Farm animals are transported throughout the country. So are their pathogens.
Tens of millions of farm animals cross state lines each year, traveling in cramped and stressful conditions that can facilitate the spread of disease.
The avian flu virus spreading through U.S. dairy cows can likely be traced to a single spread event. Late last year, scientists say, the virus jumped from wild birds to cattle in the Texas panhandle. This spring, the virus, known as H5N1, had traveled hundreds of miles or more, showing up on farms in Idaho, North Carolina and Michigan.
The virus did not cross these distances alone. Instead, it hitchhiked with its hosts, the cows, moving to new states as livestock were transported from the epicenter of the outbreak to farms across the country.
< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The transport of live animals is essential to industrial breeding, which is increasingly specialized. Many facilities focus on a single step in the production process – producing new young, for example, or fattening adults for slaughter – and then shipping the animals out.The Exact Number The number of chickens, cows and pigs transported by trucks, ships, planes and trains in the United States is difficult to pin down because there is no universal national system for tracking their movements.
But estimates from official sources and animal rights activists give an idea of the scale: in 2022, some 21 million cattle and 62 million pigs will be shipped to the states to be raised or fed, according to the Department of Agriculture; these figures do not include poultry, intrastate travel, or travel to slaughterhouses. That same year, more than 500,000 young dairy calves, some just days old, were shipped from six states alone, according to the Animal Welfare Institute, a nonprofit group. Some have traveled more than 1,500 miles.
“Movement can contribute to the long-distance transport of pathogens and make outbreaks and outbreak management difficult” , said Colleen Webb. , an expert in livestock epidemiology at Colorado State University.
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Tens of millions of farm animals cross state lines each year, traveling in cramped and stressful conditions that can facilitate the spread of disease.
The avian flu virus spreading through U.S. dairy cows can likely be traced to a single spread event. Late last year, scientists say, the virus jumped from wild birds to cattle in the Texas panhandle. This spring, the virus, known as H5N1, had traveled hundreds of miles or more, showing up on farms in Idaho, North Carolina and Michigan.
The virus did not cross these distances alone. Instead, it hitchhiked with its hosts, the cows, moving to new states as livestock were transported from the epicenter of the outbreak to farms across the country.
< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The transport of live animals is essential to industrial breeding, which is increasingly specialized. Many facilities focus on a single step in the production process – producing new young, for example, or fattening adults for slaughter – and then shipping the animals out.The Exact Number The number of chickens, cows and pigs transported by trucks, ships, planes and trains in the United States is difficult to pin down because there is no universal national system for tracking their movements.
But estimates from official sources and animal rights activists give an idea of the scale: in 2022, some 21 million cattle and 62 million pigs will be shipped to the states to be raised or fed, according to the Department of Agriculture; these figures do not include poultry, intrastate travel, or travel to slaughterhouses. That same year, more than 500,000 young dairy calves, some just days old, were shipped from six states alone, according to the Animal Welfare Institute, a nonprofit group. Some have traveled more than 1,500 miles.
“Movement can contribute to the long-distance transport of pathogens and make outbreaks and outbreak management difficult” , said Colleen Webb. , an expert in livestock epidemiology at Colorado State University.
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