MISSOULA — H5N1 — also known as bird flu — has been slowly infecting new animals across the country, including dairy cows.
A recent development has been that some people who work on dairy farms have also been infected.
While no dairy herds in Montana have been infected by the bird flu that doesn’t mean the virus hasn’t been showing up in other animal populations in the state.
That is something that is raising alarms within the scientific community.
“I think we’ve had close to 20 flocks here in Montana since 2022 that’s impacted about 150,000 birds in the state,” said Montana State Veterinarian Tahnee Szymanski.
In addition to the threat to poultry populations, bird flu has been found in wild birds, lynx, barn cats and even grizzly bears. However, Szymanski noted that transmission from wild animals is currently not a large concern.“It’s really interesting because they’re using the genetic sequencing of …