USDA To Conduct Testing Of Beef As Bird Flu Spreads In Dairy Cattle

The move comes after the country of Colombia placed restrictions on beef products coming from U.S. states where dairy herds tested positive for bird flu.

Food safety officials are testing beef, including ground beef from grocery stores, for the presence of the bird flu virus.

It was recently discovered the H5N1 avian influenza virus is spreading in dairy cattle in some U.S. states.

The Department of Agriculture is now conducting three separate beef safety studies to find out if further herds have been affected as well.

The agency is sampling ground beef purchased at grocery stores in the affected states. It is also taking samples of muscle tissue from sick cows that have been culled from their herd.

The USDA is also cooking ground beef with a virus surrogate at different temperatures to find out how much virus is killed under each heat setting.

The move comes after the country of Colombia placed restrictions on beef products coming from U.S. states where dairy herds tested positive for bird flu.

The U.S. is the largest supplier of beef to Colombia but, the U.S. Beef Export Foundation said the restrictions “have no scientific basis.”