The Minnesota Department of Agriculture is preparing to implement raw milk testing on dairy farms in February in an effort to control the spread of the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian flu. Dr. Hemant Naikare, director of the University of Minnesota’s Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, stated that communication and coordination are underway to finalize funding agreements with the federal government for the testing. The lab will be conducting tests on at least 75% of the 1,600 dairy farms in Minnesota, amounting to thousands of tests per month as part of the USDA’s National Milk Testing Strategy.
The lab is also monitoring the rare strain of bird flu, H5N9, identified in a duck flock in California. Since the emergence of the H5N1 strain in Minnesota in 2022, the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory has conducted over 80,000 tests. Naikare emphasized their role in detecting high path incidences in the state and highlighted the importance of ongoing surveillance efforts. The testing is expected to continue for at least a year to address the avian flu threat in dairy farms.
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