Bird flu has been found in beef for the first time, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Friday, but officials said meat from one sick dairy cow should not enter the country’s food supply and that beef remains safe to eat.
The USDA said the H5N1 virus was found as part of testing of 96 dairy cows that were diverted from supply because federal inspectors noticed signs of illness during routine inspections of carcasses at meatpacking plants. Bird flu was found in only one of those cows.
Bird flu has been confirmed in dairy herds has been to nine states found in milk and has led to the slaughter of millions of chickens and turkeys. But finding it in beef is a new development for the outbreak, which started in 2022.
The agency said last month it would test ground beef in stores for bird flu. but it hasn’t found any sign yet of the virus.
Even if bird flu gets into consumer beef, the USDA says, cooking the meat to an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit will kill it, just as it kills E. coli and other viruses.
Two farm workers in dairies in Michigan and Texas fell ill with bird flu this spring. The danger to the public remains lowbut farm workers exposed to infected animals are at greater risk, health officials said.
Only one other case of bird flu in humans has been confirmed in the US. In 2022, an inmate in a work program picked up the virus while killing infected birds on a poultry farm in Montrose County, Colorado. His only symptom was fatigue, and he recovered.
