Thanks to all collaborators on this project.

This manuscript was written almost entirely to the sound of "Here in the Pitch" by Jessica Pratt. Beautiful album I can strongly recommend.

open.spotify.com/album/3sxWkh...

Engagement with the farming community has been a big problem. The previous administration implemented a free milk testing programme - any farm can get their milk tested for H5N1 for free! Over 36,000 dairy herds in the country, how many do you think signed up for testing? Answer - 75...

There's been one national intervention - testing cows that move from one state to another (no federal restrictions on movements within a state!). Our study shows that this has simply not been enough, and will have only prevent a small number of additional outbreaks.

Based on the movement data, we would expect a lot more herd outbreaks, in a lot more states. The vast majority of outbreaks have been in California. Is California just unlucky? No, they're simply identifying more outbreaks. Wisconsin and Florida in particular are particularly bizarre omissions.

Our modelling paper synthesises data on the movement of cattle across the country. Dairy cows get moved around A LOT. By moving infected cattle from one state to another, cows are infecting new herds in new states via shared milking equipment.

We discovered this is just the tip of the iceberg...

Bob Dylan's "Desire". Got it for 50p from an Oxfam Music when I was 16! It was two years until I had anything to play it on...

I've been using this data source which puts it at 1117 dairy farms total in California as of 2022. Approaching the 50% mark!
(www.nass.usda.gov/Publications...)

Getting 365 people together in one room could only be for {A birthday, A funeral, A corporate team building exercise}. Therefore the probability is 33.33%

Here's a link to that episode:
open.spotify.com/episode/52cO...

Your talk was excellent Helena! Really engaging presentation and really impactful work. Thanks for sharing :)