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

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Edited By Paula Cohen Updated on: May 1, 2024 / 2:38 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 Results of tests run by the Food and Drug Administration show that pasteurization is working to kill off bird flu in milk and other dairy products, the agency says.
"In addition to preliminary results released late last week on an initial set of 96 retail milk samples, these results reaffirm our assessment that the commercial milk supply is safe," the FDA said in a statement Tuesday.
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.
"We are aware, because there are so many different dairy products, there are probably a few more products that we would look at just so that we make sure that we've got a good national sample," Don Prater, acting director of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, told reporters 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.