During my trip to Washington this week, it was driven home that the bird flu is no longer the bird flu. It isn’t even Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, or HPAI, anymore. The Federal government and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) are now calling it H5N1 because it is no longer just a bird issue.
During the National Association of Farm Broadcasting’s (NAFB) Washington Watch event, our travels took us to the USDA headquarters and a visit with Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack. One of the challenges that the USDA faces with H5N1 is quelling the fear in the consuming public. Fears have abounded since a Yahoo! News article talked about remnants of the dead virus being found in milk and calling into question the process of pasteurization and its effectiveness. Beef has also suffered because of worries that the virus could eventually cross into the beef cattle breeds and taint the meat.
Vilsack says that tests are being done, but our food supply is still safe. USDA will continue to monitor the situation with sound science and due diligence. He first stated that the food supply is safe and that humans aren’t faced with a very high risk of infection.
Vilsack ran down a list of everything the USDA is currently doing to monitor the situation and share that information as quickly as possible. This is all to keep ahead of the situation, keep the virus from spreading, and keep our food supply safe.
We will have more on the efforts at USDA APHIS coming next week.
