Minnesota will begin testing raw milk for bird flu starting next week.
Testing raw milk for H5N1 bird flu comes as health officials work to identify where the virus is present, monitor trends, and prevent its spread to unaffected dairy herds and poultry flocks around the state.
Dr. Nicole Neeser is the director of the Minnesota Department of Ag's dairy and meat inspection division and says they need to understand where it comes from - and where it goes.
"So, we want to stop the spread from an infected farm to other farms, other cattle farms, as well as to poultry farms," says Neeser. "So we really want to take care to try to prevent the spread, and especially into the poultry farms where the virus really is more, outcomes are really more dire."
Unpasteurized or raw dairy products may contain a number of harmful bacteria, parasites, or viruses, including H5N1 which can cause illness among humans.
There are no safety concerns for the public milk supply as all milk sold in stores is pasteurized to kill bacteria and viruses, such as H5N1.
"In cattle, in particular, the virus is found in high amounts in milk," says Neeser. "And so, the best thing to test when we're talking about cattle and influenza, in this case, the H5N1 virus is milk from those cattle."
Any farm where H5N1 is confirmed will be quarantined for a minimum of 30 days, during which no livestock, poultry, cats, manure, waste milk, or carcasses can leave the farm without a movement permit from the Minnesota Board of Animal Health.
"Farmers don't have to do anything," says Neeser. "We already collect samples from farms on a daily basis. Every time milk is picked up on a farm, we collect a regulatory sample that is used for certain kinds of testing. And so farmers actually don't have to do anything. All the work is kind of being done behind the scenes."
“H5N1 is an emerging disease in dairy cattle, and conducting disease surveillance supports the state’s ability to effectively respond to outbreaks and limit the potential impact on the livestock and poultry industries, as well as on public health,” said MDA Commissioner Thom Petersen.
Symptoms of H5N1 in people can include red, itchy, watery eyes and/or cough, sore throat, and a fever.
This testing plan is part of the National Milk Testing Strategy announced in December by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA-APHIS), which requires sampling and testing of all raw cow milk for H5N1.