USDA Orders Testing Nationwide for Bird Flu Virus in Milk Fresh From the Cow

The Agriculture Department will launch a testing program next week that looks for the bird flu virus in milk fresh from the farm to get a clearer picture of the prevalence of the H5N1 virus among U.S. dairy herds. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the tests would complement ongoing efforts to identify infected herds and stop the spread of bird flu.

“Among many outcomes, this will give farmers and farmworkers better confidence in the safety of their animals and ability to protect themselves, and it puts us on a path to quickly controlling and stopping the virus’ spread nationwide,” said Vilsack on Friday.

Some 58 people have contracted bird flu this year. All but two of them were dairy and poultry workers on farms with infected animals. Public health officials say there have been no instances of person-to-person spread and the virus has not evolved to become more communicable.

Bird flu has been confirmed in 720 dairy herds in 15 states since it was identified in late March as the mystery illness affecting cattle in the Texas panhandle; 502 of the infected herds are in California, the No. 1 dairy state. State agriculture officials said on Friday that 20 farms “have fully recovered and have been released from quarantine.” The farms would be placed on a surveillance list for weekly testing through creameries “to maintain continued monitoring of the virus in California.”

Tests would begin the week of Dec. 16, with California, Colorado, Michigan, Mississippi, Oregon, and Pennsylvania as the initial participants. They would involve samples of milk from farms or businesses that transport milk intended for pasteurization. Results will be reported each Friday, said the USDA. Besides California, bird flu has been confirmed in 64 herds in Colorado and 29 herds in Michigan. The other three states have been free of bird flu.

In addition, the order requires dairy farmers with infected herds to provide epidemiological information that would assist in contact tracing and disease surveillance, and it obliges private laboratories and state veterinarians to report when the H5N1 virus is found in milk samples drawn as part of the new National Milk Testing Strategy (NMTS).

The first step in the NMTS would be testing of milk at processing plants, to be followed by testing of milk from bulk storage tanks, and then identification of individual infected herds for “response measures,” such as enhanced biosecurity, contact tracing, and controls on movement of cattle. “Once all dairy herds in a given state are considered to be unaffected, [the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service] will continue regular sampling of farms’ bulk tanks to ensure the disease does not re-emerge,” said the USDA. When all states are free of bird flu in dairy cattle, APHIS would work with states to begin periodic testing “to illustrate long-term absence from the national herd.”

In late November, bird flu virus was found in whole raw milk for sale in Santa Clara County in California’s Silicon Valley, south of San Francisco. Most milk is pasteurized, which kills the virus.

More than 30 states allow the sale of raw milk from the farm, in retail stores, or through so-called cow shares and about 1% of U.S. adults consume raw milk on a weekly basis.

President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert Kennedy Jr., has said he wants to end FDA’s “aggressive suppression” of raw milk. Since 1987, the FDA, a part of HHS, has prohibited distribution of unpasteurized milk across state lines for direct sale or distribution to consumers on grounds raw milk could carry bacteria that cause illness.