"Thirty years after the era-defining 'Got Milk?' campaign—itself a project of the California Milk Processor Board—the U.S. dairy industry’s PR machine appears to be getting a second wind."
Butter boards — artfully styled wooden boards with softened, flavored butter — have become a TikTok trend in the last couple of years. But their inexorable rise might not have been entirely organic. Grist reports on how the dairy lobby is claiming credit for the trend because its marketing group worked with the influencer who posted the first video. The organization also has partnerships with McDonald's, Taco Bell, Domino's and General Mills. "Thirty years after the era-defining 'Got Milk?' campaign — itself a project of the California Milk Processor Board — the U.S. dairy lobby’s PR machine appears to be getting a second wind," writes H. Claire Brown.
"On April 16, APHIS microbiologists identified a shift in an H5N1 sample from a cow in Kansas that could indicate that the virus has an adaptation to mammals."
For the few who don't know mammals includes us humans.
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is the group in the USDA that inspects and monitors US our food supply.
Scientists warn Canada 'way behind the virus' as bird flu explodes among U.S. dairy cattle
Calls for active surveillance on both sides of the border after H5N1 spreads across 9 states
Newly released research from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also showed profound impacts on farm cats — with a death rate of around 50 per cent among those fed raw milk products from infected cows.
FDA: "Today, the FDA received some initial results from its nationally representative commercial milk sampling study. The agency continues to analyze this information; however, the initial results show about 1 in 5 of the retail samples tested are quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR)-positive for HPAI viral fragments, with a greater proportion of positive results coming from milk in areas with infected herds. " https://www.fda.gov/food/alerts-advisories-safety-information/updates-highly-pathogenic-avian-influenza-hpai
With all the focus on bird flu in milk, this Smithsonian Magazine article on 19th Century milk is stomach churning. 🤢
I grew up with "Milk Does The Body Good!" and "Milk is healthy!" etc. etc. etc. and had no idea prior to U.S. food safety laws and pasteurization, it was downright deathly.
Boise Public Radio: A second Idaho dairy herd has bird flu. Here's what to know... "Unlike the first affected farm, which had recently imported cattle from Texas, the infected cows in this case have no connection to out-of-state cattle carrying the virus, according to the Idaho State Department of Agriculture.
Bovine Veterinarian: A Message to the Ag Industry about H5N1
"Veterinarians such as Dr. Barb Petersen in Texas have been dealing with the virus in their clients’ dairy herds since at least March.
"It has been circulating here as early as February, based on retrospective feedback from owners and fellow veterinarians," says Petersen, owner of Sunrise Veterinary Service in Amarillo. ..."
👀 "So far, H5N1 has been officially confirmed in only 32 herds in eight states, according to data from USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).
Some veterinarians working with dairies in Texas believe the virus is more active than current data suggest. Nick Schneider, a consulting dairy practitioner, is one of them.
“The thing is, when you get into the Panhandle of Texas, I’m not sure there’s anybody (dairy farms) that did not have it,” says Schneider. "
Widespread human infection with H5N1, if you believe this veterinarian!
Article:
"Her advice? “Protect yourselves and your people on the dairy. There's been underreporting of the virus. Understandably, there's been a lot of fear. But every dairy that I've worked with has – with the exception of one – had sick human beings at the same time they had sick cows.”
StatNews: "Watson confirmed that USDA has met some resistance from farmers who they’ve suspected of having infected cows. Farmers have been told they must discard any milk produced by cows that are infected with H5N1 virus, though it’s not clear if or how that recommendation is being enforced. And evidence that milk containing virus has made its way into the milk supply suggests either some farmers have ignored the advice, or asymptomatic infected cows may be emit viruses in their milk."
"Prosecutors said #JBS continued making deceptive marketing claims even after a consumer watchdog group recommended the company stop advertising because it didn’t have a strategy to achieve its #climate target."
"Livestock accounts for more than 14 percent of all global emissions.
By denying, derailing, delaying, and deflecting meaningful discussions around the sector’s key issues, the [#meat and #dairy] industry is using the same tactics as the #tobacco and #FossilFuel lobbies.
The report outlines coordinated social media attacks on nutritional science, and the portrayal of the industry as targets of “anti-meat militancy.”