(The Economic Collapse Blog)—Officials had been greatly puzzled by a “mystery disease” that has been making dairy cattle in Texas, Kansas and New Mexico very sluggish and has been causing them to produce much less milk. So they decided to do some testing, and we now have the results. It turns out that the mystery illness is actually “the same strain of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) that’s been in the U.S. for two years”…
A mystery illness that’s impacted dairy herds in the Texas Panhandle, New Mexico and Kansas now has a diagnosis: Influenza A. USDA says genetic sequencing revealed it’s the same strain of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) that’s been in the U.S. for two years.
APHIS says the “National Veterinary Services Laboratories” detected Influenza “A” in samples from several impacted herds in Texas, Kansas and New Mexico. The virus is carried by wild waterfowl, which experts think is how the illness is spreading.
The experts did not think that bird flu would be a threat to dairy cattle.
Unfortunately, the experts were wrong.
Scientists were able to confirm the presence of the bird flu by testing samples of milk from sick cows…
According to USDA, as of March 25, unpasteurized, clinical samples of milk from sick cattle collected from two dairy farms in Kansas and one in Texas, as well as an oropharyngeal swab from another dairy in Texas, have tested positive for the virus.
Now that bird flu has been identified as the culprit, dairy farmers are being urged to strictly implement “all standard biosecurity measures”…
Officials are strongly advising dairy producers to use all standard biosecurity measures. They note it’s important for producers to clean and disinfect all livestock watering devices and isolate drinking water where it might be contaminated by waterfowl. Farmers are also being asked to notify their herd veterinarian if they suspect any cattle within their herd are displaying symptoms of this condition.
I was quite shocked to learn that this was happening right here in our own country.
The good news is that all milk from sick cows is being kept out of the food chain…
“Also, routine testing and well-established protocols for U.S. dairy will continue to ensure that only safe milk enters the food supply. In keeping with the federal Grade ‘A’ Pasteurized Milk Ordinance (PMO), milk from sick cows must be collected separately and is not allowed to enter the food supply chain. This means affected dairy cows are segregated, as is normal practice with any animal health concern, and their milk does not enter the food supply. Consumers in the United States and around the world can remain confident in the safety and quality of U.S. dairy,” the statement said.
Will we eventually get to a point where entire herds of dairy cows have to be killed in order to prevent the spread of the disease? Let’s hope not.
Earlier this month, we learned that a goat in Minnesota has also tested positive for bird flu…
A goat in Stevens County, Minnesota, has tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), becoming the first U.S. detection of HPAI in a domestic ruminant. The goat contracted the virus after a poultry flock on the same premises was depopulated in February due to the virus. Following the confirmation of HPAI in the goat, the Minnesota Board of Animal Health quarantined all other species on the premises. The Board said is working with USDA to investigate the transmission of the virus in this case.
It appears to be just a matter of time before the bird flu starts becoming a significant threat to humans as well.
According to Dr. Chris Walzer, “dozens of mammalian species” have already been infected…
In January, Dr Chris Walzer, the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Executive Director of Health, in a statement, said: “It (H5N1) has infected over 150 wild and domestic avian species around the globe as well as dozens of mammalian species. The bird flu outbreak is the worst globally and also in US history, with hundreds-of-millions of birds dead since it first turned up in domestic waterfowl in China in 1996.”
We better hope that the bird flu does not mutate into a form that can spread very easily among humans.
Because according to the NIH, bird flu can have a death rate of more than 50 percent in humans…
As of November 2022, 240 cases of human avian influenza A (H5N1) virus have been confirmed from the Western Pacific Region since 2003 with a case fatality rate of 56%.
A global bird flu crisis would be far worse than anything that we have experienced during the past several years.
Just try to imagine the panic that would ensue if H5N1 were to start killing millions of people around the world.
Hopefully that will not happen any time soon.
Earlier today, I did come across an article about a 21-year-old student in Vietnam that was just killed by H5N1…
A student in Vietnam has died of H5N1 bird flu, according to the country’s Department of Preventive Medicine.
The 21-year-old man developed symptoms of fever and a cough on March 11. A week later, he presented at Ninh Hoa Medical Center in Vietnam’s eastern Khanh Hoa province, where he was diagnosed with pneumonia and transferred to Khanh Hoa General Hospital.
The student tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza on March 20, and further tests conducted two days later at the Nha Trang Pasteur Institute showed the patient was infected with the H5N1 subtype.
Let us pray that this was just an isolated incident.
Coffee the Christian way: Promised Grounds
Meanwhile, other pestilences continue to spread all over the planet.
For example, dengue fever has become a major problem in Brazil, and now government officials in Puerto Rico have declared a dengue fever epidemic…
On Monday, government leaders in Puerto Rico declared a dengue epidemic after a spike in cases of the mosquito-borne disease hit the island.
From the start of the year through March 10, there were 549 cases, including 341 hospitalizations and 29 severe cases, according to the most recent data provide by the Puerto Rico Department of Health. Cases are concentrated in cities including San Juan, Bayamon, Guaynabo and Carolina.
I have been repeatedly warning my readers that global pestilences would be one of the major themes of the next several years.
Bird flu has already killed hundreds of millions of birds, and now it is spreading in mammals.
A widespread bird flu outbreak among humans would have the potential to be absolutely catastrophic, and so we will want to watch this story very, very closely.
Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.
Independent Journalism Is Dying
Ever since President Trump’s miraculous victory, we’ve heard an incessant drumbeat about how legacy media is dying. This is true. The people have awakened to the reality that they’re being lied to by the self-proclaimed “Arbiters of Truth” for the sake of political expediency, corporate self-protection, and globalist ambitions.
But even as independent journalism rises to fill the void left by legacy media, there is still a huge challenge. Those at the top of independent media like Joe Rogan, Dan Bongino, and Tucker Carlson are thriving and rightly so. They have earned their audience and the financial rewards that come from it. They’ve taken risks and worked hard to get to where they are.
For “the rest of us,” legacy media and their proxies are making it exceptionally difficult to survive, let alone thrive. They still have a stranglehold over the “fact checkers” who have a dramatic impact on readership and viewership. YouTube, Facebook, and Google still stifle us. The freer speech platforms like Rumble and 𝕏 can only reward so many of their popular content creators. For independent journalists on the outside looking in, our only recourse is to rely on affiliates and sponsors.
But even as it seems nearly impossible to make a living, there are blessings that should not be disregarded. By highlighting strong sponsors who share our America First worldview, we have been able to make lifelong connections and even a bit of revenue to help us along. This is why we enjoy symbiotic relationships with companies like MyPillow, Jase Medical, and Promised Grounds. We help them with our recommendations and they reward us with money when our audience buys from them.
The same can be said about our preparedness sponsor, Prepper All-Naturals. Their long-term storage beef has a 25-year shelf life and is made with one ingredient: All-American Beef.
Even our faith-driven precious metals sponsor helps us tremendously while also helping Americans protect their life’s savings. We are blessed to work with them.
Independent media is the future. In many ways, that future is already here. While the phrase, “the more the merrier,” does not apply to this business because there are still some bad actors in the independent media field, there are many great ones that do not get nearly enough attention. We hope to change that one content creator at a time.
Thank you and God Bless,
JD Rucker
