Health authorities have called for mandatory testing of the nation’s raw milk supply amid bird flu fears.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced Friday that companies handling raw milk, which has not gone through bacteria-killing measures called pasteurization, must collect and share samples of the products upon request.
The measure, dubbed the National Milk Testing Strategy, is meant to identify which dairy herds are infected by H5N1 (bird flu), which has caused an outbreak among over 700 herds in 15 states.
The illness has also sickened 58 Americans, according to the CDC, namely those who have worked on dairy farms and been exposed to infected animals.
Arizona reported the two most recent infections in poultry workers Friday.
Dairy herd owners with cattle that test positive for bird flu will also be required to provide information to help authorities with surveillance.
Testing is set to begin December 16, and the initial rollout will include six states: California, Colorado, Michigan, Mississippi, Oregon and Pennsylvania.
The announcement comes after the bird flu virus was detected in unpasteurized milk in California last month, prompting food safety experts to issue an urgent ‘do-not-drink warning.’
The USDA will require companies handling raw milk to submit product samples upon request to identify dairy herds spreading bird flu
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a press release: ‘Among many outcomes, this will give farmers and farmworkers better confidence in the safety of their animals and ability to protect themselves, and it will put us on a path to quickly controlling and stopping the virus’ spread nationwide.’
Raw dairy products have not been pasteurized, a process that removes disease-causing germs by heating milk to a high enough temperature.
While sales have been banned or restricted for decades on health grounds, in recent years they have benefited from a booming demand for organic produce, with at least 4.4 percent of Americans (nearly 11 million people) trying raw milk each year.
Raw milk carries an inherently elevated risk of foodborne illness that the high-temperature pasteurization process helps eliminate.
The FDA’s longstanding recommendation regarding the consumption of raw milk is that it is considered a ‘high-risk food’ because of these factors.
However, the government agency notes that ‘based on the limited research and information available, we do not know at this time if [bird flu] can be transmitted to humans through consumption of raw milk and products made from raw milk from infected cows.’
Similarly, the CDC warns that ‘unpasteurized (raw) milk and products made from raw milk, including soft cheese, ice cream, and yogurt, can be contaminated with germs that can cause serious illness, hospitalization, or death.’
Last month, health officials in California detected bird flu in multiple batches of raw milk from a local dairy farm.
Earlier this week, the California Department of Public Health announced a recall of the farm’s raw milk and cream on store shelves. No human bird flu cases have been linked to the products.
Symptoms in humans have so far been mild, most often including pinkeye, coughing, and sneezing.