then an indexing of information from three months ending in August, shows a cost of production of $90.36 per hectolitre, a decline of 2.93 per cent, mostly based on the drop in the cost of feed, as global crop prices have declined in 2024.

Trend lines also show a stabilization of production costs in 2024, compared to 2022 and 2023.

The milk price is half based on the indexed cost of production and half on the consumer price index, which has increased 2.89 per cent, leading to a decrease in the farm gate milk price of 0.0237 per cent.

The 2023 cost of production survey results can be found here.

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But my recent field research on dairy farms suggests emissions from slurry, cattle dung mixed with water, could be four to five times greater than the official government estimates.

While most attention is focused on enteric emissions, largely the burps from the animals themselves, my new study with colleagues means that much more attention needs to be paid to how to reduce methane emissions from storing slurry.

Fortunately, new technologies can capture, process and use methane from slurry and turn it into a valuable resource – biomethane. Where there’s muck there’s money, the Victorians used to say, and this is no truer than in the reduction of livestock methane emissions to address the net zero challenge.

The UK government’s national inventory report on greenhouse gas emissions says that methane emissions from dairy cattle comprise 75 per cent enteric emissions and 25 per cent emissions from manure management – that’s the storage and spreading of livestock poo. These calculations are based on a methodology developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, involving a complex formula based on the number of animals, what they are fed, environmental conditions and so on.

Scientists seem comfortable with these existing enteric emissions calculations, but the formula for calculating emissions from manure management is now coming into question as field studies around the world find these emissions are often higher than assumed.

My colleagues and I monitored emissions from the slurry lagoons on two dairy farms in Cornwall for a year. The lagoons, which hold slurry in concrete-lined pits, were installed with airtight covers and the gas released from the slurry was collected and weighed.

On one farm, we found methane emissions were almost four times greater than that were reported by the UK government to the UN (145kg per cow per year, rather than 38kg).

On the second farm, methane emissions were more than five times greater (198kg per cow per year). If these figures are representative – and more research is needed to confirm this – then much more methane is coming from slurry storage than previously thought. The ratio of enteric to manure management could be closer to 50:50, and the total methane emissions from the dairy sector would be around 40% greater than the UK government officially reports.

There has been a lot of attention paid to addressing enteric emissions, but the slurry question has been treated as much less of a priority in comparison.

Approximately two-thirds of dairy cows across a total of 12,500 farms in the UK are on slurry systems.

Technological advances do offer solutions. The biogas industry is developing techniques to capture methane by covering slurry storage facilities. The methane gas is then cleaned and compressed and available as a fuel source.

Tractor manufacturers have developed tractors that run on methane, and businesses and local councils are exploring converting vehicle fleets to run on the gas. Methane captured from slurry storage can heat and power farm buildings.

Some of this technology is already up and running in Cornwall and beyond. Our estimates show that this energy saving could be worth tens of thousands of pounds to dairy farmers with an average-sized herd of milking cows. Biogas from slurry could be of huge value to the UK’s agriculture sector, too – potentially in the order of £400 to £500 million a year, according to our calculations.

So reducing greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture can bring economic opportunities for farmers. The next challenge is to explore how these new supply chains for biomethane can be rapidly developed.

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“I think I have a problem and need your advice,” Jim said. 

“Just before coming to town, my 15-year-old son came in from milking with news that our milk cow acted very strangely when he tried to feed her. She seemed aggressive and lunged at him when he gave her grain. She seemed anxious and he couldn’t milk her. Then he noticed a skunk trying to share the cat’s dish and it chased both cats away. 

“I think we are dealing with rabies, my son said. You better talk to Doc when you go in this morning for supplies.” 

• RELATED: Six tips to avoid rabies exposure

Jim, always a worrier, wanted me to go out as soon as I could to pass judgment and give them guidance on what needed to be done. Jim seemed particularly worried the family used unpasteurized milk. 

Did that present a risk to anybody of contracting rabies? 

I assured Jim that through my years in practice, cows had never been blamed for transmitting rabies to another animal or humans. They seemed to be dead-end hosts while excreting virus in most body fluids, including saliva and milk. There never have been published reports of people contracting rabies through the consumption of milk. 

But “maybe” never seemed enough with a disease such as rabies. Most people brave enough to put their hands in the mouths of affected cattle thinking “choke” is the cause of excess salivation ended up taking post-exposure prevention (PEP). 

• RELATED: Avoid lapses in your vaccination program

Human rabies carries with it nearly a 100 per cent case fatality rate. PEP is completely effective, so mass exposure incidents prompt administration of rabies immune globulin and vaccine even if the circumstances do not meet the criteria of exposure. For more, see U.S. publications such as JAVMA, American Journal of Public Health, Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. 

I arrived midafternoon at Jim’s farm. The cow in question had become recumbent and died soon afterward. We contacted the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and submitted the brain. We were notified of a positive diagnosis of rabies within two days. 

Jim and his son Ryan located the skunk den and eliminated the residents using poison gas and poisoned eggs. Non-pasteurized milk disappeared from the farm menu. The dog was revaccinated; the cats were destroyed, and their replacements were brought to the clinic in a gunny sack and vaccinated through the fabric while restrained with gloves. Resident horses were vaccinated for rabies along with two resident 4-H steers. 

At the time, rabies control fell under CFIA purview and I made regular visits to check on the health of the farm’s animals. My visits to Jim’s farm were always punctuated with questions about rabies — a disease that never goes away.

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More than 190 herds have been infected across the U.S. since March, along with 13 dairy and poultry farm workers, according to federal data. No human cases were confirmed in California, and the virus remains a low risk to the general public.

Efforts to prevent the spread of the virus were being seen at state fairs around the U.S., including he use of fake cows for milking demonstrations, increased testing, quarantines and cancelations of events in some states, according to reports.

Meanwhile, the Philippines lifted its ban on importing domesticated and wild birds, including poultry products, from California and South Dakota, Manila’s farm ministry said on Aug. 31. The Philippines imposed the temporary ban on California in January and on South Dakota in November last year after confirmed outbreaks of H5N1 subtype of the highly pathogenic avian influenza, which has killed millions of infected birds and poultry.

In Canada, there have yet to be any confirmed cases of bird flu in dairy cattle with the last outbreak in a commercial poultry flock coming six months ago. However, cases in wild birds continue to be found. In it’s Sep. 4 report the World Organisation for Animal Health revealed cases of bird flu in wild birds in Saskatchewan, British Columbia and Ontario. Only one primary control zone for highly pathogenetic avian influenza (HPAI) remains active in Canada. That zone involves a premises in Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan, where the presence of HPAI was found in a backyard poultry flock on November 15, 2023.

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Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control said the risk to humans remains low. The CDC noted it’s monitoring more than 500 people with 45 tested for bird flu. As the CDC said the [A}H5N1 strain that killed a dairy farm worker in Texas about three months ago was found to be lethal in ferrets used in experiments that were designed to mimic the disease in humans.

So far, U.S. and state scientists believe bird flu is spread among animals and humans through infected milk, aerosolized milk droplets or exposure to infected birds and poultry. They are planning to research the potential for the disease to be spread by respiratory means among dairy cattle.

Work on vaccines was now underway, with U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announcing 24 companies are involved. However, Vilsack warned their work could take years to develop a viable vaccine.

Internationally, a four-year-old boy in the Indian state of West Bengal contracted H9N2 bird flu, according to the World Health Organization on June 11.

Then on the Farne Islands, located off of the United Kingdom’s North Sea coast, more than 9,600 seabirds have succumbed to bird flu. The islands have been closed to visitors for the next two years.

In Canada, Prince Edward Island reported bird flu found in skunks, racoons and foxes. It’s believed the animals contracted the disease by eating infected dead bird.

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Bird flu has infected 90 dairy herds across 12 states since late March, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Three dairy farm workers also have been infected with the virus, two in Michigan and one in Texas.

A vaccine could curb the risk of bird flu spreading to new species and lessen potential economic losses for dairy farmers, but may take years to develop.

Animal healthcare company Zoetis ZTS.N said it started development of a vaccine for dairy cattle this spring.

Merck MRK.N Animal Health said it is evaluating technologies and strategies that would allow for timely responses to emerging diseases, including bird flu in cattle.

In addition to the two dozen companies working at varying stages of vaccine development, the USDA is conducting its own preliminary research into a vaccine at its laboratory in Ames, Iowa, Vilsack said in an interview.

The agency is looking for a vaccine candidate to test for efficacy, he said.

“That could happen tomorrow, or it could take six months, or it could take a year,” Vilsack said.

The agency’s other efforts on bird flu include research into potential respiratory spread of the virus between cows and providing support to farmers to increase biosecurity on farms.

While wild birds were a major vector for bringing bird flu to poultry farms, the main risks to spread on dairy farms appear to be the movement of people and equipment, he said.

“For dairy cows, it isn’t about migratory birds, it’s about cows moving, it’s about people, vehicles and equipment that may have virus they don’t even realize that they’re carrying,” he said. “That’s why the biosecurity becomes just incredibly, incredibly important.”

A pilot program for bulk milk testing will be rolled out “in the very near future,” Vilsack said. The program is meant to expand testing for the virus while enabling healthy herds to move across state lines without negative tests from each cow.

Michigan and Idaho are among states that have expressed interest in the program, Vilsack said.

– Additional reporting by Tom Polansek in Chicago

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Meat from the animals was prevented from entering the nation’s food supply, USDA said.

Agriculture and health officials have scaled up testing of meat and dairy products and livestock, as an outbreak of bird flu has expanded in dairy cattle.

Two U.S. dairy workers have tested positive for bird flu since the virus was first detected in cattle in late March.

Older dairy cows are often processed for hamburger meat. USDA’s testing results come at the start of peak U.S. grilling season around the U.S. Memorial Day weekend.

To date, USDA said it has completed testing on beef tissue from 96 of 109 muscle samples that were collected as part of a meat safety study.

The agency said it collected tissue samples at slaughter facilities from dairy cattle that were condemned for systemic diseases and then analyzed them using PCR testing. The testing does not differentiate between live virus or fragments, USDA said.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration previously said it found viral particles in pasteurized milk samples from retail stores, but they did not contain live virus. The FDA has warned against consuming raw unpasteurized milk.

USDA personnel identified signs of illness in the positive cow during a routine post-mortem inspection and prevented its meat from entering the food supply, according to USDA.

“These actions provide further confidence that the food safety system we have in place is working,” the agency said.

USDA has confirmed bird flu in 58 dairy herds across nine states.

It previously reported that no viral particles were found in samples of ground beef collected at retail stores, and that no bird flu virus was found after cooking ground beef to medium to well done, after it was injected with a virus surrogate as part of an experiment.

—Reporting for Reuters by Manas Mishra in Bengaluru and Tom Polansek in Chicago

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