USDA is planning to test raw bulk milk nationally for the H5N1 bird flu virus because of the growing number of cases during the past month in California dairy herds. Rust Halvorson has more details.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack spoke to reporters last week about USDA’s plans to expand the testing of milk across the country.
USDA will begin broader bulk testing of vats or silos at milk processors in November for states such as California that now have the virus.
“We’ve recently seen the introduction of H5N1 in California, and for a period of time, we thought it was relatively contained in that state, but we’ve obviously seen recently a significant number of increases and number of herds have been impacted and affected, despite efforts on the part of California. We also at the same time, we saw the state of Colorado institute a fairly aggressive testing regime, and the result of that testing regime allowed them to identify precisely where the virus was to utilize a number of tools, including advanced biosecurity and as a result, they are now virus free.”
Beyond California, Vilsack said USDA would start with more bulk-milk testing in all 14 states where farms have tested positive for the virus. USDA would then look at expanding that testing “strategically in a tiered state way” to ultimately get to all 50 states, Vilsack said.
“If it turns out that there’s virus, we’ll then begin the process of going to more specific testing, bulk tank testing on-farm, so that we can identify exactly where the virus might be.”
USDA will pay for the cost of sampling, shipping and testing, he said. USDA is still putting together formal guidance on how the testing will work.
Ideally, Vilsack said, if all 50 states are testing, “we can certify to the rest of the world that we’re virus-free.”