J. Food Protection volume 88,1 2025 published an article entitled “Testing of Retail Cheese, Butter, Ice Cream, and Other Dairy Products for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in the US. ” To investigated if highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in dairy cows has created public health concerns about the potential of consumers being exposed to live virus from commercial dairy products. Previous studies support that pasteurization effectively inactivates avian influenza in milk and an earlier retail milk survey showed viral RNA, but no live virus could be detected in the dairy products tested. A total of 167 retail dairy samples, including a variety of cheeses, butter, ice cream, and fluid milk were collected as part of a nationwide survey. A total of 17.4% (29/167) of the samples had detectable viral RNA by qRT-PCR targeting the matrix gene, but all PCR-positive samples were negative for live virus after testing with embryonating egg inoculation. The results support that pasteurization effectively inactivates highly pathogenic avian influenza in dairy products. @ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0362028X24002151
