Pasteurization working to kill bird flu in milk, early FDA results find

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Edited By Paula Cohen April 26, 2024 / 6:52 PM EDT / CBS News Dairy cows to be tested for bird flu closely More dairy cows to be tested for bird flu after findings in grocery store milk 02:45 Preliminary results of tests run by the Food and Drug Administration show that pasteurization is working to kill off bird flu in milk, the agency said Friday.
The FDA's findings come after the agency disclosed that around 1 in 5 samples of retail milk it had surveyed from around the country had tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza, or HPAI H5N1.
Positive so-called PCR tests in milk can happen as the result of harmless fragments of the virus left over after pasteurization, officials and experts have said, prompting the additional experiments to verify whether or not the virus found in the milk was infectious.
While health authorities have said that milk from visibly sick cows is being discarded before entering the supply chain, officials have acknowledged the possibility that cows could be spreading the virus in their raw milk without symptoms or after they have otherwise appeared to recover.