US to test ground beef in states with bird-flu outbreaks in dairy cows

By Tom Polansek CHICAGO (Reuters) -The U.S. government said on Monday it is collecting samples of ground beef at retail stores in states with outbreaks of bird flu in dairy cows for testing, but remains confident the meat supply is safe. Federal officials are seeking to verify the safety of milk and meat after confirming the H5N1 virus in 34 dairy cattle herds in nine states since late March, and in one person in Texas. Both the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization have said the overall public health risk is low, but is higher for those with exposure to infected animals. Scientists believe outbreaks are more widespread in cows than officially reported based on findings of H5N1 particles in about 20% of milk samples. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Friday that preliminary results of gold-standard PCR tests showed pasteurization killed the bird flu virus in milk, though. The U.S. Department of Agriculture will analyze retail ...