The U.S. Department of Agriculture is set to mandate bulk milk tank testing nationwide to address bird flu outbreaks in dairy herds.
In an announcement Friday, USDA said it issued a new federal order that milk samples be collected and shared with the federal agency for testing. Officials said this will facilitate comprehensive surveillance for H5N1, which has been circulating in U.S. dairy cattle since it was first detected in March.
Over 700 dairy herds across the U.S. have tested positive for bird flu across 15 states, federal data shows. The majority, over 500 herds, have been in California, the nation's largest dairy producing state.
The first round of testing under the USDA order is set to begin Dec. 16.
“This new milk testing strategy will build on those steps to date and will provide a roadmap for states to protect the health of their dairy herds,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a Friday statement. “Among many outcomes, this will give farmers and farmworkers better confidence in the safety of their animals and ability to protect themselves, and it will put us on a path to quickly controlling and stopping the virus’ spread nationwide.”
In addition to protecting the food supply, testing allows officials to better track the path of the virus, Dr. K. Fred Gingrich II, executive director of the American Association of Bovine Practitioners, an organization representing veterinarians who treat cows, previously told USA TODAY.
In July, Colorado's veterinarians mandated bulk-milk testing to curb the spread of bird flu in the state's dairy herds. Only one Colorado herd is infected with the virus at the moment, state data shows.
National testing strategy
The announcement launches the National Milk Testing Strategy that places states in one of five stages based on virus prevalence. Officials will work with each state in the contiguous U.S. to enact the testing.
Stage one begins the nationwide testing of milk silos at dairy processing facilities to first identify where disease is present.
The system then moves to stage two to identify infected herds through bulk tank sampling, before stage three to rapidly respond to infected cattle using existing incentive programs, movement controls and contact tracing.
Once states can show their herds are no longer infected, federal officials will continue regular bulk tank samplings to make sure the disease doesn’t re-appear. Sampling will progressively decline as the state shows continued negativity. If bird flu does reappear, the state then has to return to stage three.
After all states move through stage four, USDA will begin periodic sampling. The goal is to show long-term absence. California, which has the most cases, along with Colorado, Michigan, Mississippi, Oregon and Pennsylvania will be included in the first round of testing under the new strategy.
(Source: USA TODAY)
(Source: OnSceneALERT)
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Incident Number
2-241203-3701
Alert Type
Critical Incident Notification
Incident Type
Biological Incident
Incident Occurred
December 6, 2024
Alert Posted
December 6, 2024
Location
Multiple States, United States
END OF ALERT
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