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New test results released by the US Food and Drug Administration on Friday found that bird flu virus is making its way from dairy farms and into milk processing plants but also confirmed that the commonly used flash pasteurization method fully neutralizes the virus.
The FDA collected and tested 275 bulk samples of raw milk collected from farms in four states where herds had tested positive for H5N1, or bird flu. The samples were collected between April 18 and 27.
Half of those samples were positive for traces of influenza. A quarter of those positive samples also proved to be infectious, meaning the virus grew when it was inoculated into fertilized chicken eggs, the gold-standard test for determining whether a virus is viable and could make someone sick.
Dr. Don Prater, acting director of the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, noted that the milk the agency tested was bound for pasteurization and was not going directly to store shelves.