To get bird flu, do you have to be a bird? Nope. In Texas and Kansas, cows are getting it too.

Officials say some cows’ milk tested positive for the virus. It’s an oldie but a baddie. It’s called virus strain H5N1. That strain has caused bird flu outbreaks for decades. Occasionally, it infects people too. But human cases are rare.

Cows in Texas, Kansas, and New Mexico are getting the virus. Older cows lose their appetite. They produce less milk than usual. Just a week earlier, officials in Minnesota announced that yet another species had the virus: goats. As far as scientists know, the virus has never been found in U.S. livestock before now. (Forty-eight other mammal species have gotten bird flu though, including seals, bears, and skunks.)

Do you have to throw out the milk in your fridge? Again, no. Dairies follow rules that only milk from healthy cows can enter the food supply. Milk from sick cows is destroyed. Plus, pasteurization kills viruses. You have very little risk of getting bird flu.

Dairy farmers in Texas first became concerned three weeks ago. Cattle started getting “mystery dairy cow disease.” Officials think the cows got the virus from infected wild birds.

“We hadn’t seen anything like it before,” says Sid Miller. He is the Texas Department of Agriculture Commissioner. “It was kind of like they had a cold.”

Birds with the flu must be killed to keep sickness from spreading. Not so with cows. They get better on their own in about seven to 10 days.

Know well the condition of your flocks, and give attention to your herds. — Proverbs 27:23