USDA will test the milk supply beginning with states where dairy cattle tested positive in the spring for the H5N1 bird flu virus. Bird flu is an increasing concern for USDA, amid H5N1 infections in not just poultry, but also dairy cattle. Most recently the virus was detected in a pig at a private farm in Oregon. It was the first time a hog had been identified with the disease.
Secretary Tom Vilsack says USDA will start testing milk in affected areas to isolate outbreaks.
Bird flu has infected dairy cattle in several states, including Texas, Kansas, North Carolina, Michigan, Idaho and California. Vilsack says those states will be the focus of initial testing.
He says extended testing will occur if the virus shows up in new testing.
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. Livestock and poultry on that now-quarantined backyard farm shared water sources, housing and equipment, which USDA says could enable virus spread between species into other states.
