Bird flu virus detected in beef from a sick dairy cow, but the US Department of Agriculture says the meat is still safe

The US Department of Agriculture announced on Friday that bird flu has been detected in beef for the first time. Officials, however, said that meat from a single infected dairy cow should not be allowed into the national food supply and that beef is still safe to eat.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said the virus was discovered in tests on 96 dairy cows that had been excluded from the supply because federal inspectors found signs of illness during routine inspections of carcasses at meat processing plants. Bird flu was detected in only one of those cows.

Avian flu has been confirmed in dairy herds in nine states, has been detected in milk, and has led to the slaughter of millions of chickens and turkeys, but its detection in beef is a new development for the outbreak that began in 2022.

The agency said last month it would test ground meat in retail stores for bird flu, but has so far found no signs of the virus.

Even if bird flu were to end up in beef, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says, cooking the meat to an internal temperature of 73.9 degrees Celsius (165 degrees Fahrenheit) would be fatal, as would E. coli and other viruses.

Two farmworkers at dairy farms in Michigan and Texas contracted bird flu in the spring. The risk to the public remains low, but farmworkers who come into contact with infected animals are at higher risk, health officials said.

Only one other case of bird flu in humans has been confirmed in the United States. In 2022, an inmate became infected as part of a work program while killing infected birds at a poultry farm in Montrose County, Colorado. His only symptom was fatigue, and he recovered.