Milk in circulation in the United States may contain avian influenza, or bird flu, according to some experts.
The highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A, or H5N1, recently started sickening cows, and one person, in multiple states.
Samples of unpasteurized milk from sick cattle tested positive for the virus, according to federal authorities. However, they have repeatedly said that no contaminated milk has or will enter the market.
Some other officials have acknowledged that milk from sick cows could enter the food chain but also said that milk would be safe due to pasteurization.
Ms. Hansen, a doctor of veterinary medicine, and Andrew deCoriolis, executive director of the group Farm Forward, said that the statements on pasteurization are unsupported, noting that dairy farmers pasteurize in some cases for as short as 15 seconds.
While the USDA also said farms are required to divert or destroy milk from sick cows, “it appears that the USDA is expecting farms to comply with this voluntarily, with no additional inspections or oversight,” Ms. Hansen and Mr. deCoriolis added. “Dairy farmers have every economic incentive to ignore this advice as long as the milk appears normal. According to reports, farmers only tested milk for [the] virus because they noticed the milk looked ’thick and syrupy.' The USDA makes no mention of any plan to screen milk from infected herds to see if milk that looks normal may also carry the virus. There is no mention of USDA requiring infected herds to quarantine.”
The USDA referred a request for comment to the FDA.
An FDA spokesperson told The Epoch Times that “based on the information we currently have, our commercial milk supply is safe because of both the pasteurization process and that milk from sick cows is being diverted or destroyed.”
“The FDA is continuing to work with federal partners to further assess and study the current strain of HPAI virus that has been detected among dairy cows in a limited number of states and will provide updates as more information becomes available,” the spokesperson said.
The FDA declined to say whether it has done any testing on milk since cows started becoming sick.
Rick Bright, PhD., who directed the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority for several years and advised President Joe Biden on COVID-19, said that authorities should make public the results of such testing.
“Should be simple enough to prove and share data,” Mr. Bright wrote on social media after a user noted federal officials have not provided evidence backing their statements on pasteurization and HPAI.
“I can’t find prior data on influenza inactivation in milk (hasn’t been [an] issue until now),” Mr. Bright added. “This would be one of the high-priority experiments for @USDA to demonstrate, given outbreaks have spanned multiple weeks. Expecting data soon.”
Some experts have said pasteurization will kill HPAI.
But others have acknowledged there is a risk, even if it’s not high.
