Agencies report the disease has affected nearly 260 dairies statewide, while producers are facing quarantines restricting the movement of cattle.
A bird flu outbreak in California is creating chaos in the state’s dairy industry and could disrupt the food-supply chain if the state continues to push COVID-like restrictions on farms and livestock markets, according to Alexandra “Ali” Macedo, whose family owns Tulare Sales Yard, the oldest livestock market in the state.
Macedo, an environmental consultant in the dairy industry and a newly elected Republican state assemblywoman, told The Epoch Times that state interference in the industry could be hurting dairies more than the disease itself.
Macedo said the impact on dairy farms has been devastating, and reminiscent of what she said to be the state’s mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic, with rules and regulations often changing.
“I call it COVID for cows,” she said. “That is the easiest way to describe it.”
For the last month, the state has been making rules that have been “shutting down the industry,” she said.
Normally, California allows producers to send cattle to other dairies or livestock markets without permits, but now permits are required. Quarantined dairies can obtain permits to send their dairy beef cattle to auction, but there aren’t enough case workers to process the permit applications, Macedo said.
It’s taking “way too long” for dairymen to get permits approved, so they are sending their animals directly to slaughterhouses and bypassing live markets, hoping to either turn a small profit or cut their losses, she said.
But the auctions at live markets are important to ensure farmers get fair market value for their animals, because there are multiple buyers from various slaughterhouses and competitive bidding, she said.
Because profit margins on cattle were already tight before the outbreak, many dairy producers are now in “a bad situation,” Macedo said.
It “doesn’t really matter” if the animals are infected if they’re going to slaughter, she said.
“They’re not going to another dairy site that could potentially spread this disease … to healthy cows,” she said. “They’re ultimately going to the kill floor.”
