The new raw milk testing plan from APHIS will require more steps on several different levels. However, the Farm Bureau says it is important to get rid of HPAI once and for all.
“In stage one, we’re standing up mandatory testing of national plants and silos. Stage two is determining a state’s overall HPAI status in dairy cattle. Now, stage three involves detecting and responding to the virus in an affected state. Stage four will be demonstrating the ongoing absence of avian influenza in dairy cattle. If negative samples continue to show up, APHIS will continually decrease the number of samples as time goes on, eventually leading to stage five, which is demonstrating a state’s freedom from the disease. Now, in order to do this, we need to kind of implement these protocols on a regionalized basis to try and eliminate it herd by herd and then keep it out. So, another thing that’s going on here is there are vaccines that are under development, and that will likely be a part of these protocols as we move forward,” said Bernt Nelson.
Ag officials in Massachusetts are applauding the national milk testing strategy. The state was the first in the nation to test 100 percent negative of HPAI in dairy.
