and finally tonight what you need to know about the bird flu outbreak in the US the Department of Agriculture on Monday began testing samples of ground beef from grocery stores in states where dairy cows tested positive for the h5n1 virus it comes after FDA Regulators said samples of pasteurized milk had traced remnants of the virus which has now been detected in 34 dairy cattle herds throughout Nine States since late March also one person in Texas tested positive and a dolphin in Florida is confirmed dead from bird flu this is the first time a bird flu virus has been detected in US cattle and while human risk remains low there are a lot of questions about the scope of the spread here to answer some of them is Dr Amar patil New Jersey state veterinarian Dr Patil thanks so much for joining me on the show let's just uh put on the record that there are no outbreaks confirmed in New Jersey of bird flu but what's the risk to the general public here so the risk to General Public is right now very low uh according to the to the federal agencies uh so as as as you pointed out you know there are no outbreaks of bird flu currently in New Jersey either in poultry or cattle that we know of and according to the assessment you know done by CDC FDA and the USDA currently the risk of you know transmission to people is is low yeah let's talk a little bit about that transmission how do we know I guess really is the question how this virus is spreading um and how it's being transferred because we know there's one person confirmed to have contracted the virus in Texas but also now a dolphin a seam mamal that uh died of the virus do we know how it's spreading so the virus is spreading in Wild through through migratory Birds they basically come in contact with domestic poultry or wild animals such as you know wild mammals out there like you know foxes Etc sometimes you know the the marine animals like dolphins they they end up you know eating you know these these dead birds as uh you know as as as a food and and and that's how you know these wild animals they they are getting infected with with this bird flu so it it has to be through contact I mean I'm thinking back to 2022 when we had the outbreak in our poultry we saw the rise uh of price in in eggs it just skyrocketed and that had a lot to do with folks who were handling Birds uh who had contracted the virus or handling the dead birds so it's through contact is that what you're saying so in in in poultry there is definitely you know direct contact as well as indirect means of spread of the virus so direct cont contact between you know poultry as well as you know through fites or or equipment you know vehicle Etc is is is has shown to be you know transmitting this virus and so I think the question on a lot of folks Minds is generally is it safe for me to drink the milk or eat the beef that I'm buying from the grocery store what can you tell us about that so FDA has conducted some studies uh and and and the preliminary results from those studies you know in indicate that the posturi process is actually effective in activating the virus again you know these studies are still ongoing the USDA is also sampling the raw beef samples I'm hopeful that you know the the the test will you know come back with a with a you know good you know safe report for for all of us so I'm I'm I'm keeping my fingers crossed as we all are uh Dr Amar Patil New Jersey State veterinarian thank you so much thank you very much [Music]