All 28 states enrolled represent 65% of U.S. milk production; USDA expedites H5N1 vaccine development efforts.
January 8, 2025
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced that 15 additional states have enrolled in the National Milk Testing Strategy (NMTS), representing the third tranche of states that are enrolled in the NMTS and bringing the total number of states to 28 in roughly one month since the program launched. These 28 states represent nearly 65% of the nation’s milk production.
In addition, USDA is sharing updates on its expedited work to support vaccine development for use in poultry and bovine species, as part of a multifaceted effort to fight the spread of H5N1.
“Across the country, a strong network of public and private veterinarians, as well as state and local agriculture and health officials, have been working hand-in-hand with USDA to make the National Milk Testing Strategy as robust a weapon as possible in our fight against H5N1 and to ensure farmers have the information and tools they need to protect their businesses, their families, their workers and, ultimately, their communities,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “USDA remains fully committed to working with farmers and our public health partners to evolve our strategy based on our latest findings so we can keep people and animals safe from this virus.”
Through NMTS, USDA and state and federal partners will gain a clearer picture of the presence of H5N1 among dairy herds in the U.S.to help inform the strategy and overall response efforts to prevent further spread of the virus. The 15 states enrolling in the strategy as of Jan. 8 include: Alabama, Arizona, Delaware, Iowa, Georgia, Kansas, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah and Virginia. The addition of 15 states brings USDA closer to conducting mandatory, nationwide bulk milk surveillance in all 48 contiguous states.
Also in the past 30 days, USDA has identified H5N1 detections in dairy herds in two states – California and Texas – with the most recent detection in Texas reported on Dec. 13, 2024.
As of Jan. 8. 2025, California and Texas are the only states with known active detections. Testing to date, including early NMTS testing, has so far reaffirmed the absence of H5N1 in other states and has not yet led to new detections. However, NMTS may reveal additional herds over time.
In December, USDA announced two earlier tranches of enrolled states, including California, Colorado, Michigan, Mississippi, Oregon and Pennsylvania, which enrolled on Dec. 6, 2024, and Indiana, Maryland, Montana, New York, Ohio, Vermont and Washington, which enrolled on Dec, 17, 2024. USDA continues to work directly with states to bring them on board as quickly as possible while also accommodating state-specific needs based on their infrastructure, state personnel availability and other considerations.
NMTS involves five stages that describe a state’s testing activity and the presence of H5N1 in that state. Of the 28 states enrolled, as of Jan. 8, 11 states are considered to be in Stage 2, meaning they have state-level bulk tank sampling programs already underway. California is considered to be in Stage 3, which is an affected state that has rapid response measures in place to address detections. Two states are in Stage 1, meaning that silo testing is underway or is set to begin imminently. As new states join and initiate testing, USDA will update their status on its NMTS website and map.
Testing results from NMTS will be included in the routine testing reports shared by APHIS. Since the beginning of the outbreak in March 2024, more than 110,000 samples have been tested through USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratory and the National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN), ranging from milk tests that represent multiple herds to individual test from wild or domestic animals. This testing is provided at no cost to producers and, prior to the launch of the NMTS, had included at least one test from each of the 48 contiguous states.
Positive detections are shared in real time with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention through shared information systems, and whole-genome sequences are uploaded to the public databases GISAID (the Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data) and the National Center for Biotechnology Information Sequence Read Archive (use search term “WGS of H5N1”).
All newly affected herds, including any that are detected through NMTS, are reported on the website tracking confirmed cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in livestock. This interactive map shows known active detections in livestock as well as past detections for each state.
In addition to the Dec. 6 Federal Order issued in April 2024 requiring the testing of all lactating dairy cows prior to interstate transfer, samples are also routinely collected through the Dairy Herd Status Program, which currently includes herds in 18 states; under testing programs that some states have designed pursuant to their unique authorities; prior to intrastate movement to fairs, exhibitions or sales as part of state testing programs, or for producers interested in learning the status of their livestock herds.
NAHLN is a partnership of federal, state and university-associated animal disease diagnostic laboratories that provides ongoing animal disease surveillance. Because of its network structure, NAHLN labs are able to carry out testing from neighboring states and, therefore, meet the diagnostic needs of this specific disease outbreak and NMTS.
As part of NMTS sampling of milk silos and bulk tank milk, APHIS has not detected any affected herds in new states without previous confirmed detections. States participating in NMTS are testing at a rate to provide a high level of confidence that an affected herd would be identified. This is a strong indicator that that the strategy is working as expected and underscores the need for continued monitoring and surveillance efforts at the bulk tank level.
Many farms ship their milk to silos in neighboring states, which means that NMTS also captures information on herds outside the borders of currently enrolled states. As newly enrolled states work to align their testing with the parameters of NMTS, USDA continues to collect samples through other means as described above, which provides a strong basis of surveillance. As the program expands to more states, USDA is able to more clearly determine where infection is, as well as where it is not, so the agency can better focus efforts on eliminating the virus from the cattle herd.
USDA highly encourages herd owners to put in place strong, vigilant biosecurity practices and to participate in USDA’s available producer support programs, which help cover the cost such as biosecurity programming, personal protective equipment for employees and veterinary care.
Since the 2014-15 outbreak of HPAI in poultry, USDA has maintained the option to deploy vaccines in poultry, if needed, in an effort to leave no stone unturned in the fight against avian influenza. While deploying a vaccine for poultry would be difficult in practice and may have trade implications, in addition to uncertainty about its effectiveness, USDA has continued to support research and development in avian vaccines.
In 2016, USDA created a national vaccine stockpile for use in commercial poultry, though the vaccines at that time were never deployed. Currently, due to the introduction of new HPAI strains, namely D1.1 from wild birds and persistent outbreaks among commercial poultry farms, USDA believes it is prudent to again pursue a stockpile that matches current outbreak strains.
Current HPAI vaccines, licensed or unlicensed, do not meet the criteria for an ideal vaccine candidate. While there are U.S. licensed avian influenza vaccines for certain virus subtypes (H5N1, H5N3 and H5N9), none are fully matched to the more virulent strain of H5N1 found in the current outbreak. Novel or currently licensed vaccines are being updated to the current strain and/or evaluated for use in other animals, dependent upon the manufacturer’s interest.
USDA intends soon to move forward with a contract for currently licensed vaccine to begin to establish a stockpile while continuing to evaluate vaccine strategy. This means USDA is not imminently implementing vaccination, but rather is continuing to move forward with planning and the purchase of vaccine or manufacturing capacity for vaccine.
In dairy cattle, deployment of a successful vaccine candidate that is matched to the current strain is more feasible and more likely to be successful in stopping or slowing the virus’ spread. USDA’s Center for Veterinary Biologics released a notice earlier this year opening a pathway for interested parties to apply to conduct vaccine field safety trials in dairy cattle.
To facilitate expedited vaccine development for bovines, USDA has consolidated several steps in the vaccine review process to allow them to occur in parallel. These steps are important to be sure vaccines developed are safe, are effective against the targeted virus and do not lead to more shedding of the virus, among other considerations. So far, at least seven candidates have been approved for field safety trials for vaccine candidates designed to protect dairy cows from H5N1. USDA is ready and standing by to review additional submissions and initial results from the manufacturers as they are submitted.
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