Should we worry about getting bird flu from milk?

Adam’s Journal

I recently heard reports that the bird flu virus has been detected in supplies of milk. Should we be worried about drinking milk? Is there a risk that consuming milk could lead to infection?

Dr. James Prescribes

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration initially tested a wide sampling of retail milk samples from across the country after an outbreak of avian flu (technically, H5N1) was found among dairy cows.

This testing used polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, which became well known to the public as a testing method during the COVID-19 pandemic. This method, which we employ often in the labs of the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation for a variety of purposes, is relatively speedy and quite accurate at picking up traces of a virus.

Those tests found that roughly 1 in 5 milk samples across the country contained fragments of H5N1. However, that testing could only determine whether genetic fragments of the virus were present — not whether the viral samples they detected were live pathogens.

The FDA took a selection of those samples that had tested positive and conducted a second round of follow-up analysis. This analysis used a procedure known as live egg inoculation, which is more time-consuming than PCR testing, that indicates whether the viral samples are alive.

The FDA released the results of that testing late last month. Those results found no live bird flu in any of the samples they tested. This data strongly suggests that the milk on store shelves across the country is safe. Despite the fact that there appears to be significant bird flu infection among U.S. milk cows, the process of pasteurization seems to be effectively killing the virus.

Beyond pasteurization, safety measures require the milk of cows that are clearly symptomatic be kept from the milk supply. In addition, the FDA will continue to test regularly to ensure that live virus remains absent from the milk supply.

With these multiple layers of protection, we have many reasons to feel confident our milk supply will remain safe.

James is executive vice president and chief medical officer of the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation. Cohen, a marathoner, is OMRF’s senior vice president and general counsel. Send your health questions to contact@omrf.org

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: What we know about the possibility of catching bird flu from milk