Public Health Alert: Avian Flu Virus Fragments Found in U.S. Milk Supply

The Food and Drug Administration announced Tuesday that bits of the avian flu virus have been found in several samples of pasteurized milk in the United States. While the government insists that the milk is safe to consume, it states that it is still awaiting the results of research to confirm this.

The discoveries come less than a month after the H5N1 strain of avian flu was discovered for the first time in dairy cow herds across multiple states. It has since been found in herds throughout eight states. The FDA has collaborated with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the United States Department of Agriculture to examine the incident.

The FDA reported that the virus pieces were discovered when analyzing pasteurized milk samples. The PCR testing method looks for genetic material; a positive result does not necessarily indicate the presence of a live, infectious virus.

“Based on available information, pasteurization is likely to inactivate the virus; however, the process is not expected to remove the presence of viral particles,” the agency stated in a release scheduled to be made public later Tuesday. “To date, we have seen nothing that would change our assessment that the commercial milk supply is safe.”

The FDA is specifically looking at whether pasteurization inactivates avian flu in cow milk. The findings will be made accessible within the “next few days to weeks,” according to the statement.

As part of its testing, it will use egg inoculation tests, which are regarded as the gold standard for identifying whether a sample is infectious. In these tests, a chicken egg is injected with a small amount of infected milk and observed to determine if the active virus begins to multiply.

Michael Osterholm, head of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, said the preliminary findings did not surprise him. “Most milk contains E. coli, listeria, and other microorganisms, but they are all dead. “Pasteurization does not remove them; it simply kills them,” he explained. That is, dead particles are unlikely to make someone sick. “I wouldn’t have any problem drinking milk tonight from an influenza standpoint at all,” Osterholm said in an interview. “My grandchildren could drink the milk tonight.”

However, he claimed that the USDA has provided insufficient information on the subject. More information is required to completely understand what is happening with the current avian flu virus in dairy cows.

“We require a lot of additional information that hasn’t been forthcoming,” Osterholm told reporters. “We don’t know the epidemiology of these farms. We’re not sure how many farms or samples there are. We’ve been quite concerned.

The FDA has also advised milk producers to exercise caution when disposing of milk from sick cows so that it does not become a source of spread.

During the current outbreak, only one individual has become sick. The individual, a dairy worker in Texas, had a minor case and had merely conjunctivitis, or pinkeye. A top CDC official also stated that the agency is watching the situation for symptoms of odd disease in people and has not observed any since the Texas case.

Nonetheless, health officials remain concerned about the virus, citing its relatively high fatality rate of roughly 50%. Bird flu does not transfer easily from person to person, but there is concern that it may evolve as it spreads among cows, resulting in a variant that spreads more easily among humans. According to the CDC, there is currently no proof that this has occurred.