3 weeks ago
Dairy cows to beryllium tested for vertebrate flu intimately
Preliminary results of tests tally by nan Food and Drug Administration show that pasteurization is moving to termination disconnected vertebrate flu successful milk, nan agency said Friday.
"This further testing did not observe immoderate live, infectious virus. These results reaffirm our appraisal that nan commercialized beverage proviso is safe," nan FDA said successful a statement.
The FDA's findings travel aft nan agency disclosed that astir 1 successful 5 samples of unit beverage it had surveyed from astir nan state had tested affirmative for highly pathogenic avian influenza, aliases HPAI H5N1. The U.S. Department of Agriculture this week besides ordered testing requirements connected cows successful consequence to nan outbreak, which has affected increasing numbers of poultry and dairy cows.
Positive alleged PCR tests successful beverage tin hap arsenic nan consequence of harmless fragments of nan microorganism near complete aft pasteurization, officials and experts person said, prompting nan further experiments to verify whether aliases not nan microorganism recovered successful nan beverage was infectious. Those tests recovered it was not.
"The FDA is further assessing unit samples from its study of 297 samples of unit dairy products from 38 states. All samples pinch a PCR affirmative consequence are going done ovum inoculation tests, a gold-standard for determining if infectious microorganism is present," nan agency said.
While wellness authorities person said that beverage from visibly sick cows is being discarded earlier entering nan proviso chain, officials person acknowledged nan anticipation that cows could beryllium spreading nan microorganism successful their earthy beverage without symptoms aliases aft they person different appeared to recover.
The FDA said it had besides tested respective samples of unit powdered babe look and toddler formula, which nan agency said were each antagonistic for nan virus.
It is unclear what different foods nan FDA has tested. An agency spokesperson did not reply questions astir whether dairy products for illustration cream, which tin beryllium pasteurized differently, person besides been surveyed.
No beef cattle person been detected pinch nan virus, nan USDA has said, though it remains unclear whether nan section has surveyed unit beef products for nan virus.
So far, only 1 quality infection has been reported this year, successful a personification who had interaction pinch dairy cattle successful Texas.
Though increasing grounds is now confirming nan information of pasteurized milk, an further situation besides remains for wellness authorities arsenic they grapple pinch nan anticipation that dairy manufacture workers could beryllium unknowingly exposed to nan virus.
Unlike poultry, which quickly dice disconnected aliases are culled aft H5N1 infections, cows mostly spell connected to retrieve aft a period aliases two.
Other animals person besides not fared arsenic good during nan outbreak: nan USDA said Friday that deaths and neurological illness had been "widely reported" successful cats astir dairy farms. Officials person said they fishy cats had been drinking leftover earthy beverage from infected cows.
"We cognize that nan unwellness successful cattle tin spell connected for respective weeks. So that puts workers astatine an ongoing risk. And thus, nan play for monitoring will beryllium longer," nan Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Sonja Olsen told reporters this week.
- In:
- Bird Flu
- Food and Drug Administration
- Avian Influenza
Alexander Tin
Alexander Tin is simply a integer newsman for CBS News based successful nan Washington, D.C. bureau. He covers nan Biden administration's nationalist wellness agencies, including nan national consequence to infectious illness outbreaks for illustration COVID-19.
