Minnesota Milk Surveillance Flags H5N1 in Dairy Herd

By Lisa Schnirring

The Minnesota Board of Animal Health (MBAH) announced yesterday that testing as part of its milk surveillance program has identified H5N1 avian flu in a dairy herd from Stearns County in the central part of the state.

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture, working with state and industry partners, on the week of February 24 began sampling and testing for H5N1 routinely collected bulk milk testing before pasteurization, with the goal of testing milk samples from the state's 1,600 dairies monthly. The program is part of the National Milk Testing Strategy announced by the US Department of Agriculture in December 2024.

Following state testing, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Veterinary Services Laboratory confirmed the findings on March 21, and the MBAH has quarantined the herd.

In its statement, the MBAH said the herd was previously infected in July 2024 and will not be categorized as a new herd. It added that it will add any new information to those data on its dashboard. Following the July detection in the herd, it was released from quarantine in early September.

Another California herd affected; more poultry hit

The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) today confirmed 1 more H5N1 detection in a dairy herd, another in California, raising the national total to 990 and California's total 756.

Over the past few days, APHIS has reported more outbreaks in poultry flocks in eight states, including Pennsylvania and Illinois, where commercial turkey farms were affected. The virus was also confirmed on a farm in New Jersey's Atlantic County.

Several states had more outbreaks involving backyard flocks: Missouri, New York, Kansas, New Mexico, and Montana. Also, the virus was detected at another live-bird market, this time in Onondaga County, New York.