US: Early Tests Find Pasteurization Killed Bird Flu in Milk-FDA
Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times
Results from “an initial limited set of geographically targeted samples” show that “pasteurization is effective in inactivating” the influenza, commonly known as the bird flu, the FDA said in an April 26 update.
The FDA gathered samples from grocery stores with confirmed cases of the flu in cattle. The agency has said that one in five tested positive for avian influenza, but stressed that polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing can return positive due to residual fragments.
“This additional testing did not detect any live, infectious virus. These results reaffirm our assessment that the commercial milk supply is safe,” the regulatory agency stated.
Testing of samples of powdered infant formula sold at stores also returned negative.
Many infectious disease experts and government officials have said they believe the pasteurization process will inactivate the virus, also known as avian influenza.
“I’m not worried about the milk itself,” said Samuel Alcaine, an associate professor of food science at Cornell University. “It does indicate that the virus is more widespread among dairies than we had previously thought.”
The FDA, which has refused to say how many milk samples tested positive, the sources of the samples that tested positive, and what other products were tested outside milk and formula, is in the process of conducting additional testing. That testing could find milk with live virus intact, agency officials acknowledged.
