The U.S. Department of Agriculture is collecting samples of ground beef at retail stores in North Carolina and other states with outbreaks of bird flu in dairy cows for testing, but officials say they are confident the meat supply is safe.
On Monday, the USDA began requiring lactating dairy cows to test negative for bird flu before being shipped across state lines in an effort to contain the outbreak.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said preliminary results of tests of milk showed pasteurization killed the bird flu virus, and the USDA said it will analyze the retail beef samples with PCR tests as well.
Another study will use a “virus surrogate” in ground beef and cook it at different temperatures to determine how the virus is affected.
There are no known cases of bird flu in beef cattle so far.
