FDA Has Paused ‘Milk Testing’ for Bird Flu — Now, Experts Think We Are ‘Running Out of Time'

It all started in April 2024. The tale of the “dead parrot” and the “dying swan,” as researchers note in PhilPapers. Except that it wasn’t just the parrot or the swan who were dying, but the entire menagerie of wild animals, including humans. Engulfed between the majestic Rocky Mountains of Colorado, some cows in the local dairy farms started exhibiting bizarre symptoms. Their appetites were reducing; they produced less and less milk, and even when they did, the appearance of their milk seemed unnatural. Soon, reports came out that the workers in these milking parlors were also starting to get infected by these cows. Cases were multiplying.

In one of these farms, the farmer had to shell out as much as $400,000 to get his sick cows treated. Today, it’s not just Colorado but the entire America. The culprit, as determined later, was “bird flu,” also known by names like H5N1 virus and avian influenza. Not that Americans haven’t seen bird flu before, but this time, it carries the potential of exploding into a full-fledged pandemic, as Dr. Kay Russo said in an episode of 60 Minutes by CBS News. “We’re running out of time,” she said. If this wasn’t enough of a problem, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention and the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) recently halted their nationwide surveillance programs, including milk testing. 

The announcement came as a shock to many experts who said it was a huge mistake. "Pulling back on surveillance only heightens the risk, especially for rural communities and those with close contact to livestock. This is not the time to take our foot off the gas when it comes to monitoring zoonotic threats," Doctor Tyler Evans, the CEO and cofounder of Wellness and Equity Alliance, shared with Food & Wine. He added that the bird flu remains a serious public health concern, and so the suspension of the milk testing program will only exacerbate its destructive potential.

"The lack of ongoing testing by federal agencies like the USDA and FDA raises serious public health red flags," added Dotsie Bausch, a public health advocate and the founder of Switch4Food, a non-profit that endorses a plant-based lifestyle. Capturing the extent and intensity of the ongoing crisis, Doctor Russo verbalized, “At present, we're given a stick, and they put a blindfold on us, and we're sent into a gunfight, and we're losing. We are losing.” Without systematic testing, he noted, “we increase the risk of exposure to zoonotic pathogens such as E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella, Listeria, and Campylobacter."

The CDC and FDA have mainly put a quiet stop to the testing of raw milk and dairy products like cheese. To those who consume these products regularly, Evans recommended staying in close contact with local public health departments for up-to-date information. "Most local and state health data are funneled to federal agencies for broader analysis and response coordination. As that pipeline weakens, the insights available to the public become less timely, less accurate, and far less actionable," he explained.