Under new state and federal orders, cow milk in Pennsylvania is getting tested for bird flu, with a goal of quickly finding and containing the virus if it does show up in dairy cows in Pennsylvania.
Ernest Hovingh is the director of the Animal Diagnostic Lab at Penn State, which is where most of the samples of cow milk collected for bird flu testing in Pennsylvania are being processed.
“The plan is, at least for the immediate future, to continue to monitor this so that if it would show up in a herd, then the Department of Agriculture can jump on that as quickly as possible to try and make sure that it's contained," Hovingh said.
So far, Pennsylvania has not had any cases of the virus showing up in dairy cows. But 16 other states have, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Under Pennsylvania’s testing order, milk testing began at the end of November and will happen every 14 days. That puts the state in line with the new order from the USDA.
In Pennsylvania, raw milk collected from dairy farms is being tested at an aggregate tanker truck level. Hovingh said with about 4,800 dairy farms in Pennsylvania, that reduces the number of samples that need to be tested, while still being highly accurate.
Hovingh said the virus acts differently in dairy cows than it does in poultry. Only a certain percentage of a dairy herd will become infected. The virus can impact milk production, but most cows will recover.
But there is concern about the potential impact on poultry, and Pennsylvania is one of the top egg producers in the country.
“So even though it doesn't cause high mortality or death rate in the cows, it can certainly cause that in the poultry and then they would need to be put down," Hovingh said. "And so our poultry industry is also very concerned that we not get this form of the virus into our dairy herds here in Pennsylvania.”
Hovingh noted that pasteurized milk is not a human health concern.
“Pasteurized milk is absolutely no problem," he said. "Continue eating your ice cream and your cheese and everything else, enjoying it, knowing that it's a safe product."
