Notes From an Environmentalist. "Hold a chick, milk a cow." Get Avian flu? The Topsfield Fair.
“Hold a Chick, Milk a Cow,”
Get Avian Flu?
The Topsfield Fair
Almost five years ago the world was transfixed with images of birds, bats, and humans mixing with a rapidly evolving virus at the Wuhan live animal market.
Today virologists are concerned about a new virus that has already jumped from poultry to cows, and to humans, infecting three people, and 129 cattle herds in at least 12 states.
However, those figures are widely assumed to be underestimates because many farmers are refusing to test their workers and government agencies don’t have a handle on the spread of the disease that is infecting a new herd almost every day.
In three months; cows, chicken, children and milking machines will be mixing at the Topsfield Fair that has only been cancelled three times before; once for the Spanish flu, once for Covid-19, and once for World War II.
In the medical journal STAT virologist Angela Rasmussen said, “If you can’t determine which states, what farms and what herds are actually being affected how can you possibly think avian flu is containable?”
So far federal authorities only require testing of lactating cows when they cross state lines, but some states are requiring lactating cows to be tested before they can be brought to fairs.
However, Massachusetts is not one of the 12 states testing for avian flu so state and federal officials don’t know if any Massachusetts cows are infected.
In this present state of ignorance, are we playing with fire if we allow cows from multiple herds to be petted and milked at this year’s Topsfield Fair?
