How industrial meat and dairy trap us in an infectious disease cycle.

How industrial meat and dairy trap us in an infectious disease cycle.

H5N1, or bird flu, has hit dairy farms — but the dairy industry doesn’t want us saying so.

The current, highly virulent strain of avian flu had already been ripping through chicken and turkey farms over the past two years. Since it jumped to US dairy cows for the first time last month, it’s infected more than 20 dairy herds across eight states, raising alarms among public health authorities about possible spread to humans and potential impacts on the food supply.

One Texas dairy worker contracted a mild case of bird flu from one of the impacted farms — the second such case ever recorded in the US (though one of hundreds worldwide over the past two decades, most of them fatal).

Whatever fear-mongering you may have seen on social media, we are not on the cusp of a human bird flu pandemic; the chances of further human spread currently remain low. But that could change. As the virus jumps among new mammal species like cows, the risk that it’ll evolve to be able to spread between humans does increase.

But the American Association of Bovine Practitioners (AABP), an organization of beef and dairy veterinarians, declared in a statement (condemned by public health experts) last week that it doesn’t believe bird flu in cows should be considered bird flu at all.

    • foggy@lemmy.world
      1626·
      7 months ago

      lol, I don’t eat meat. Way to keep up the abhorrent ‘holier than thou’ attitude.

      I loathe people like you. Other people loathe people like you. A stain on a community.

      Tagged you as “vegan douche.”

      Cheers.

      • ElcaineVolta@kbin.social
        1410·
        7 months ago

        no one asked if you eat meat or not, sounds like you’re still happily supporting the industries propelling the next pandemic. if the cost of being on the right side of this issue is faux outrage from “people like you”, I welcome it happily without a second thought.

        • foggy@lemmy.world
          1423·
          7 months ago

          Lmao

          You told me “I’d get there someday,” suggesting I eat meat and that it is somehow bad, you insolent prick. You asked.

          You truly are insufferable lol. You’re gonna join my block list soon.

          P.S. I can see you using an Alt acct to upvote your own posts, lmao. What a tool.

          • ABCDE@lemmy.world
            175·
            7 months ago

            You don’t have to announce you’ve blocked someone, just do it, they’ll be happier for it.

            The suggestion isn’t that you eat meat, it’s that you will understand the other poster. But yes, keep it up, your attitude only makes people understand the type of person you are.

            • foggy@lemmy.world
              413·
              7 months ago

              Certainly in the company of people whose words are not important to see.

      • aibler@lemmy.world
        109·
        7 months ago

        Tagged you as “selfish child devoid of self-control”. It’s totally understandable that you loathe people who remind you of how pathetic your actions are. Hopefully, one day you evolve enough to at least be able to see how much worse the world is due to your current form of existence. Believe it or not, your actions have actual consequences.