USDA orders testing of milk supply for presence of bird flu virus

Confronted with rising instances of hen flu virus being detected in uncooked milk in California, the U.S. Division of Agriculture (USDA) on Friday introduced it could mandate testing for the virus in milk nationwide.

The Nationwide Milk Testing Technique (NMTS) “builds on measures taken by USDA and federal and state companions for the reason that outbreak of extremely pathogenic avian influenza [HPAI] H5N1 in dairy cattle was first detected in March 2024,” the company mentioned in an announcement.

Any entity that handles pre-pasteurized uncooked milk—milk processors and transporters, for instance—should hand over samples for testing to USDA workers upon request. In response to the USDA, this might be an environment friendly strategy to establish herds contaminated with H5N1.

As of Thursday, 718 cattle herds nationwide are recognized to be contaminated with the avian flu virus.

The brand new testing initiative “will give farmers and farmworkers higher confidence within the security of their animals and talent to guard themselves, and it’ll put us on a path to rapidly controlling and stopping the virus’ unfold nationwide,” U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack mentioned within the USDA assertion.

The transfer comes only some days after a California dairy farm mentioned it was increasing its recall of uncooked milk and cream after state well being officers found hen flu virus in additional milk samples.

In a discover posted Tuesday, Fresno-based Uncooked Farm LLC mentioned it has now recalled all entire milk and cream merchandise with “use by” dates of Nov. 27 to Dec. 13.

In the meantime, California well being officers took extra steps to maintain customers protected, together with quarantining the farm.

“Whereas this voluntary recall solely applies to uncooked entire milk and cream, as a result of a number of hen flu detections within the firm’s operation, the California Division of Public Well being [CDPH] urges customers to keep away from consuming any Uncooked Farm merchandise for human consumption together with uncooked milk, cream, cheese,and kefir, in addition to uncooked milk pet meals topper and pet meals kefir marketed to pet house owners,” the CDPH mentioned in a well being alert posted Tuesday.

“Along with the statewide voluntary recall, CDFA [California Department of Agriculture] has positioned the farm beneath quarantine, suspending any new distribution of its uncooked milk, cream, kefir, butter and cheese merchandise produced on or after November 27,” the company added.

No human hen flu instances linked to the consumption of uncooked milk merchandise have been confirmed at this level, the CDPH famous.

Not like uncooked milk, pasteurized milk is heat-treated to kill off any viruses and stays protected to drink.

The newest actions comply with remembers of two numerous Uncooked Farm merchandise after hen flu was first reported in uncooked milk samples on Nov. 24.

Chook flu first surfaced in U.S. dairy cows in March. Since then, the virus has been spreading throughout the nation, notably in California, the place almost 500 of the greater than 700 contaminated herds nationwide have been detected, the Related Press reported.

To this point this 12 months, the virus has contaminated 58 folks in the USA, together with 31 in California, in keeping with the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. Gentle diseases have been seen in dairy and poultry staff who had shut contact with contaminated animals. No instances of hen flu spreading between folks have been detected up to now, the company added.

In an announcement posted to its web site, Uncooked Farm officers mentioned they had been working to revive uncooked milk provide rapidly.

“There are not any diseases related to H5N1 in our merchandise. However slightly it is a political subject,” the publish said. “There are not any meals questions of safety with our merchandise or shopper security. We’re working in direction of resolving this political subject whereas being cooperative with our authorities regulatory companies.”

Any transfer to limit public entry to uncooked milk might be challenged by the incoming Trump administration, nevertheless. Robert Kennedy Jr., who has lengthy criticized crackdowns on uncooked milk, has been nominated to run the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Companies and has vowed to push for higher distribution of uncooked milk merchandise.

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