The U.S. Department of Agriculture will begin testing the nation’s milk supply for the bird flu virus known as H5N1, nearly a year after the virus began circulating through dairy cattle, the department announced on Friday.
Under the new strategy, officials will test samples of unpasteurized milk from large storage tanks at dairy processing facilities across the country.
Farmers and dairy processors will be required to provide samples of raw milk on request from the government. And farm owners with infected herds will be required to provide details that would help officials identify more cases and contacts.
The rules were first floated in October and were supposed to be implemented in November. The first round of testing is now scheduled to begin the week of Dec. 16, according to the announcement on Friday.
The new strategy is a departure from the voluntary guidance that the department had issued during the outbreak. Many dairy farms have not complied with voluntary testing of milk or of dairy workers, leaving federal officials in the dark about how widely the virus might have spread.
“I have been absolutely frustrated that we do not know the extent of the outbreak in cattle,” Seema Lakdawala, a virologist at Emory University, said.
