Fragments of the chook flu virus have been present in about one fifth of business milk samples examined in a U.S. nationally consultant examine, in accordance with the Meals and Drug Administration (FDA).
Whereas the presence of traces of the virus in milk doesn’t essentially point out a danger to shoppers, extra assessments are wanted to verify if intact pathogen is current and stays infectious, the FDA stated in a press release on its website. That may decide “whether or not there may be any danger of sickness related to consuming the product,” it added.
The preliminary examine outcomes provide a stark indication of how shortly a virus that has killed tens of millions of birds globally is spreading amongst U.S. dairy cows, elevating well being and meals safety woes whereas spooking markets.
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The FDA stated there’s a better proportion of constructive assessments coming from milk in areas with contaminated herds. The U.S. Division of Agriculture has confirmed 33 contaminated herds in eight states together with Texas, Kansas, Michigan, and Ohio. On Wednesday, the USDA applied obligatory testing of dairy cows transferring throughout state borders as a part of efforts to grasp the extent of the outbreak and include the virus.
Authorities have reaffirmed that the danger to people stay low. To this point this 12 months, the U.S. has solely recognized one person who has been infected—and there’s been no human-to-human transmission. The particular person, who had direct contact with contaminated cattle, skilled solely minor signs and was handled with Tamiflu.
“To this point, the retail milk research have proven no outcomes that might change our evaluation that the industrial milk provide is secure,” FDA stated.
