Canada expanding milk testing to avian flu | Here's what you need to know

Canada is boosting its efforts in the testing of milk as an outbreak of Aven flu spreads among cattle in the US Canada's Health agencies say officials will enhance the testing of milk at the retail level to look for viral fragments that's after inactive fragments of h5n1 were found in grocery store milk in the US officials here say commercially sold milk and milk products remain safe lactating dairy cattle coming into the country from the US test will now require negative test results for the flu all right let's bring in Dr Christopher labos epidemiologists and cardiologists thanks for being here as always doctor good to see you good to see you too so could Aven flu be a threat to food safety How concerned do Canadians need to be when buying milk and milk products so with regard to food safety not at all um the the the relevant point that we were able to find traces of Aven influenza in milk samples in the US is really just a reflection that it was spreading amongst the the dairy cattle in the US which means that it made the jump to a different species I think much earlier than people realized and it was much more widespread than people realized so it's been spreading amongst cows probably since late 2023 not just for the past month which is when we've been talking about it the fact that you can find traces or DNA fragments of the virus in the milk does not mean that the milk itself is dangerous to drink or that you're going to catch Aven influenza from the milk for the very simple reason that we pasteurize our milk the reason why we pasteurize the reason why we do this to our milk is to kill off all the bacteria and viruses that used to be in there we initially started doing it because cows used to catch tuberculosis and people would get infected with tuberculosis by drinking contaminated milk um which is obviously not that much of a concern anymore more but the mere process that we do that means that the milk itself is not dangerous so that's not what people have to worry about so you say that it is a concern about this virus making the jump from uh poultry to uh cattle how concerning is that it it is somewhat concerning because when a virus gains the ability to go from one species to another especially once it's able to infect mammals because we are mammals it makes it much more likely that it's going to start infecting humans and then having human to human spread now there have been cases of humans being infected with Aven influenza h5n1 before it's just that when it does happen the cases tend to be self-limited and we don't have sustained Community spread so once the virus gains the ability to do that it could potentially be a problem we just don't really know when or or even if it will gain the ability to do that but if it can go from infecting different species of birds to infecting cows and then infecting you know other animal species other mammals it makes it increasingly likely that it could make the jump to humans and that's why people in the field are researching this and keeping a very close eye as to how widely it's infecting cattle and other animal species so are there any precautions that we should be taking at this point well for you as an individual for all the viewers watching us right now no that being said if you do come across a dead bird in the middle of the road maybe don't go and poke at it with a stick right so if you do see a dead animal call the animal control authorities don't go and you know touch it because even if it doesn't have Aven influenza it could have a bunch of other things this is really more of an issue for people who work in the industry who do bird farming cattle farming those are the individuals whom if they're going to be in close contact with animals really do need to test their animals and test themselves one of the big issues in the US when it comes to sort of gauging how severe this is is that a lot of people who work in the industry don't then go and get tested and it makes it very hard to know how much of a threat for humans this really could be so bottom line we can feel okay about buying milk at the store oh yes absolutely I mean as long as it's pasteurized milk which the vast majority of milk in Canada is of course if you're buying it at a supermarket all right Dr Christopher labos epidemiologist and cardiologist thank you very much for being here

Channel: CTV News

Views: 6,095

Keywords: CTV, News, CTV News, CTV National News, Milk testing in Canada, Avian flu in U.S. milk, Bird flu, Milk in Canada

Id: I2Kb8VjI8-g

Length: 4min 33sec (273 seconds)

Published: Sat May 04 2024