Nearly a year after a wild bird infected with H5N1 avian flu likely passed its viral load to a dairy cow in the Texas panhandle – which subsequently led to the infection of more than 700 herds across the the country and sickened at least 32 dairy workers – the country’s agriculture department announced Friday it would sample the country’s milk supply to test for the virus.
The federal order requires dairy farmers to collect and share raw milk samples for testing — if requested — by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It also outlines a phased testing strategy that will allow the federal agency to track and monitor the disease.
The National Milk Testing Strategy, known as the New Milk Testing Regime, “is a critical part of our ongoing efforts to protect the health and safety of individuals and communities nationwide,” according to a statement prepared by Xavier Becerra, the US Secretary of the Environment. Human and health services.
Initially, the order will only apply to six states: California, Colorado, Michigan, Mississippi, Oregon and Pennsylvania.
Steve Lyle, a spokesman for the California Department of Food and Agriculture, said the order was incidental and made “no change for California.” We already do it.
While California, Colorado and Michigan all reported positive herds, the other three did not. Testing programs and investigations are already underway in infected states, as well as in Pennsylvania, which launched its own “Precautionary Testing of Bulk Milk at Processing Plants” program in late November.
Although Oregon has not experienced an H5N1 outbreak in dairy cows, it has reported the disease in commercial poultry, wild birds and, last month, in two pigs.
Mississippi has approximately 50 herds statewide, with each farm averaging 149 cows.
The new milking plan is designed as a step-by-step plan, with the end goal of eradicating the disease from the country’s herds – a goal that few epidemiologists or virologists think, at this point, is possible.
First, testing will be conducted at all dairy processing facilities in a given state, allowing the federal agency to determine if and where the virus resides. The next step will allow the federal agency to further its research by moving testing to bulk tanks.
If the virus is detected, the third stage kicks in, triggering an even more granular investigation by identifying positive farms and herds – enabling “rapid response measures”, including biosecurity programs such as movement control and contact tracing.
However, if no virus is detected in a state, the frequency of bulk tank testing will gradually decrease from weekly to monthly to quarterly, assuming the state’s tests remain negative.
Finally, there is the fifth step, known as “Demonstration of H5 Absence in U.S. Dairy Cattle.”
That’s when, according to the release, states can begin conducting more periodic sampling and testing “to illustrate a long-term absence from the national herd.”
