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New York, May 25: The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Friday announced the first detection of avian influenza virus in beef. However, officials assured the public that meat from infected cows had not entered the country’s food supply and stressed that beef was still safe to eat.
Federal inspectors removed 96 cows from the supply after finding signs of illness during routine carcass inspections at meat processing plants, and the H5N1 virus was discovered during testing, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Of those cows, only one tested positive for avian influenza.
Although avian influenza has been confirmed in dairy cattle herds in nine states and found in milk, its appearance in beef marks a new development in the outbreak that began in 2022.
In response to the outbreak, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced last month that it would test ground beef sold in retail stores for avian influenza, but so far no traces of the virus have been found in retail beef.
The USDA assures consumers that even if avian flu is present in beef, cooking the beef to an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit will effectively kill the virus, just as it kills other harmful bacteria and viruses, such as E. coli.
Amid concerns about the spread of avian flu, two farm workers were reported to have fallen ill on dairy farms in Michigan and Texas this spring. Health officials stressed that while the risk to the public remains low, the risk is higher for farm workers who have been in contact with infected animals.
So far, there has been only one confirmed case of human infection with avian influenza in the U.S. In 2022, an inmate in a work program contracted the virus while slaughtering infected birds at a poultry farm in Montrose County, Colorado. The patient’s only symptom was fatigue, and he eventually recovered.
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