USDA will begin bulk testing milk supplies starting in states where dairy cattle tested positive last spring for the H5N1 bird flu virus. Bird flu is an increasing concern for USDA, amid H5N1 infections in not just poultry, but dairy cattle and, most recently for the first time, in a pig at a private farm in Oregon.
USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack says the agency will start testing milk in affected areas in an effort to isolate outbreaks.
“We will first test silos. We will go to processors who have accumulated significant amounts of milk product. We’ll test that milk. So, testing will give us an opportunity to get maybe, ahead, if you will,” says Vilsack.
Bird flu has infected dairy cattle in several states since March 2024, including Michigan, Texas, Kansas, North Carolina, Idaho and California. Vilsack says those will be the focus of initial testing.
“[We’ll] get a clear idea of where in the states that currently have the virus, whether it’s expanded or whether there are areas of the state that we need to address, in terms of biosecurity,” he said.
And if the virus shows up in new testing?
“If it turns out that there’s virus, we’ll then begin the process of going to more specific testing, bulk tank testing on farms, so that we can identify exactly where the virus might be,” added Vilsack.
The latest bird flu virus find in a pig in Oregon has raised even more concern, with pigs one of the few animals in which a bird virus can replicate to become more like a human virus. Livestock and poultry on that now-quarantined backyard farm shared water sources, housing and equipment, which USDA says could enable virus spread between species into other states.
Source: NAFB News Service