Before sunrise the parlor lights come on. Workers rinse floors, check liners, move cows into place, and keep the line moving. Since 2024, that routine in parts of the United States has had a new, invisible hazard. Highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 spilled from wild birds into dairy herds, and by mid-2025 the federal dashboard was still logging new detections in cattle, state by state. USDA’s live map for livestock confirms ongoing cases and shows where the virus has been found most recently. USDA APHIS

Milk safety has been the headline, and the science is reassuring. FDA testing has repeatedly found no live H5N1 in pasteurized products, and laboratory work simulating commercial heat treatment shows pasteurization inactivates the virus. The agency’s public H5N1 page bundles retail survey results, the continuous-flow pasteurization study, and guidance that raw milk is a different risk category. In December 2024, USDA’s national order made routine bulk-tank testing part of a countrywide surveillance net. U.S. Food and Drug Administration+2U.S. Food and Drug Administration+2direct.aphis.usda.gov

Milk safety is not the same as worker safety. CDC’s situation summary labels the outbreak “multistate,” reminds readers this is the first time these bird-flu viruses have been found in cows, and points to risk for people who work around infected animals. USDA’s worker-focused page tells exposed staff to watch for new respiratory symptoms or eye redness for ten days after contact and to seek influenza testing if symptoms appear. Those are clear, practical steps. The gap is in how evenly they reach the people doing the milking and cleanup across thousands of farms. CDCUSDA APHIS

Policy structure makes that gap wider. Under a long-standing appropriations rider, OSHA is barred from spending enforcement funds on “farming operations” with ten or fewer non-family employees, a category that includes dairy farms. The small-farm limitation has been in place since 1976 and is restated in OSHA’s own directive and enforcement page. In plain terms, many of the smallest dairies fall outside routine OSHA inspections, which complicates standardizing respirators, eye protection, and sick-leave rules during an animal-health emergency. OSHA+2OSHA+2

Meanwhile, surveillance has shifted upstream. USDA extended carcass testing in the meat system and built out a National Milk Testing Strategy so officials can spot spread in tanks, not just animals. Fifteen more states joined that milk program in January 2025, moving the country toward truly nationwide bulk-tank surveillance. When the virus popped up again in new herds, APHIS published quick technical briefs that trace how detections were found through the milk network. This is what a learning system looks like on the animal-health side. Food Safety and Inspection ServiceUSDAUSDA APHIS

Workers need the same kind of muscle memory. That starts with basics that do not depend on the size of a farm: fit-tested respirators or well-fitting disposable masks when handling sick animals, splash protection for eyes in parlors, hand and boot hygiene, and a simple ten-day symptom check after exposure. NIOSH maintains the playbook for respirators and surface and bioaerosol sampling if a state team needs to evaluate a barn. Even without formal inspections, producers and cooperatives can adopt these standards as conditions of pickup, just as they already do for milk quality. CDC+2CDC+2

Two other signals matter for the months ahead. First, virus movement is now tracked directly in cattle and indirectly in milk. APHIS posts herd detections and milk-testing updates on a weekly cadence, so local health departments and cooperatives can see spread in near-real time. Second, federal food-safety agencies are keeping the retail lens sharp. FDA keeps updating its milk-safety page with studies and retail surveys, and when states have recalled raw milk during the outbreak, those notices have moved fast. The public message stays the same. Pasteurized milk remains safe. Raw milk does not. USDA APHIS+1U.S. Food and Drug Administration

If you are writing this for a global audience, the takeaway is simple. When an animal virus crosses into a staple food system, consumer safety and worker safety can diverge. The United States has shown how to harden milk safety through testing and pasteurization. The harder part is protecting the people who keep the line running, especially where enforcement and resources are thinnest. Until farm PPE, sick-leave norms, and exposure monitoring are as routine as bulk-tank tests, the blind spot stays open.

Sources to cite in your piece

• USDA APHIS livestock H5N1 dashboard and landing resources on H5N1 in livestock, updated through July 2025. USDA APHIS+1

• USDA National Milk Testing Strategy page and January 2025 press release adding 15 states. direct.aphis.usda.govUSDA

• USDA FSIS notice extending the dairy-cow carcass H5N1 testing program through September 30, 2025. Food Safety and Inspection Service

• CDC current situation summary on H5N1 in dairy cows. CDC

• USDA worker guidance for exposed dairy staff. USDA APHIS

• FDA H5N1 milk safety page and pasteurization studies and Q&A. U.S. Food and Drug Administration+1

• OSHA small-farm enforcement limitation and directive. OSHA+1

When bird flu meets the milking shift