WHO FLAGS RISK OF BIRD FLU SPREADING TO COWS OUTSIDE US

GENEVA—A World Health Organization (WHO) official said on Tuesday there was a risk of H5N1 bird flu virus spreading to cows in other countries beyond the United States through migratory birds.

US 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.

“With the virus carried around the world by migratory birds, certainly there is a risk for cows in other countries to be getting infected,” said Wenqing Zhang, head of WHO’s Global Influenza Program at a news briefing in Geneva.

She reiterated that the UN agency deems the overall public health risk posed by the virus to be low but urged vigilance.

Asked to evaluate US transparency on the outbreak so far, Zhang said the global body had received regular updates and praised a decision to share the virus genetic sequence early.

Ground beef

“I do think the collaboration with US CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and the information we’ve received so far enables us to monitor the situation and to update the preparedness measures,” she said.

The US government said on Monday that it was 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 cattle herds.

Both the US CDC and the WHO 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 percent of milk samples.

The US 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.