FDA says preliminary results of additional testing of more dairy products has shown pasteurization inactivates the H5N1 virus. FDA released results from tests of products including sour cream and cottage cheese. Last week, it said preliminary results from testing showed pasteurization kills the virus in milk and baby formula. FDA said it has looked at 297 total retail samples of dairy products.
“It is a pretty good body of results,” said Donald Prater, acting director of the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. “There are probably a few more products that we would look at just so that we make sure that we’ve got a good national sample,” he added.
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official Dr. Demetre Daskalakis said 25 people had been tested so far for H5N1 and that no additional positive cases had been found beyond one individual in Texas. The agency tested a sample of the virus taken from the farm worker who was infected with H5N1 and found that all three commercially available antiviral flu treatments are effective against it.
USDA is testing retail samples of ground beef in states with confirmed cases of H5N1 in dairy cattle but said results are not yet available. The department has said it is confident the meat supply is safe.
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