Post Reply - CDC guidance fairs

Bird flu outbreak at county fair time: precautions in the dairy barns | STAT

Despite bird flu anxiety in the dairy barn, a yearly tradition carries on at an Iowa county fair.

Hence the lactating cow question. “The simplest solution to reduce that risk in a drastic way is just not to have lactating dairy cows at exhibitions or shows,” said Joe Armstrong, a cattle veterinarian at the University of Minnesota Extension.

ADVERTISEMENT

That’s the route Michigan has taken, and certain fairs elsewhere have followed suit. Some are doing what they did in 2020, at the height of the Covid pandemic, making lactating-cow competitions virtual. But in the U.S., when there’s talk of public health restrictions, there’s disagreement — about the role of government, about how much risk is tolerable, about when it’s worth disrupting the occasions that bind communities. States like Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota have so far allowed lactating dairy cows at shows, but only if they’re flu-tested in the seven days before they arrive. In Colorado, meanwhile, such precautions are recommended but not required.