According to several news sources, the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) will test retail ground beef in states where dairy cows have been infected with highly pathogenic avian influenza, to ensure the meat supply is safe. HPAI, or bird flu, has not been reported in any beef cattle to this point, but many dairy cows are slaughtered once they reach old age, and their meat is typically used as ground beef.
Tests will attempt to determine “whether any viral particles are present,” according to a statement shared by the news outlets.
The virus was first discovered in dairy cattle in Texas and Kansas on March 25, and has since been found in other dairy cows in other states, with Colorado becoming the ninth state to report an infected dairy herd. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced last week that preliminary tests showed that pasteurization killed HPAI in milk products, although 20% of the samples of retail, pasteurized milk contained inactive fragments of the virus.
FDA used polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods for its test, and USDA noted it would use PCR testing on the retail ground beef samples it was testing as well. USDA has said that cooking meat to a safe internal temperature would kill the virus (just as it does other bacteria and viruses).
To this point, one human has been reported to have been infected, according to news reports. That person had direct contact with infected dairy cattle. This latest outbreak of HPAI has been ongoing (mostly in birds until last month) since October 2023.
USDA has already limited movement of lactating dairy cows across state lines unless they test negative for bird flu, and it will also collect and test meat samples from the slaughter facilities where the dairy cattle were processed.
