Does Infectious Bird Flu Virus Persist After Pasteurization?
In June, the US Food and Drug Administration tested 297 retail dairy samples and found none contained the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 virus, also known as bird flu. But a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that small amounts of the infectious virus still remained in some samples of raw milk that were heated at 72 °C (about 162 °F) for 15 seconds, which is a common way to pasteurize milk in the US.
