why is cows milk affected by bird flu?
In: Biology
Milk is blood with extra steps. That is to say, everything in milk originally came from the blood circulating in the cow. The presence of a viral RNA in something’s milk means the mammal is harbouring that virus.
It is worth knowing that viruses are detected via looking for their RNA. RNA present in milk does not mean the virus is present and active in pasteurised milk.
Cows, being mammals, are not very similar to birds. This indicates that the influenza strain in birds has aquired a mutation that allows it to infect mammals. We have now seen that this strain can pass from cow-to-cow and can be found in cow’s lungs, so it is no longer simply transmitted via bird-to-cow route.
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