Bird flu testing shows more dairy products are safe, US FDA says

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Wednesday that preliminary results of additional testing of more dairy products has shown that pasteurization inactivates the bird flu virus. One Texas dairy worker has tested positive for bird flu.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Wednesday that preliminary results of additional testing of more dairy products has shown that pasteurization inactivates the bird flu virus. The FDA released results from tests of products including sour cream and cottage cheese, after reporting last week that preliminary results from testing showed pasteurization kills the virus in milk and baby formula.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has confirmed bird flu in 36 dairy herds in nine states since late March. One Texas dairy worker has tested positive for bird flu. The FDA said it has looked at 297 total retail samples of dairy products, and the results released on Wednesday represent tests of a group of 201 of those samples.

"It is a pretty good body of results," Donald Prater, acting director of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, said on a call with reporters that also included officials from the U.S. CDC as well as the USDA.

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