Stearns County Dairy Herd Tests Positive for H5N1

ST. PAUL (WJON News) -- The H5N1 virus has been detected on a dairy farm in central Minnesota.

Michael Crusan with the Minnesota Board of Animal Health says a 600-dairy herd has been affected in Stearns County.

Being in Stearns County, we also have a lot of migratory birds that affect our numbers when it comes to finding avian influenza and H5N1. So it’s appearing to be that it might be a hot spot.

Crusan says it’s the first detection in livestock since last summer and was discovered during mandatory raw milk surveillance testing.

Low and behold, that testing resulted in a positive detection in Stearns County. So, we do have H5N1 in a dairy herd in Minnesota. I’ll say it’s back.

Crusan says the same farm was affected last summer and is one of only a handful of dairies in the state to test positive for H5N1.

Doctor Brian Hoefs is executive director of the Minnesota Board of Animal Health.

to determine if this active infection or if it potentially is an infection that is waxing and waning and on its way out. So additional testing would be weekly testing on that farm until we get consecutive weeks of negative tests.

Hoefs says bird flu is always fatal in poultry but is considered more of a "nuisance" disease in the cattle industry.