Dairy cows must be tested for bird flu before moving across state lines, under a federal order issued Wednesday, as evidence mounts that the virus is more widespread than feared among cows in the United States.
Biden administration officials said the move is meant to contain transmission of the virus known as H5N1 and to reduce the threat to livestock, but they maintained that the risk to humans remains low.
The trajectory of the outbreak has drawn public health concerns because it marks the first time bird flu has moved to cows. The virus is far more disruptive to the poultry industry, killing chickens and forcing mass culling of flocks. It generally causes mild or no sickness in cows. But greater transmission in mammals, particularly one regularly exposed to people, increases the risk that the virus could evolve to the point that it spreads more easily in humans.
An order issued by the U.S. Agriculture Department that takes effect Monday requires every lactating dairy cow to be tested before moving across state lines. Cows carrying the virus would have to wait 30 days and test negative before being moved, officials said. Positive test results would trigger additional requirements for herd owners to disclose information, including the movement of animals, to aid epidemiologic investigations, and for laboratories and state veterinarians to report cases to the USDA.
Requiring positive test reporting will help USDA better understand this disease and testing before interstate movement will limit the spread of the virus, Mike Watson, administrator of the USDAs Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, told reporters.
This is an evolving situation, and we are treating it seriously and with urgency, he said.
The testing mandate could help overcome reluctance from some milk producers to allow testing in their herds, Watson said. The cost of mandatory testing would be reimbursed by the agency. Watson said federal officials are also working with state counterparts to potentially expand testing of cows when they are moved within a state.
The nation has roughly 8 million lactating cows, according to estimates, though its unclear how often they are moved across state lines. Watson did not provide an estimate for how many cows would be tested under the new order, though he described it as a significant number. He said labs have enough capacity to handle the increase and turn around results within days.
The National Milk Producers Federation, an industry group, called the USDAs testing order appropriate.
Dairy farmers stand ready to take a proactive approach to ensuring that we better understand the spread of the virus, do what we can to limit that spread, and ensure the health of our animals and workers, Gregg Doud, the groups president and CEO, said in a statement.
Voluntary testing protocols for cows, limited until now to those with symptoms, has drawn criticism from public health experts. They say the true toll of the virus is probably larger than official tallies confirming avian flu in dairy cows in eight states, as well as one human case in a Texas farmworker. That person has recovered.
We are only really starting to understand the extent of it now, said Angela Rasmussen, principal research scientist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. The testing requirements are very warranted because certainly there are economic incentives for producers to not test.
Testing uncovered fragments of the virus in milk sold at grocery stores, another sign that the virus is more prevalent in cows than official tallies show, including in asymptomatic cows. Federal officials stressed that existing research suggests pasteurization of milk and other milk products such as ice cream and cheese renders the virus unable to infect humans. Additional reviews, including the viruss presence in other dairy products such as cream, are underway, with some results expected within days or weeks.
We have seen nothing that would change our assessment that the commercial milk supply is safe, said Don Prater, acting director of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition at the Food and Drug Administration. He also cautioned, We also know that assessments can change as we learn more, and we will be transparent about any changes based on emerging data.
Public health experts have also faulted the Biden administration for not sharing more data about the outbreak, warning that it could hinder scientific research and the global response.
Federal officials shared more than 200 genetic sequences of the virus taken from different animals, which scientists criticized for lacking metadata that provides crucial context, such as the location and timing of the specimen collection. Scientists who analyzed the sequencing said the available information strongly suggests that the spread of H5N1 to cows stems from a single spillover event from birds in late 2023.
The evolutionary tree resoundingly indicates that this outbreak had a single origin and that it had been circulating under our noses for months before it was noticed, said Michael Worobey, an evolutionary virologist at the University of Arizona who led the analysis. It shows there are massive gaps in the system, and we need to do much better on the scientific side.
Topline
The Food and Drug Administration announced Tuesday that samples of pasteurized milk from around the U.S. tested positive for remnants of the H5N1 bird flua finding that comes about a month after the infection began spreading in dairy cows across multiple states, though the agency says the U.S. milk supply remains safe.
99% of the commercial milk supply that is produced on dairy farms in the U.S. comes from farms ... [+] following the Pasteurized Milk Ordinance. (Photo by Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images)
The FDA said the remnants of the virus found in the milk poses no threat to consumers, noting the pasteurization process kills or inactivates harmful bacteria and viruses by heating milk to a certain temperature for a specific amount of time.
The FDA and Department of Agriculture also said the U.S.s milk supply is safe because of the diversion or destruction of milk from sick cows.
Though the positive samples are not an immediate cause of concern for humans, the development does indicate the bird flu outbreak among dairy cows is likely persisting.
Cases of the bird flu have been found in domestic livestock in Idaho, New Mexico, Texas, South Dakota, Kansas, Michigan, Ohio and North Carolina, according to USDA data.
The FDA has been testing milk from store shelves, milk processing systems and affected animals and is conducting a large sample to better understand its current findings.
The FDA is assessing bird flu positive findings through egg inoculation tests, which it calls the gold-standard for determining viable virus. Findings from multiple studies on commercial milk and the bird flu will be published in the next few days to weeks.
To date, we have seen nothing that would change our assessment that the commercial milk supply is safe, the FDA said in a statement.
Though there is no evidence of the bird flu passing between humans yet, Jeremy Farrar, chief scientist for the World Health Organization, said last week there is an increasing threat of human-to-human bird flu transmission. The WHO reported 888 human cases of bird flu infection between January 2003 and March 28, 202452% of the cases were fatal.
Though pasteurization kills harmful viruses, it is not expected to remove the presence of all viral particles, according to the FDA, which is why some of its samples indicated the presence of the bird flu in milk. Wild migratory birds are believed to be the source of the H5N1 flu. Though cases among humans in direct contact with infected animals is possible, the CDC has said the current risk to the public is low. A milk recall is also unlikely, according to the CDC, which said in a statement last week there were no bird flu detections in commercial beef herds. Two Americans have so far contracted the bird flu, with a person in Texas testing positive early this month and another in Colorado testing positive in 2022. The person in Texas reported pink eye as their only symptom and the Colorado resident reported fatigue for a few days before making a recovery, according to the CDC.
WHO Warns Threat Of Bird Flu Spreading To Humans Is Great Concern (Forbes)
Fragments of Bird Flu Virus Discovered in Milk (New York Times)
Health
By Tracy Swartz
Published April 25, 2024, 3:02 p.m. ET
Got milk?
The Food and Drug Administration announced this week that traces of bird flu have been found in samples of pasteurized milk obtained from grocery shelves, leaving consumers wondering if they should toss their jugs.
But the FDA and the US Department of Agriculture claim that the commercial milk supply is safe because of the pasteurization process heating milk to kill potentially harmful bacteria and viruses and the diversion or destruction of milk from sick cows.
The National Milk Producers Federation noted this week that the viral fragments detected in the milk samples are nothing more than evidence that the virus is dead; they have zero impact on human health.
Theres little risk of transmission in eggs and milk because you need to have direct contact with the infected animal itself. But more than that, the pasteurization process would kill any viable virus in there, Dr. Scott Roberts, an assistant professor in infectious diseases at Yale School of Medicine, said in a statement.
He advises consuming pasteurized milk and eggs and avoiding raw products.
People are certainly more aware of the threat of pandemics now than they were five years ago, Roberts continued. In contrast to COVID, we know this is circulating and we know this is a growing problem. So hopefully that gives us enough planning time where we can stop any future potential pandemics 10 years down the road.
Yet, the federal governments response to theH5N1 bird flu outbreaksin dairy cows has come under fire from scientists who say the USDA has been slow to share data and whats been released has been incomplete.
Theres a whole community around the world of people like me and my colleagues, who have a lot of experience with this and often can see things or do analyses that might show something that others have missed, Dr. Michael Worobey, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona, told CNN this week.
You dont want essentially one group to be the only ones looking at the data. You want everyone, all the experts around the world to be able to do that, Worobey added.
Type A H5N1was first detected in 1959 and late last month, the USDA reported that dairy cows in Texas and Kansas had tested positive for the highly contagious virus.
Since then, its spread toherds in at least eight states, including Ohio and North Carolina.
Earlier this month, the Texas health department reported the first human case in the state the person became ill after having contact with dairy cows presumed to be infected. The patients main symptom was pink eye.
However, transmissionfrom birds tohumansis rare, and human-to-human transmissionis even more unlikely.
As far as milk goes, the FDA says its conducting further tests and promises to release the results in the coming days or weeks.
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With the public release of239 recent H5N1 avian flu genetic sequences from US dairy cows and other animals, researchers have already roughly visualized the virus, but they still lack the collection dates and geographic information that would paint a clearer picture.
Meanwhile, the virus was confirmed in another dairy herd in Idaho, raising the number of H5N1 detections to 33, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) said in its update yesterday.
Michael Worobey, DPhil, head of the ecology and evolutionary biology department at the University of Arizona at Tucson,on Twitter (X) today detailed the work of an international group of virus evolution and genomic experts who quickly combed through the sequences to identify the DNA, RNA, and protein arrangements of the virus and how the different sequences might be related to each other.
Analysis of the hemagglutinin, neuraminidase, and internal genes hints that the virus hasn't changed much from its introduction into cattle in late 2023 or 2024, he said. The virus could have jumped to cattle once, but the information from the sequences can't rule out multiple introductions, Worobey added.
This reveals massive gaps in our pathogen and surveillance system.
Having collection dates and geographic data with each sequence is crucial for pinpointing when the virus began circulating in dairy cows, along with how and where it is spreading, he said.
There's a strong possibility that the virus has been circulating undetected for months, even before a mysterious illness began affecting dairy cows in February, Worobey said. "This reveals massive gaps in our pathogen and surveillance system."
Commenting on the group's work, Sam Scarpino, PhD, director of artificial intelligence and life sciences at Northeastern University,on X said the genome data strengthen the evidence for cow-to-cow transmission. "This means we need much wider testing of dairy and beef cattle (including testing of asymptomatic cows) to determine how widespread the infections are."
Scarpino said so far, the early analysis shows no obvious changes that would increase the human-to-human transmission risk, but he added that it will take time to fully analyze all the genomes. And though the USDA was slow to post the data, he praised the international science community's speed in mobilizing to analyze what the department shared.
The bird flu outbreak in American dairy cattle may have begun in January, or even as early as December, a new analysis of genetic data suggests.
The Department of Agriculture announced in late March that dairy cattle in Texas and Kansas had tested positive for the virus, called H5N1. It has since reported cases in dozens of herds in eight states.
On Tuesday, federal health officials said they had discovered fragments of H5N1 in milk samples obtained at various sites across the nation. The fragments pose no threat to consumers, the officials said.
It is unclear exactly how the cows became infected, but the most likely source is feces or other secretions from a wild bird infected with the virus.
Scientists in the United States and elsewhere have criticized federal agencies for withholding key information about the outbreaks, including genetic sequences of the virus from infected cows, The New York Times reported on Friday. The data may hold valuable clues to the evolution of the virus and the extent of the outbreak.
On Sunday, the department published 239 genetic sequences, but it omitted some details regarding the locations from which they were obtained and the dates.
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According to the FDA, remnants of the bird flu virus have been detected in pasteurized milk, but it wont infect whoever drinks it.
Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, also known as bird flu, is a highly contagious virus that affects poultry and cattle. A new strain of the virus, H5N1, is widespread worldwide, its been detected in 33 herds of cattle across eight states in the U.S.
The Food and Drug Administration recently announced that they found evidence of bird flu in milk that was being sold in stores. Recent internet search trends show people are searching for any milk recalls as a result of the findings.
Is there a milk recall related to the bird flu outbreak?
No, there is not a milk recall related to the bird flu outbreak.
There is not a milk recall related to the bird flu outbreak. Both the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) say store-bought, pasteurized milk is still safe to drink.
Based on the information and research available to us at this time, a milk recall is not necessary, the USDA says.
Store-bought milk is considered safe due to the pasteurization process, which is required for any milk sold commercially.
There's little risk of transmission in eggs and milk because you need to have direct contact with the infected animal itself. But more than that, the pasteurization process would kill any viable virus in there, Scott Roberts, M.D., says in a Yale New Haven Health article.
To be pasteurized, raw milk is heated up to a temperature that causes any bacteria to be killed.
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 FDA says. This means that remnants of the bird flu virus can still be detected in pasteurized milk, but it wont infect whoever drinks it.
Matt Herrick, a spokesperson for the International Dairy Foods Association told the Associated Press that time and temperature regulations for pasteurization ensure the safety of the milk supply. Remains of the virus have zero impact on human health, Herrick told the Associated Press.
The FDA detected bird flu in pasteurized milk using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) testing. The administration explains that more testing must be done to fully understand the initial findings.
Currently, the FDA is conducting additional egg inoculation tests, a gold-standard for determining viable virus, but say they have not seen anything to change their assessment that the commercial milk supply is safe.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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After identifying remnants of bird flu virus in grocery store milk, federal officials announced Wednesday that they believe the nations milk supply is safe and that the virus is inactivated by pasteurization.
Heating milk to a specific temperature for a set period of time through pasteurization is done to limit the activity of pathogens to a level that does not pose a risk to consumer health, said Don Prater, acting director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administrations Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.
However, Prater acknowledged that no studies on the effects of pasteurization on HPAI (high pathogenic avian influenza) viruses and bovine milk have previously been completed.
Wednesdays assurance of safety follows a series of bird flu outbreaks in dairy farms in eight states. FDA scientists said they have identified genetic material from the current bird flu strain in samples of pasteurized milk from grocery shelves. The DNA testing done so far was unable to determine conclusively whether the viral particles were active or inactive.
Prater described the situation as novel and evolving but asserted that pasteurization and sterilization have served public health well for over 100 years.
Studies done on similar virus types indicate that while pasteurization may not eliminate the virus, it will inactivate it, said Suresh Kuchipudi, professor and chair of the department of infectious disease and microbiology at the University of Pittsburghs School of Public Health.
Dawn OConnell, Health and Human Services assistant secretary for preparedness and response, stressed that the risk to human health is low but that the federal government remains watchful and ever ready ... to keep the American people safe.
Californias State Veterinarian, Annette Jones, said there have been no detections of the virus in California cattle, and that a network of state and private veterinarians have been in close communication with the dairy industry and individual farmers.
Despite such assurances, however, some experts have questioned the timeliness of the governments response to the outbreak.
Eric Topol, a professor of Molecular Medicine at Scripps Research, said that while he was happy the government was finally coming together in a united front to present information Wednesday, it sure took a while.
He said the government has likely been aware for weeks if not a couple of months of the positive samples. He noted the release on Sunday night of 239 DNA sequences that revealed the presence of virus in commercial milk samples.
They didnt just get those sequences overnight, Topol said. Theyve had them.
The analysis of those sequences suggests a single origin of the virus in dairy cattle during some point in late 2023 or early 2024 most likely from an infected bird, but possibly from infected food.
I dont know that were out of the woods by any means, because now theres so much spread among the cattle in the country that all we need is one bad recombination event, said Topol, referring to the possibility of the genes in a human flu virus mixing with those in the cattle virus to create a new, or altered version that could be more problematic to people.
It feels like Covid all over again, Topol said, recalling the response of officials in the weeks and months after the pandemic began to spread in early 2020.
At Wednesdays news conference, officials said that researchers were actively testing viral particles found in milk samples in the laboratory to see whether they could be grown in either cell cultures or embryonated chicken eggs. These tests, said Jeanne Marrazzo, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, will indicate whether the virus is active, or not.
Government officials and researchers said they were expanding their surveillance and monitoring and suggested that more information will be released in the days to come.
They also issued a federal order requiring that laboratories report any dairy cattle testing positive for avian flu or any type of influenza A, as well as the testing of all lactating dairy cattle moving between states. In addition, any farm where bird flu positive cows have been discovered will be required to undergo epidemiological investigation and movement tracing, said Mike Watson, administrator for the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
Details on the number of milk samples tested, as well as where, how and why they were obtained were not shared with reporters
At least one outside expert said they doubted that government researchers would find an active virus in milk samples
I would bet five mortgage payments that that they wont find live or active virus in the samples, said Michael Payne, a researcher and outreach coordinator at the Western Institute for Food Safety and Security at UC Davis.
As an Eagle Scout (North East Georgia Council, 1976) I say this to you with completely honesty and transparency: I would not hesitate to drink, nor would I hesitate to serve to my family, pasteurized milk from any dairy herd in the United States, he said.
During the news onference, officials said they were also keeping a close eye on cases of human infection.
Nirav Shah, principal deputy director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the agency has tested 23 people for the virus and is actively monitoring 44 people who are considered exposed and at risk for infection.
So far, only one human case has been identified in the current outbreak, and that person was reported to have exhibited only mild symptoms.
In other places where humans have been infected however, the virus has made people sicker and has even been lethal. According to the World Health Organization, which has been tracking the virus, between January 2003 and February 2024, there were 887 confirmed cases of human infection across 23 countries. Of those, 462 were fatal.
While the current virus has not developed the ability to become more transmissible to humans, researchers have noted some worrisome mutations.
These include the observations of the virus spreading between cows within the same herd, from cows to poultry, and the movement of the virus between dairies associated with cattle movements. Its also been detected in cows that didnt have clinical signs of the disease suggesting it is moving unnoticed.
In addition, on April 16, a USDA microbiologist identified a shift in one sample from McAllen, Kan., that appeared to show a mutation that would make it more transmissible between mammals, said Watson, the USDA official. He said further analyses by the CDC showed low risk overall.
What happened
Dairy cows moved across state lines must now be tested for bird flu to help quash an outbreak that has spread to at least 33 herds in eight states, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Wednesday. One Texas dairy worker contracted a mild case and the Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday it found inactive H1N1 viral fragments in pasteurized grocery store milk, though the risk to humans appears low.
Dairy producers have been a "little bit" hesitant to "allow us to gather information from their farms," said the USDA's Dr. Michael Watson. This federal order will "really help us address any gaps that might exist."
We may "get lucky with H1N1 and it will never manage to spread among humans," but "there is only a small window of time" to stop "dangerous novel pathogens" before they "spiral out of control," said Zeynep Tufekci at The New York Times. So far, we don't "seem up to the task."
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FDA tests to confirm there's no live virus in pasteurized milk will be "available in the next few days to weeks," said food safety director Don Prater.
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HARLINGEN, Texas (ValleyCentral) The Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday that viral fragments of the H5N1 bird flu have been detected in 1 in 5 pasteurized milk samples.
Positive results from the FDAs commercial milk sampling study show the viral fragments come from milk in areas with infected herds.
Since March, bird flu detections have spread to dairy cows and herds in Texas, Kansas, Idaho, Michigan, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio and South Dakota.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a federal order earlier this week stating any dairy cows transported from one farm to another across state lines should be tested for bird flu to minimize the viral spread.
FDA officials state that the positive bird flu detection in milk does not pose a threat and is safe to consume.
Pasteurization has continually proven to inactivate bacteria and viruses, like influenza, in milk, the FDA said. Even if virus is detected in raw milk, pasteurization is generally expected to eliminate pathogens to a level that does not pose a risk to consumer health.
The FDA says to date retail milk studies have shown the commercial milk supply is safe.
By SEAN MURPHY Associated Press
A poultry facility in Michigan and egg producer in Texas both reported outbreaks of avian flu this week. The latest developments on the virus also include infected dairy cows and the first known instance of a human catching bird flu from a mammal.
Although health officials say the risk to the public remains low, there is rising concern, emerging in part from news that the largest producer of fresh eggs in the U.S. reported an outbreak.
MORE NEWS ON BIRD FLU IN MICHIGAN: Why 6.5 million chickens were killed in Michigan this month
Here are some key things to know about the disease.
WHAT ARE EXPERTS SAYING?
Dr. Mandy Cohen, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the agency is taking bird flu seriously, but stressed that the virus has already been well studied.
The fact that it is in cattle now definitely raises our concern level, Cohen said, noting that it means farmworkers who work with cattle and not just those working with birds may need to take precautions.
The good news is that its not a new strain of the virus, Cohen added. This is known to us and weve been studying it, and frankly, weve been preparing for avian flu for 20 years.
WHAT IS BIRD FLU?
Some flu viruses mainly affect people, but others chiefly occur in animals. Avian viruses spread naturally in wild aquatic birds like ducks and geese, and then to chickens and other domesticated poultry.
The bird flu virus drawing attention today Type A H5N1 was first identified in 1959. Like other viruses, it has evolved over time, spawning newer versions of itself.
Since 2020, the virus has been spreading among more animal species including dogs, cats, skunks, bears and even seals and porpoises in scores of countries.
In the U.S., this version of the bird flu has been detected in wild birds in every state, as well as commercial poultry operations and backyard flocks. Nationwide, tens of millions of chickens have died from the virus or been killed to stop outbreaks from spreading.
Last week, U.S. officials said it had been found in livestock. As of Tuesday, it had been discovered in dairy herds in five states Idaho, Kansas, Michigan, New Mexico and Texas according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
HOW OFTEN DO PEOPLE GET BIRD FLU?
This bird flu was first identified as a threat to people during a 1997 outbreak in Hong Kong. In the past two decades, nearly 900 people have been diagnosed globally with bird flu and more than 460 people have died, according to the World Health Organization.
There have been only two cases in the U.S., and neither were fatal.
In 2022, a prison inmate in a work program caught it while killing infected birds at a poultry farm in Montrose County, Colorado. His only symptom was fatigue, and he recovered.
This week, Texas health officials announced that a person who had been in contact with cows had been diagnosed with bird flu. Their only reported symptom was eye redness.
WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS OF BIRD FLU?
Symptoms are similar to that of other flus, including cough, body aches and fever. Some people dont have noticeable symptoms, but others develop severe, life-threatening pneumonia.
CAN IT SPREAD BETWEEN PEOPLE?
The vast majority of infected people have gotten it directly from birds, but scientists are on guard for any sign of spread among people.
There have been a few instances when that apparently happened most recently in 2007 in Asia. In each cluster, it spread within families from a sick person in the home.
U.S. health officials have stressed that the current public health risk is low and that there is no sign that bird flu is spreading person to person.
WHAT IS THE ECONOMIC IMPACT?
While its too early to quantify the potential economic impact of a bird flu outbreak, many of these latest developments are concerning, particularly the transmission of the virus from one species to another, said Darin Detwiler, a food safety and policy expert at Northeastern University.
We dont have a magic forcefield, an invisible shield that protects land and water runoff from impacting other species, Detwiler said. There is a concern in terms of how this might impact other markets, the egg market, the beef market.
If the outbreak is not quickly contained, consumers could ultimately see higher prices, and if it continues to spread, some industries could experience reputational strain, possibly affecting the export industry, Detwiler added.
The egg industry already is experiencing some tightening of supply following detections of bird flu late in 2023 and in early January, coupled with the busy Easter season, where Americans typically consume an average of 3 billion eggs, said Marc Dresner, a spokesperson for the American Egg Board.
Still, even with the outbreak in Texas and the nearly 2 million birds that were killed there, Dresner said there are an estimated 310 million egg laying hens in the U.S. and wholesale egg prices are down about 25% from a February peak.
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Associated Press reporters Jonathan Poet in Philadelphia and Mike Stobbe and videojournalist Sharon Johnson in Atlanta contributed to this report.
