The North Carolina Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services (NCDAC) today announced that tests have confirmed highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in one of the state's dairy herds, raising the number of affected states to seven.
Officials didn't detail the potential source of the virus, but said movements of cattle from earlier affected states has been suspended.
The NCDAC said testing was conducted by the US Department of Agriculture National Veterinary Services Laboratory (NVSL) in Ames, Iowa.
Across US, 21 herds now affected
Steve Troxler, North Carolina's agriculture commissioner, said, "This is an evolving situation, and we are waiting for more diagnostics from NVSL and will work collaboratively with our federal partners and dairy farmers in North Carolina."
He said animal health officials in the state have spent years developing steps to manage HPAI in poultry. "But this is new, and we are working with our state and federal partners to develop protocols to handle this situation."
This is an evolving situation, and we are waiting for more diagnostics.
Meanwhile, the number of dairy herds in previously affected states continue to grow, with the total now at 21. Among other recent detections, Michigan now has a second positive herd, along with more detections on farms in Texas and New Mexico.
In addition to North Carolina, 17 other states have tightened their cattle import rules to varying degrees.
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/avian-influenza-bird-flu/avian-flu-detected-north-carolina-dairy-herd
You think you're just eating "cheese"?
Think again.
90% of the American cheese on store shelves right now is made with a lab-engineered fake rennet called FPC — fermentation-produced chymosin.
And it was originally developed and patented by Pfizer in 1990. Yeah, that Pfizer.
Here's how they did it: They took the gene for chymosin (the key clotting enzyme from a calf's stomach), spliced it into Aspergillus Niger — black mold — using CRISPR gene-editing tech, then let the mold ferment in giant vats like some dystopian bio-reactor. The result? A synthetic enzyme that's cheaper, faster, and more consistent than the real thing.
Big Food loved it. No more baby calves. No supply limits. Just endless, uniform cheese bricks rolling off the line. FDA called it "substantially equivalent" to real rennet and gave it GRAS status with zero long-term human safety studies — just a 90-day rat trial. Sound familiar?
The worst part? This stuff isn't even listed properly.
On ingredient labels it hides behind ...