20% Of Retail Milk Samples affirmative For Bird Flu: FDA

Authorized by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

One in 5 samples of milk from grocery store shelves tested affirmative for the highly pathogenic Avian influenza, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced summertime April 25.

A Dairy cattle at a Dairy Farm in Ohio, on December 12, 2014. (Aaron Josefczuk/Reuters)

In a briefing 237-word update, the FDA said that first results from a national commercial milk example survey “show about 1 in 5 of the retail samples tested are quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR)-positive for HPAI viral fragments, with a large study of affirmative results coming from milk in areas with infected herds.”

The FDA has refuse to uncover how many samples it tested and from which stores the samples came, and a Freedom of Information Act request for the information has not yet been tested results.

Third-three cattle herds across 8 states—Idaho, Kansas, Michigan, fresh Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, South Dakota, and Texas—have tested affirmative for Avian influenza, common cognition as the bird flu, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Poultry in Minnesota and a individual in Texas have besides been infected with the same genotype of the H5N1 Avian influenza strain found in cattle.

Authorities have stressed that affirmative results from qPCR investigating do not mean the pasteurized milk contents intact virus, due to the fact that the investigating can return affirmative based on fragments of residual virus.

“Additional investigating is required to find who there is any hazard of illness associated with consummating the product,” the FDA said.

Testing includes involving eggs with samples that tested affirmative and seeing whother any active virus replicates.

In another circular of testing, conducted by a squad from Ohio State University, 58 of 150 milk samples gained from grocery stores across six states tested affirmative for bird flu.

“We’ve screened them for the presence of influenza genetic material, so the viral RNA. That has tested positive, we have been forwarded to St. Jude Children’s investigation Hospital, where they are conducting studies to see if there’s a visible virus in there. It dates, no of them have been able, but they absolutely give the indication that there is viral genetic material in the region,” Dr. Andrew Bowman, an associate prof. at Ohio State University, told the Bovine Veterinarian magazine.

“The fact that you can go into a supermarket and 30 percent to 40 percent of these samples test positive, that suggests there’s more of the virus around than is presently being recognized,” Richard Webby, a virologist at St. Jude’s, told STAT News.

The FDA has said it will release more details about the investigating in the future. natural milk from farms with affected cows has besides tested affirmative for bird flu.

Authorities initially said that pasteurized milk was definitely safe but have since acknowledged that they’re not certain who milk in grocery stores contain live bird flu virus. The FDA announced Tuesday that any samples tested affirmative for the influenza.

Officials say it’s inactive safe to drink milk but any outside experts, including erstwhile U.S. government authoritative Rick Bright, have said they’re going to hold off until more information is made public about the outbreak.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture only required investigating regular cows showing symptoms of the flu but, starting Monday will require lactating cows to test negative before being moved across state lines.

The flu originally in birds but has since moved to another animals, including cattle and goats.

The individual in Texas, and an individual in Colorado who became sick in 2022, are the only people with confirmed cases of the H5N1 version in the United States.

Monitoring of people who have come into contact with animals has only covered 44 people so far, Sonja Olsen, an epidemiologist with the U.S. Centers for illness Control and Prevention, told an Association of State and Territorial wellness Officials webinar this week. Twenty-three people who showed symptoms were tested. The individual in Texas, a farm worker, has been the only individual to test affirmative so far.