Bird Flu Found in Commercial Milk: FDA

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on April 23 said that particles of avian influenza have been found in milk from grocery stores, indicating the highly pathogenic virus has made its way into America’s commercial milk supply. The FDA said in a statement it has been testing milk from cattle that have been sickened with the influenza, commonly known as the bird flu or H5N1, as well as milk “in the processing system, and on the shelves.” “Based on available information, pasteurization is likely to inactivate the virus, however the process is not expected to remove the presence of viral particles. Therefore, some of the samples collected have indicated the presence of HPAI using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) testing,” the agency said....