Preliminary test results from the Food and Drug Administration show that pasteurization is effective in killing bird flu in milk, the agency announced Friday.
“These additional tests did not detect any live infectious viruses. These results reaffirm our assessment that the commercial milk supply is safe,” the FDA said in a statement. statement.
The FDA’s findings come after the agency revealed that about 1 in 5 retail milk samples it studied nationwide tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza, or HPAI H5N1. The US Department of Agriculture also this week ordered cow testing requirements in response to the epidemic, which has affected an increasing number of people Poultry And dairy cows.
So-called positive PCR tests in milk can occur as a result of harmless fragments of the virus left after pasteurization, officials and experts said, prompting additional experiments to test whether the virus found in milk was infectious or not. These tests revealed that this was not the case.
“The FDA is further evaluating retail samples from its study of 297 retail dairy samples from 38 states. All samples with a positive PCR result are subject to egg inoculation testing, a benchmark to determine if an infectious virus is present,” the FDA said. the agency said.
While health officials said milk from visibly sick cows was discarded before entering the supply chain, authorities acknowledged the possibility that cows could spread the virus in their raw milk without symptoms or after appearing get well.
The FDA said it also tested several samples of powdered infant formula and retail infant formula, all of which the agency said were negative for the virus.
It’s unclear what other foods the FDA tested. An agency spokesperson did not respond to questions about whether dairy products like cream, which can be pasteurized differently, had also been studied.
No beef cattle have been detected with the virus, according to the USDA saidalthough it remains unclear whether the ministry has investigated retail beef products for the virus.
So far, a single human infection was reported this year in a person who had contact with dairy cattle in Texas.
Although growing evidence now supports the safety of pasteurized milk, an additional challenge also remains for health authorities, faced with the possibility that dairy industry workers may be unknowingly exposed to the virus.
Contrary to Poultrythat die quickly or are eliminated after H5N1 infection, cows largely recover after a month or two.
Other animals didn’t fare as well during the outbreak: USDA said Friday that deaths and neurological diseases…
