The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has suspended its program to improve bird flu testing in milk, cheese, and pet food due to significant staff cuts, according to an email seen by Reuters and a source familiar with the matter.
The FDA’s bird flu testing had shown that pasteurization kills the virus in dairy products and helped track the virus’s spread. At least two house cats have died after eating raw pet food that tested positive for bird flu.
The staff cuts come after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which oversees the FDA, began laying off 10,000 employees as part of an effort to reduce the federal workforce, led by President Donald Trump and supported by billionaire Elon Musk.
A program to improve bird flu testing, called the Interlaboratory Comparison Exercise, was set to start later this month but was postponed due to staff reductions in the FDA’s Human Food Program. This program would have involved over 40 laboratories from the FDA’s Veterinary Laboratory Investigation and Response Network (Vet-LIRN), USDA’s National Animal Health Laboratory Network, and private industry.
The program aimed to ensure reliable testing methods for food safety and animal health. However, due to the staff cuts, these efforts were suspended. HHS has not responded to questions about the impact of this suspension on bird flu testing.
The FDA handles testing of dairy products for bird flu, while the USDA tests bulk milk before processing. A bird flu outbreak has already infected nearly 1,000 dairy herds, according to USDA data. The program would have helped ensure the quality of bird flu tests in both dairy products and pet food, similar to how the FDA monitors salmonella and other pathogens.
