Study finds traces of bird flu in one in five commercial milk samples in US: FDA From Reuters

Julie Steenhuisen and Tom Polansek

April 26 (Reuters) – One in five commercial milk samples analyzed in a U.S. national study contained particles of the H5N1 virus, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said, suggesting the bird flu outbreak is more widespread than previously thought.

The agency said late Thursday that there is no reason to believe the virus found in the milk poses a risk to human health.

According to Dr. Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota, “this virus has hit dairy cattle hard across the country.”

Many infectious disease experts and government officials have said they believe the pasteurization process inactivates the virus, also known as avian influenza. However, additional testing is needed to confirm the absence of infectious virus in the milk, the FDA said.

“To date, retail milk studies have not produced results that change our assessment that commercial milk supplies are safe,” the agency said in its latest update on the issue.

“I’m not worried about the milk itself. This indicates that the virus is more widespread in dairies than we thought,” said Samuel Alcain, assistant professor of food science at Cornell University.

“We had just over 30 herds or farms that tested positive for bird flu. We have just under 30,000 farms across the United States. Thirty-three is a really small number. It feels like there is definitely more spread.”

Eight states in the North American country have confirmed cases of avian influenza in 33 dairy herds, according to the Department of Agriculture. In the current outbreak, avian influenza has only been confirmed in one person, a Texas farm worker who suffered from conjunctivitis.

The FDA noted that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has not recorded more human cases than the first confirmed one.

The FDA further evaluates any positive results using egg inoculation testing, which it calls the standard for determining virus viability.

(Reporting by Leroy Leo and Bhanvi Satiha in Bengaluru; Editing in Spanish by Raul Cortes Fernandez)