Avian ‘bird flu’ outbreak strikes dairy farms across the US

The current ‘bird flu’ outbreak has spread to cows on dairy farms across the US. Here’s how factory farm conditions could play a role.

30/04/2024

The Type A H5N1 virus, commonly known as ‘avian flu’ or ‘bird flu’, has spread from chicken and hen farms to dairy facilities across the US. The latest developments have left dairy consumers wondering whether their morning glasses of milk are safe to consume – and whether humans could be infected next.

Eight US states have reported dairy farm outbreaks: New Mexico, Texas, Kansas, Idaho, Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina, and South Carolina. A Texas dairy farm worker was also diagnosed with the virus.

Experts have recorded ‘high concentrations of virus’ in dairy products, leading many to suspect that milking machinery may play a role in its spread. Scientists have further noted that if the virus continues to evolve – as pathogens tend to – more humans could become infected. It’s only a matter of time before this virus could spread to the UK!

The rise of zoonoses

Zoonotic diseases – or zoonoses – are diseases that spread from animals to humans, often through blood, excrement, and bodily fluids.

COVID-19, SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), MERS, Ebola, and H1N1 (swine flu) are all confirmed or suspected to have originated in animals. In fact, according to the World Health Organisation, 75% of new or emerging infectious diseases have zoonotic origins.

Factory farms – where pigs, chickens, cows, and other animals are held in overcrowded, unsanitary conditions – are primed for the spread of such diseases. Stress weakens animals’ immune systems, further accelerating outbreaks.

Animal Equality’s investigative releases have evidenced unsanitary conditions in factory farms and slaughterhouses around the world. Concerning findings include:

Employees cutting animals’ bodies on dirty facility floors
Heads, legs and other remains of dead piglets scattered around a pig farm
Faeces-covered floors and feeding troughs
Chickens forced to grow far too big, far too quickly, lying face-down on urine-soaked floors
Frozen calves left to die in their diarrhea
Dead hens decaying at the bottom of their cages
Workers violently forcing sticks into buffaloes’ genitals, causing bleeding wounds
Pigs suffering from prolapsed uteruses, hernias, and pus-filled wounds
Dead ducks and geese left on foie gras farm floors
Cannibalism among pigs
Inexperienced dairy farm workers illegally administering Oxytocin, a hormone used to stimulate milk production
Pigs kept amidst blood, feces and organs
Workers rinsing dirty meat with buckets of water
Tankers used to carry and offload dead fish on land returning to collect more dead fish from the sea, without any cleaning or biosecurity measures in place

Preventing the next pandemic

While crowded, unsanitary factory farms allow zoonoses to spread, you could help prevent the next outbreak, and spare thousands of animals from a lifetime of suffering in the process. By signing Animal Equality’s petition, you can join us in urging the Government to hold farms and corporations responsible for their actions and hold them to account. Together, we can alleviate some of the most deplorable conditions that farmed animals endure and mitigate the risk of deadly diseases that could potentially emerge as a result.

Over an 11 year period, Animal Equality UK has investigated 43 farms and slaughterhouses, finding prolonged animal suffering, deliberate abuse or neglect, and/or illegality taking place every single time. Animal Equality’s evidentiary footage, spanning over a decade, is a growing indictment of this failing industry.

The Government must work with Animal Equality to put in place critical changes to the legal framework, including the following:

Implement a licensing system for farms;
Breaches of licences will result in non renewal and prosecution;
Inspections required for licence renewal which will be at least every 1-3 years, depending on the farm’s size;
Those inspections must be robust and occasionally unannounced;
Appropriate penalties for all farms found not complying with their licences and the law.

Laws are broken time and time again. On every pig farm Animal Equality UK has ever visited pigs have been routinely tail-docked; over a six year period we visited four dairy farms and on each we found severe animal suffering and illegality; and in a sheep slaughterhouse we discovered a Food Standards Agency inspector giving their nod of approval for clear non-compliance. Our investigators have looked into facilities accredited by Red Tractor, Quality Meat Scotland, Best Aquaculture Practices, The Soil Association and more, documenting illegality across the board.

This doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface. With over 300,000 slaughterhouses in the UK, it is not possible for Animal Equality to visit every single facility. How many animals will suffer the same cruelty behind closed doors?

The public puts its faith in accreditation schemes, awards and Government and local authorities, but consumers are being conned.

Public body inspections are few and far between. With fewer than 3% of farms being inspected each year, crimes to farmed animals are rarely detected.

Non-compliance is rife. Where inspections do occur, 31% identify non-compliance with animal welfare regulations and inspectors directly observe animals suffering ‘unnecessarily’ in one in 30 visits to uncertified farms.

Consequences are all but non-existent. When wrongdoing is detected it is too often left to the charities to apply the necessary pressure and ensure action is taken. Between 2017-2019 there were 80 convictions of cruelty to farmed animals under the Animal Welfare Act 2006, compared to 2,662 for dogs. Considering that over one billion animals are farmed and slaughtered each year in the UK, this number of convictions is extremely low. This lack of action is failing to disincentivise legal violations on farms.

The Government and local authorities must end their overreliance on charities, take ownership, and hold animal abusers accountable for their actions. The current regulatory framework is a wholly inadequate safeguard to ensure legal compliance. It is simply not fit for purpose. Already vulnerable farmed animals are being left at the whims of an industry that wants only to commoditise them.

We, the undersigned, are calling for improved monitoring and enforcement of existing animal welfare laws and for increased legal protections to be put in place for farmed land and aquatic animals.

Demand the Government holds animal abusers accountable – SIGN NOW!

Read the petition

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