Bird flu detected in 20% of US milk samples by FDA

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revealed in an online update on Thursday, April 25, that approximately 20% of retail milk samples tested nationwide contained fragments of the bird flu virus. These samples were most likely to test positive if they came from dairy herds affected by the virus, and were gathered from various regions across the country.

The FDA’s findings indicated that one in every five samples of pasteurized milk contained trace amounts of the bird flu virus. So far, bird flu has been detected in 33 dairy herds spread across eight states, including Idaho, Kansas, Michigan, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Dakota, Ohio, and Texas.

Despite these findings, the FDA reassured the public that there is no evidence to suggest that milk is unsafe for consumption. They confirmed that no live virus was detected in the milk available on store shelves, a conclusion supported by public health experts.

The presence of the virus in milk samples from different parts of the country does, however, verify the spread of the bird flu outbreak among dairy cows. Richard Webby, a virologist and influenza expert at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, commented on the widespread nature of the virus, noting, “It suggests that there is a whole lot of this virus out there.”

These discoveries were reported shortly after the H5N1 strain of bird flu was initially found in dairy cows in several states less than a month ago. The outbreak has since been identified in herds across eight states.

The FDA is collaborating with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to investigate this outbreak further. The testing technique employed is PCR testing, which searches for fragments of genetic material. A positive PCR test result does not necessarily indicate the presence of a live, infectious virus.