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12 Dec 2024
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Get ready for highly pathogenic avian influenza milk testing..
Exclusive-US to begin bulk milk testing for bird flu after push from industry
FILE PHOTO: A cow is shown by an exhibitor at the state fair in West Allis, Wisconsin, U.S., August 9, 2024. Dairy farmers are taking precautions with testing for avian flu while exhibiting cattle during the fair. REUTERS/Jim Vondruska/File Photo © Thomson Reuters

Get ready for highly pathogenic avian influenza milk testing.

USDA will test milk starting in states where dairy cattle tested positive last spring for the H5N1 bird flu virus. Bird flu is an increasing concern for USDA, amid H5N1 infections in not just poultry, but dairy cattle and, most recently for the first time, in a pig at a private farm in Oregon.

Secretary Tom Vilsack says USDA will start testing milk in affected areas in an effort to isolate outbreaks…

“We will first test silos. We will go to processors who have accumulated significant amounts of milk product. We’ll test that milk. So, testing will give us an opportunity to get maybe, ahead, if you will.”

Bird flu has infected dairy cattle in several states, including Texas, Kansas, North Carolina, Michigan, Idaho and California. Vilsack says those will be the focus of initial testing…

“Get a clear idea of where in the states that currently have the virus, whether it’s expanded or whether there are areas of the state that we need to address, in terms of biosecurity.”

And if the virus shows up in new testing…

“If it turns out that there’s virus, we’ll then begin the process of going to more specific testing, bulk tank testing on farms, so that we can identify exactly where the virus might be.”

The latest bird flu virus find in a pig in Oregon has raised even more concern, with pigs one of the few animals in which a bird virus can replicate to become more like a human virus.

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Donald Trump won Fresno County for the first time ever in the November election, and in fact the Republican president-elect made it a clean sweep of all the counties of the San Joaquin Valley.

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