Bird Flu Update As FDA Begins Cheese Screening

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has begun collecting and testing aged cheese made from raw cow's milk over concerns it might be contaminated with bird flu, it announced on Monday. The testing began last week, on December 23, as part of an ongoing investigation into an outbreak of avian influenza A (H5N1)—more commonly known as bird flu—with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and state authorities. "The responsibility of the FDA is to protect the public health by ensuring the safety of the milk, dairy products, and the animal feed supply," the FDA said in a statement. The current outbreak of bird flu has affected at least 66 people—perhaps as many as 73, including cases classed by the CDC as "probable" but unconfirmed—as well as poultry in all 50 states and dairy cows in 16 states.

Earlier this month, the USDA ordered the testing of the U.S.'s milk supply for bird flu, beginning in California, Colorado, Michigan, Mississippi, Oregon and Pennsylvania. "This will give farms 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," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in a statement at the time. Current official advice is to only consume pasteurized milk—which makes up 99 percent of commercial milk supply produced on dairy farms in the U.S.—rather than raw milk. The process of pasteurization heats milk to a specific temperature that kills dangerous viruses and bacteria, from bird flu to E. coli and salmonella, making it safe to consume. Now, the FDA is testing cheese that has been made with raw milk to see whether it might be contaminated with bird flu from infected cattle.

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Some raw milk products were previously recalled due to the presence of bird flu, including milk by Raw Farm LLC, which was being sold in retail stores in California. "Raw milk from cows does not contain active flu virus," Mark McAfee, CEO of Raw Farm, previously told Newsweek. "Testing reveals dead flu virus and tons of antibodies to virus... Virus is not a pathogen in raw milk." The CDC reported 202 outbreaks of illnesses linked to drinking raw milk between 1998 and 2018, causing 2,645 people to get sick and 228 of them to be hospitalized. California remains at the center of the bird flu outbreak, with 37 confirmed human cases and one extra probable illness, as well as widespread bird flu among its dairy cows. On December 18, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced a state of emergency over the virus. So far, the vast majority of human cases of bird flu in the current outbreak have been mild, but on December 13 the CDC confirmed the U.S.'s first severe case of the virus in Louisiana. The CDC maintains that general risk to the public is low and that there has been no evidence of the virus being passed between humans—but there is evidence that the virus has recently mutated. However, scientists have warned that the more that people are infected by "spillover" infections due to contact with other species, the higher the likelihood that the virus could mutate to be contagious among people, which could lead to a bird flu pandemic. Do you have a tip on a food story that Newsweek should be covering? Is there a nutrition concern that's worrying you? Let us know via science@newsweek.com. We can ask experts for advice, and your story could be featured in Newsweek.