Vaccine Update
In the interest of being fully open and honest with everyone, I need to make an amendment to a blog post I put out last year. The situation has changed. We haven’t changed anything but the world continues to change around us and we adapt.
Here is what I am talking about. Last year I said:
“There are no mRNA vaccines in use in the US for livestock. Regardless of how you feel about mRNA technology as a vaccination platform, mRNA vaccines are not being given to livestock. There are none under development”
This is no longer true and you should be aware of that. A vaccine is being developed using mRNA technology to build immunity in cattle for the H5N1 Bird Flu. I encourage you to follow this link or paste into your browser and read the AP article for yourself.
https://apnews.com/article/bird-flu-mrna-vaccine-ab3cf2df5ef7dca8f56d279205a97ff7
Did you read it? Ok, good then we can discuss it and I will let you know my thoughts on this. The article states that H5N1 “It was detected in U.S. dairy herds in March, although investigators think it may have been in cows since December”.
According to the Nebraska Examiner “...a total of 67 herds affected throughout nine states: Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Michigan, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, South Dakota and Texas.”
Although we know how many herds have had H5N1 detected I could not find any information on how many actual cows had tested positive. The number may be very high though as symptoms of H5N1 in cattle are almost non-existent so Bird Flu would mostly go unrecognized. [So H5N1 is not something that cattle producers will be vaccinating against since there is very little to no effect from the disease. You aren’t protecting your herd from anything]
So why the vaccine then?
The idea is; if the cows are vaccinated, then the H5N1 virus cannot mutate and jump to infect humans. This has already been documented “At least three people — all workers at farms with infected cows — have been diagnosed with bird flu, although the illnesses were considered mild.” Again, the illness was mild in the 3 humans that contracted the virus this way. [Ok, so 3 people who work in very close proximity to livestock with “mild illness” is not much of a threat if you ask me] [Also, would the virus be forced to mutate faster because the cows are no longer a suitable host?(the answer is yes)]
What does all this mean for Mariposa Ranch and for you? Nothing. It means nothing. All positive cases of H5N1 have been found in dairy cows. We don’t have dairy cows. We have beef cows. Also disease spread in pasture has not been documented at this time. It is prevalent in dairy, because dairy cows live in confinement and close proximity to each other. Grass-fed cattle are outside on pasture and do not have the same opportunity to contract disease as cattle in confinement. Lastly and here is the most important part: We already stated that we WILL NOT be using any mRNA vaccines. We stand by that statement.