Wisconsin last week officially enrolled in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Milk Testing Strategy, Wisconsin Public Radio reports. Despite being America’s Dairyland, it is one of the last U.S. states to begin testing milk for avian flu.
The USDA program resulted from a December federal order requiring all states to start surveillance for the contagious virus through raw milk samples. The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection plans to begin collecting samples shortly.
The virus has not been detected in Wisconsin’s dairy cows and is considered a low risk to public health as pasteurization effectively kills the virus in milk, federal health officials say.
The news comes as avian flu has caused egg prices to skyrocket nationwide in recent months.
