USDA to Begin Bulk Testing Milk Supplies Where Bird Flu in Cows Was Detected

By Clayton Baumgarth

The USDA will begin bulk testing milk supplies in states where dairy cattle tested positive for H5N1 bird flu. Indiana is not one of them.

The disease was found in dairy cattle in Michigan as well as 14 other states earlier this year. 

Denise Derrer-Spears, the communications director for the State Board of Animal Health, said that a new rule requiring all interstate cattle transported in or out of state lines be tested for bird flu shows Indiana is still clean. This puts Indiana lower on the USDA’s priority list for bulk testing. 

“There's been over 2,700 tests that have been run since April on dairy cows, and they've all come back negative,” she said. “So at this point, we're feeling pretty good about that. We have not had any reported cases here.” 

Derrer-Spears said that while the USDA has been in contact regarding the new testing, the plans are still ”in draft mode.” 

She also said many cases of infection come from ”spillover events,” or in other words, the disease getting on farm equipment or workers before getting to livestock. 

The board of animal health recommends deep cleaning shared equipment between uses. 

“Thirty-eight percent of the farms that have had this disease on it have moved cattle and they've used trucks or trailers that they share with other farms, and they weren't necessarily clean and disinfected in between,” she said.