The USDA’s order to test raw milk samples nationwide is a proactive measure that underscores the importance of public and zoonotic disease surveillance. This is of special importance when we are talking about viruses since they are known to change and adapt to new hosts. Early detection of zoonotic diseases like bird flu virus is important because it has a highly pathogenic strain (H5N1) that poses a potential zoonotic risk causing disease in humans.

Testing raw milk could serve as an early precaution to enable close monitoring of the transmission pattern of the virus in cattle and to reduce the risk of transmission to more susceptible hosts (poultry). While bird flu primarily affects poultry, cross-species transmission to mammals, including cattle and humans has been documented in rare cases. The surveillance helps in identifying these emerging risks. 

Such safeguarding public health measures enable public health professionals and the authorities to intervene to prevent possible outbreaks. For example, routine testing could serve as a monitoring procedure in dairy herds, especially those which have any sort of contact with infected birds or their droppings. This could help prevent the spread of avian influenza within and across farms. This is important because transmission can pose great health and economic risks.  

There is also a need to expand the monitoring of avian influenza in its main host birds including poultry and wild birds. Thereafter, there is a need to strengthen the on-farm biosecurity to limit bird-livestock interaction to prevent transmission.  

The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development is offering funding for up to 20 avian flu outbreak dairy farms, at up to $28,000 per farm, to participate in crucial, real-time research studies. 

There is a need for an educational risk analysis to justify the USDA measure. Transparency about the rational (e.g. documented cases/ surveillance data) will help in building up a public and industry trust around the USDA measure.  

At the end, there is a need to balance public health priorities with the concerns of the dairy industry to ensure the measure is both effective and equitable.

Mohamed Satti has taught and researched internationally in the areas of Public Health, Immunology, and parasitology. In addition to teaching at the MSU Program in Public Health and the MSU veterinary school, Satti is a visiting professor of immunology and parasitology in the School of Veterinary Medicine at St. Matthew’s University in Grand Cayman, where he conducts research on heart worms in dogs and cats. Such studies will help in identifying new pathological markers for human and animal Filarial infection.

Originally published in MSU Today on December 13, 2024