News

Minnesota to begin testing raw milk for H5N1

Minnesota will begin testing raw milk for H5N1.

Agriculture Commissioner Thom Petersen tells Brownfield the USDA mandate goes into effect February 24th.

“And those will be on (farms) that are already tested by the Department of Agriculture, so farmers won’t notice we’ll pull an extra sample to work through that. And we’ll be on a rolling sample of every farm in a one-month cycle.”

He says the goal is to test most of the more than 1,800 dairy farms in the state.

“Other states have started this, Michigan (and) Nevada. This is how it was found in Nevada last week, and also Arizona over the weekend.”

Petersen says there is no concern for the safety of the public milk supply as all milk sold in stores is pasteurized to kill bacteria and viruses including H5N1.