The U.S. Department of Agriculture last week announced that every state will have to test its milk supply for H5N1, the virus that causes avian influenza, or bird flu.
The move from USDA comes as more than 700 dairy herds across the country have tested positive for the virus. The agency is hoping to more quickly identify infected animals and prevent the spread of the disease.
E.B. Flory, Vermont Agency of Agriculture director of food safety, said Vermont will most likely be testing milk at one of the 50-or-so processing plants where milk is transported before it is pasteurized and prepared for retail sale.
“Instead of like, having to try to test every single farm in the country, they’re trying to test the dairy plants because that’s a little bit of a smaller number,” Flory said. “And then from there, if there’s a positive, they could trace back the farms that had milk in those silos.”
Most of the sick animals have been in California and in the mountain states. It has not been detected in cows in the Northeast.
Flory said the agency is still waiting for specifics about the new testing program, which she hopes will be in place before the end of this month.
“There’s an agreement that needs to be in place for the sampling,” she said. “And then a piece that needs to be in place if there is a positive.”
USDA had been doing random testing since the virus was first detected in dairy cattle in March 2024. USDA issued a federal order Friday requiring states to begin testing their dairy supply and sharing those results with the federal agency.
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“Since the first HPAI detection in livestock, USDA has collaborated with our federal, state and industry partners to swiftly and diligently identify affected herds and respond accordingly. This new milk testing strategy will build on those steps to date and will provide a roadmap for states to protect the health of their dairy herds,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a press release. “Among many outcomes, this will give farmers 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.”
While USDA will be testing raw milk — that is, milk that has left the farm and is in the process of being pasteurized — Flory says the state will not be testing or requiring any further warnings about the safety of raw milk that’s sold directly to consumers from the farm.
Vermont has allowed the sale of raw milk on the farm since 2009.
Most states allow the sale of raw milk in one form or another. New Jersey is the only state that does not allow the sale of raw milk at all.
Vermont is one of 30 states that allows on-farm sales. Some states allow the sale of raw milk in retail stores, but that is not allowed in Vermont.
Flory said pasteurization has been shown to successfully eliminate the threat of spreading disease through the milk supply.
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