2 days Ago By News Desk
The Food and Drug Administration has begun a domestic sampling assignment to collect and test aged raw milk cheese for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (H5N1). The objectives of the assignment are: An outbreak of H5N1 in multiple states precipitated this assignment. The FDA is working with the U.
S. Department of Agriculture, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state partners to investigate and respond to the outbreak , which is impacting poultry, dairy cows, and people in the United States. The FDA’s sampling assignment complements research efforts that the agency is carrying out with its federal and state partners, as well as select research universities.
Unlike the research efforts, the FDA’s sampling assignment is a regulatory activity. Raw milk cheese is made with unpasteurized milk. In the United States cheese allowed to be made from raw milk must be aged for a minimum of 60 days to mitigate the risk from any pathogens, if present.
The FDA will collect 300 samples of raw cow’s milk cheese that has been aged for at least 60 days, along with the label information. Each sample will consist of two packages of product, weighing at least 100 grams. Since 1996, HPAI H5N1 influenza viruses have circulated in at least 23 countries.
In late 2021, HPAI H5N1 spread from Europe to North America causing sporadic infections among wild birds and poultry farms. In 2022, the virus spread to South America where it devastated birds and marine mammals. In March 2024, USDA scientists identified HPAI H5N1 in U.
S. dairy cows, and it subsequently reached herds in 16 states. The virus was detected in dairy herds in three more states in December 2024, according to USDA.
In 2024, the virus caused 66 confirmed and 7 probable cases of influenza in people in the U.S. and one case in Canada.
The Canadian patient and at least two patients in the United States did not have contact with infected birds or dairy cows. (To sign up for a free subscription to Food Safety News, click here).
