The second federal order involving milk testing for the H5N1 virus in dairy cattle is now one month old. Rusty Halvorson has an update.
The second federal order involving milk testing for the H5N1 virus in dairy cattle is now one month old.
Dr. Alex Turner of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service says 28 states have enrolled since early January – consisting of nearly 65 percent of the nation’s milk production.
“States that are working through different ways to utilize the testing infrastructure that exists, as well as build some of the testing infrastructure i f that doesn’t exist within their state and kind of do the surveillance testing to give us a national idea of where this virus is, where it isn’t and kind of where we’re at.”
Turner says officials are rolling out a nationwide testing strategy – in part – by building on existing testing procedures.
“Normally, milk is tested at processors for other residues, like antibiotics, other antimicrobials, other bacteria. So taking advantage of those normal milk sample testing in Grade A dairies, we thought it would be a good idea that if we could take advantage of that existing infrastructure, that might be the most efficient way for some states. Other states have come to us and said, ‘Hey, we would like to do a more detailed and a more accurate testing at the dairy farm level and actually test each of the dairies in our state because we believe that’s a better way to get an idea of where this virus is or where this virus isn’t within the states.’”
Since the outbreak began in March 2024, USDA labs, including the National Veterinary Services Laboratory (NVSL) and the National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN), have processed over 110,000 samples across livestock populations.