U.S. orders cow testing for bird flu after grocery milk tests positive

Key Facts

USDA's move to ramp up testing requirements for HPAI H5N1 comes after the Food and Drug Administration disclosed Tuesday that samples of pasteurized milk that had been sold on grocery store shelves had tested positive for the virus, prompting further research to verify if the positive test was caused by lingering dead "virus particles" or live infectious virus.
Officials previously said that the unprecedented spread of the virus among dairy cattle likely traces to a single spillover event from wild birds, based on an analysis of genetic sequences collected from sick cattle.
However, Watson said that at least one cow headed to slaughter has now been found with signs of the virus in its lung tissue.
H5N1 HPAI VIRUS FOUND IN PASTEURIZED MILK While health authorities say they think previous work pasteurizing eggs for HPAI H5N1 and milk for other germs suggests the process will be enough to eradicate the danger from any lingering traces of the virus found in milk, they say studies are also ongoing now to verify that pasteurized milk remains safe.