The USDA will begin bulk testing milk supplies in states where dairy cattle tested positive for H5N1 bird flu. Indiana is not one of them.
The disease was found in dairy cattle in Michigan as well as 14 other states earlier this year.
Denise Derrer-Spears, the communications director for the State Board of Animal Health, said that a new rule requiring all interstate cattle transported in or out of state lines be tested for bird flu shows Indiana is still clean. This puts Indiana lower on the USDA’s priority list for bulk testing.
“There's been over 2,700 tests that have been run since April on dairy cows, and they've all come back negative,” she said. “So at this point, we're feeling pretty good about that. We have not had any reported cases here.”
Derrer-Spears said that while the USDA has been in contact regarding the new testing, the plans are still ”in draft mode.”
She also said many cases of infection come from ”spillover events,” or in other words, the disease getting on farm equipment or workers before getting to livestock.
The board of animal health recommends deep cleaning shared equipment between uses.
“Thirty-eight percent of the farms that have had this disease on it have moved cattle and they've used trucks or trailers that they share with other farms, and they weren't necessarily clean and disinfected in between,” she said.
Regardless, Derrer-Spears said the pasteurization process eliminates the disease entirely, so all dairy products on the shelf are safe to consume.
This latest round of bird flu has raised concerns with interspecies transmission. In Oregon, a now-quarantined backyard farm transmitted the disease to pigs for the first time, with pigs being one of the few animals in which bird flu can become more like a human virus.
Previous coverage:
- State fairs in the time of bird flu: Here’s why health experts advise caution
- Bird flu could survive pasteurization, study finds: The Checkup
- As bird flu continues to spread, Indiana holds off on mandatory dairy cattle testing
- With bird flu found in dairy cows, experts warn raw milk poses danger to pets
- The Checkup: What you need to know about bird flu, your food and risk to humans
