By Leah Douglas
(Reuters) -The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is suspending efforts to improve its bird flu testing of milk, cheese and pet food due to massive staff cuts at the agency, according to an email seen by Reuters and a source familiar with the situation.
The FDA’s testing for bird flu in dairy products has found that pasteurization kills the virus, and has also provided clues to the scope of the virus’s spread. At least two house cats have died after eating raw pet food that later tested positive for bird flu.
The Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the FDA, on Tuesday began firing 10,000 employees to comply with President Donald Trump’s push to shrink the federal workforce, an effort overseen by billionaire ally Elon Musk.
The Interlaboratory Comparison Exercise for detecting Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza was set to launch later this month but was suspended on Thursday because of cuts to staff at the FDA’s Human Food Program that would have supported the scientific and testing needs of the program, the email said.
The program would have included more than 40 laboratories across FDA’s Veterinary Laboratory Investigation and Response Network (Vet-LIRN) and USDA’s National Animal Health Laboratory Network, as well as FDA food labs and private industry, said the email, which was sent to network laboratories from the Vet-LIRN program office.
“(The program) would have been critical to ensure confidence in the laboratory methods for food safety and animal health,” the email said.
HHS did not immediately respond to questions about the suspension of the program and what, if any, impact it would have on FDA’s bird flu testing efforts.
The FDA handles testing of consumer dairy products for bird flu, while the U.S. Department of Agriculture tests bulk milk before it is sent for processing. An ongoing bird flu outbreak in dairy cattle has infected nearly 1,000 herds, according to USDA data.
The coordination effort would have served as a quality assurance program to ensure reliable results in the FDA’s bird flu testing of dairy products and pet food, according to a source familiar with the situation.
Similar coordination programs at the FDA ensure reliability in testing for salmonella and other pathogens, the source said.
(Reporting by Leah Douglas, editing by Deepa Babington)
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