katfeete / is on Nostr

I make food, prose, comics, 3D art, code, things with yarn, and (in what might better be described as a very ambitious WIP) a kid. If you met me at a con, I'm the one with the cheese. Terminally tired.

Sunset Grill: https://www.sunsetgrillcomic.com/
Pillowfort: https://www.pillowfort.social/katfeete
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/katastrophe
Pronouns: she/her

Last Notes

2024-08-13 23:07:06

Some losses to the local Woodland Creatures (those are probably the only green beans I’ll get, alas) but overall it’s a happy #gardening year. And definitely fresh tomato pasta night 😆
https://stockroom.wandering.shop/media_attachments/files/112/957/221/930/687/969/original/bf81235139d62f46.jpeg

2024-05-29 15:53:41

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I would envision the procedure as being (eventually) more like the current protocol for antibiotic residue. If the test from your tank comes back positive for antibiotics, they dump the tanker, and you (the farmer) pay for anyone else’s milk that was in that tanker. If that milk made it to the silo, you pay for the silo.
Oddly enough farmers are ABSOLUTELY RABID about quarantining cows treated with antibiotics and never allowing their milk to TOUCH the bulk tank.

2024-05-29 15:47:38

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Ehhhhh. The reason culling is mandated for stuff like scrapie, foot and mouth, mad cow, etc., is those are untreatable. We cannot cure affected animals — it stays in their system and can infect other animals.
For a treatable disease quarantine of affected animals should be sufficient. Especially as it looks like this is getting passed via milk contact, not airborne.
But that’s all academic at the moment.

2024-05-29 15:34:43

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And I mean, a smaller aggravation, but “up to” $1,500?
The average dairy herd size in Texas — where all this likely started — is 1,000 head. Large herds (and this is likely running through large herds) are 10,000 head.
The USDA offering somewhere between $1.50 and 15 cents PER COW for “biosecurity measures” is a joke. No one is doing that.

2024-05-29 15:28:10

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It wouldn’t even need to be a cull requirement. The virus, as far as I know, is treatable; animals recover. They’d just have to actually identify and treat the animals and throw away a bunch of milk. Expensive, but short term!
IF THEY’D JUST DO IT

2024-05-29 14:46:09

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I mean, obviously, because they are more concerned with protecting the industry than protecting human health, I just….
It’s frustrating that this “biosecurity” babble could sound reasonable to people outside the industry. But it’s bullshit! And the bulk tank panel! It’s RIGHT THERE! It could tell us how many herds this is really in and what mutation is looking like and whether this is really single source and —
*froths*

2024-05-29 14:38:47

“The [USDA] will provide up to $1,500 to any farm that implements a biosecurity plan…although it is unclear exactly what those measures are.”
This is fucking ridiculous.
By federal law, milk companies pull a sample from every bulk tank on every farm every time they pick up, to screen for antibiotics residue among other things.
Adding bird flu to that panel is logistically trivial.
Why are they putting out a vague call to action aimed at FARMERS with a bullshit offer?
https://mastodon.social/@COVID19_DISEASE/112521778111150352