Latest News

Bird flu testing shows more dairy products are safe, US FDA says

Preliminary results of tests on additional dairy items show that pasteurization inactivates the bird influenza infection, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Wednesday.

The FDA launched further test results on foods consisting of sour cream and home cheese, after reporting last week that initial results from screening revealed pasteurization kills the H5N1 infection in milk and infant formula.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has verified bird flu in 36 dairy herds in nine states because the first-ever detection in late March, though scientists have said the break out is likely more prevalent based on findings of H5N1 particles in about 20% of milk samples. One Texas dairy employee checked positive for the virus.

The USDA thinks the infection is spreading out among cattle mostly through contact with raw milk, Rosemary Sifford, the firm's chief veterinary officer, said on a call that likewise consisted of officials from the FDA and U.S. Centers for Illness Control and Prevention (CDC). Cows shed the virus at high concentrations in milk, the USDA said.

The FDA so far has actually tested 297 overall retail samples of pasteurized dairy products, and the outcomes launched on Wednesday represent tests on 201 of those samples.

It is a pretty good body of results, Donald Prater, acting director of the FDA's Center for Food Security and Applied Nutrition, said on the call. There are most likely a couple of more products that we would look at so that we make certain that we have actually got a good nationwide sample.

Researchers are on alert for modifications in H5N1 that might signal the infection is adapting to spread quickly amongst human beings. The infection has caused severe or deadly infections amongst people in close contact with wild birds or poultry. It has long been on the list of viruses with pandemic capacity, and any expansion to a new mammal types is worrying.

CDC main Dr. Demetre Daskalakis said the agency has kept an eye on about 100 people who have actually been exposed to bird flu, and around 25 individuals who developed symptoms have been tested. So far, no additional positive cases have been found.

The agency checked a sample of the virus drawn from the farm worker who was infected with H5N1 and discovered that all commercially available antiviral influenza treatments are effective against it. The employee's only symptom was conjunctivitis, frequently referred to as pink eye.

Currently authorized antiviral drugs include Roche's. Xofluza and Tamiflu as well as a generic version of Tamiflu,. GSK's Relenza and BioCryst Pharmaceuticals'. Rapivab.

The CDC said it is working to grow infection from the contaminated. farm worker for extra laboratory experiments to examine the. seriousness of the disease and transmissibility of the virus.

It said disease tracking shows no unusual influenza activity in. people.

The USDA is checking retail samples of hamburger but stated. outcomes are not yet offered. The department has stated it is. positive the meat supply is safe.

Wild birds that carry the infection seem the initial. source of infections in dairy cows, according to USDA. Motion. of livestock then spread out the illness to other herds and. subsequently into poultry flocks, the agency said.

(source: Reuters)