US FDA: Traces of bird flu found in one-fifth of milk samples

[New Sancai Compilation First] The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on April 25 that one in five commercial milk samples detected in a nationwide survey contained H5N1 virus particles, indicating that the bird flu outbreak is more severe than before. Think more broadly.

The agency said there is no reason to believe the virus found in milk poses a risk to human health.

Dr. Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota, said: "This shows that this virus has infected basically all dairy cows nationwide." Many infectious disease experts and government officials have said they believe Pasteur disinfection The process inactivates the virus (also known as bird flu). However, the agency said additional testing is needed to confirm the absence of infectious viruses in the milk.

"To date, retail milk studies have not shown any results that would change our assessment of the safety of the commercial milk supply," the FDA said in its latest update.

"I'm not worried about the milk itself," said Samuel Alcain, associate professor of food science at Cornell University. "This does suggest that the virus is more widespread in dairy than we previously thought."

"It has been reported that we have over 30 herds or farms that are positive for avian influenza. We have close to 30,000 farms in the United States. Over 30 farms is really a small number."

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 33 cases of avian influenza have been confirmed in dairy herds in eight states. In the current outbreak, only one person - a farmworker in Texas - has been confirmed to be infected with bird flu. The patient suffered from conjunctivitis, an eye irritation that causes redness and discomfort in the eyes.

Beyond the first confirmed case, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not yet documented additional human cases, the FDA said.

The FDA is further evaluating any positive results through the egg inoculation test, which it describes as the gold standard for identifying live virus.

(Compiled by: Wang Jimin)

(Editor: Jiang Qiming)

(Source of the article: Compiled and published by New Sancai)