LordMortis wrote: ↑Wed Apr 24, 2024 6:43 am
I was under the impression that pasteurization got rid of things like bird flu from milk which is in support of not drinking raw milk. What happened to this line of thinking?
However, the testing completed so far—using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR)—only detects the presence of viral genetic material and cannot tell whether the genetic material is from live and infectious viral particles or merely remnants of dead ones killed by the pasteurization process.
Note:
So far, the FDA still believes that the milk supply is safe.
I've learned from COVID-19 that belief is the most important thing.
"At this time, there continues to be no concern that this circumstance poses a risk to consumer health, or that it affects the safety of the interstate commercial milk supply because products are pasteurized before entering the market" the FDA wrote in an FAQ published Friday. "Pasteurization has continually proven to inactivate bacteria and viruses, like influenza, in milk."
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Nevertheless, the FDA, along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US Department of Agriculture, have continued to investigate potential risks, including establishing whether pasteurization can inactivate this specific virus. The FDA noted in its announcement Tuesday that, while pasteurization is expected to kill the virus, pasteurization is "different than complete sterilization."
Probably more details than what most want to know, but it's good information. He lists out 6 key points, and here's a quick highlight of some of them:
Confirmation of H5N1 infected dairy cattle herds in 8 states. But the FDA report yesterday of commerical milk PCR positivity strongly supports that the cattle spread is far wider than these 8 states.
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From the great work of U Arizona evolutionary biologist Michael Worobey who (heroically) analyzed the 239 H5N1 sequences that were released Sunday night for the first time, it was likely a single initiation of transmission from bird to cows. USDA stated they believe teh outbreak in dairy cattle in the US began in late 2023, initially inTexas.
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For the readiness plan in case human transmission does occur, the public officials asserted that Tamiflu would be effective and it has been stockpiled, that gearing up testing would be done and, if necessary, the US could fully shift its annual flu vaccine production to make H5N1 shots at scale. They have 2 candidate H5N1 vaccines in hand that are well matched to the current sequence and there is the possibility to augment vaccine supply via mRNA-nanoparticle production.
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A Federal order was put out this morning to mandate testing and reporting of cattle infected, measures to avoid further spread.
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Routine testing of pigs, which is important due to their potential facilitation of spread to humans, has been negative to date. To date, data we have are based on dairy cattle; little is known or available about beef cattle, but occupational exposure notifications have been put out to dairy farms and slaughterhouses.
A senior official from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said today that its nationwide survey of retail milk has found remnants of H5N1 avian flu viruses in one in five samples, with the highest concentrations in regions where outbreaks in dairy cattle have been reported.
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Prater reiterated that the FDA hasn't changed its assessment that the nation's milk supply remains safe. So far, early work on milk samples that were positive for H5N1 fragments haven't found any viable (potentially infectious) virus.
He said, however, that the FDA still has a long list of data gaps to fill, including identifying the risk of infection to humans via oral consumption and validating that existing pasteurization methods can inactivate H5N1.
Other data gaps include how long the virus survives in raw milk and the infectious dose of viruses. Though a major concern is retail milk, Prater also said the FDA needs to see if contamination is occurring in other products, such as cheese made from raw milk.
I feel like...maybe we haven't been doing nearly as much testing of cattle as we should have been?
