Health
Bird flu virus found in grocery store milk, but no risk to customers, FDA says
CDC issues alert over bird flu case
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Samples of pasteurized milk on grocery store shelves have tested positive for remnants of the bird flu virus that has already infected herds of dairy cows, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Tuesday.
The FDA stressed that the material is inactivated and that the findings “do not represent [an] actual virus that may be a risk to consumers.” Officials added that they’re continuing to study the issue.
Bird flu virus, known as Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) or H5N1, is a disease that is highly contagious and often deadly in poultry.
Infection with the virus causes decreased lactation, low appetite and other symptoms in affected cattle, the FDA says.
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The FDA says pasteurized milk on grocery store shelves has tested positive for remnants of the bird flu virus, but there is no risk to customers’ safety. (iStock)
The FDA and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said that commercial milk supply is safe because of the pasteurization process.
The pasteurization process involves killing harmful bacteria and viruses by heating milk to a specific temperature for a set period of time to make milk safer. Federal regulations require milk that enters interstate commerce to be pasteurized.
“The pasteurization process has served public health well for more than 100 years,” the FDA said. “Even if [the] virus is detected in raw milk, pasteurization is generally expected to eliminate pathogens to a level that does not pose a risk to consumer health.”
“To date, we have seen nothing that would change our assessment that the commercial milk supply is safe.”
Pasteurization is different from complete sterilization, which extends shelf life but is not required to ensure milk safety, the agency said.
Officials with the FDA and the USDA had previously said milk from affected cattle did not enter the commercial supply. Milk from sick animals is supposed to be diverted and destroyed.
FDA officials did not indicate how many samples they tested or where they were obtained. The agency has been evaluating milk during processing and from grocery stores, officials said. Results of additional tests are expected in “the next few days to weeks.”
The PCR lab test the FDA used would have detected viral genetic material even after a live virus was killed by pasteurization or heat treatment, Lee-Ann Jaykus, an emeritus food microbiologist and virologist at North Carolina State University told the Associated Press.
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Cows being milked while riding a slowly-moving carousel. (Edwin Remsberg/VW Pics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
“There is no evidence to date that this is [an] infectious virus and the FDA is following up on that,” Jaykus said.
Scientists confirmed the H5N1 virus in dairy cows in March after weeks of reports that cows in Texas were suffering from a mysterious malady.
The FDA says HPAI has now been confirmed in domestic livestock in 33 herds across eight states: Idaho, New Mexico, Texas, South Dakota, Kansas, Michigan, Ohio, and North Carolina.
While the virus is lethal to commercial poultry, most infected cattle seem to recover within two weeks, experts say.
The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) echoed the FDA’s assertions that pasteurization is effective against HPAI and that commercial milk supply is safe.
“Viral fragments detected after pasteurization are nothing more than evidence that the virus is dead; they have zero impact on human health,” the NMPF said in a statement.
“Further, the federal PMO prohibits milk from sick cows from entering the food supply chain. Milk and milk products produced and processed in the United States are among the safest in the world.”
Bird flu virus has been found in samples of pasteurized milk on grocery store shelves but there is no risk to customers, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Tuesday. (iStock)
The news comes after a goat in Minnesota tested positive HPAI in February, which marked the first U.S. case of bird flu in domestic cattle, sheep, goats or their relatives.
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The positive juvenile goat was residing on a Stevens County farm that already had bird flu infected poultry, according to the Minnesota Board of Animal Health.
To date, two people in the U.S. have been infected with bird flu. A Texas dairy worker who was in close contact with an infected cow earlier this year developed “eye redness” and has recovered, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
In 2022, a prison inmate in a work program caught it while killing infected birds at a Colorado poultry farm. His only symptom was fatigue and he also recovered.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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As colorectal cancer (CRC) is now the leading cause of cancer death in adults under 50, a new report reveals some surprising shifts in the incidence of the disease.
Although rates of CRC have been declining among seniors, those 65 and under are facing a rise in diagnoses, according to a report titled Colorectal Cancer Statistics, 2026, from the American Cancer Society.
Adults 65 and younger comprise nearly half (45%) of all new colorectal cancer cases — a significant increase from 27% in 1995, states the report, which was published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.
The disease is rising fastest among adults 20 to 49 years old, at a rate of 3% per year.
Colorectal cancer is now the leading cause of cancer death in adults under 50. (iStock)
Among adults 50 and under, 75% of colorectal cancers are diagnosed at an advanced stage. Half of the diagnoses in that age range are made between the ages of 45 and 49. Although that age group is eligible to receive routine screenings, just 37% do so.
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The report also revealed that rectal cancer is on the rise, now accounting for about one-third (32%) of all CRC cases — an increase from 27% in the mid-2000s.
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“After decades of progress, the risk of dying from colorectal cancer is climbing in younger generations of men and women, confirming a real uptick in disease because of something we’re doing or some other exposure,” said Rebecca Siegel, senior scientific director, surveillance research at the American Cancer Society and lead author of the report, in a press release.
Among adults 50 and under, 75% of colorectal cancers are diagnosed at an advanced stage. Half of the diagnoses in that age range are made between the ages of 45 and 49. (iStock)
“We need to redouble research efforts to understand the cause, but also circumvent deaths through earlier detection by educating clinicians and the general public about symptoms and increasing screening in people 45-54 years.”
It is projected that 158,850 new cases of colorectal cancer will be diagnosed this year, and that the disease will cause 55,230 deaths, per the report.
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More than half of CRC cases can be linked to high-risk behaviors, the researchers said. Those include lack of nutrition, high alcohol consumption, smoking, lack of exercise and obesity.
“These findings further underscore that colorectal cancer is worsening among younger generations and highlight the immediate need for eligible adults to begin screening at the recommended age of 45,” said Dr. William Dahut, chief scientific officer at the American Cancer Society.
When the disease is caught at a local (early) stage, the five-year survival rate is 95%. (iStock)
“The report also shines a light on the crucial importance of continued funding for research to help discover new therapies to treat the disease and advance patient care.”
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When the disease is caught at a local (early) stage, the five-year survival rate is 95%, the report stated.
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A new study suggests that middle-aged men may be more vulnerable to faster biological aging, potentially linked to exposure to “forever chemicals.”
The research, published in the journal Frontiers in Aging, examined how perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, more commonly known as PFAS, could impact aging at the cellular level.
PFAS are synthetic chemicals commonly used in nonstick cookware, food packaging, water-resistant fabrics and other consumer products, the study noted.
Their chemical structure makes them highly resistant to breaking down, allowing them to accumulate in water, soil and the human body.
Chinese researchers analyzed blood samples from 326 adults enrolled in the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 1999 and 2000.
A new study suggests that middle-aged men could face accelerated biological aging at the cellular level due to exposure to PFAS. (iStock)
The researchers measured levels of 11 PFAS compounds in participants’ blood and used DNA-based “epigenetic clocks” — tools that analyze chemical changes to DNA to estimate biological age — to determine how quickly their bodies were aging at the cellular level, the study stated.
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Two compounds, perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) and perfluorooctanesulfonamide (PFOSA), were detected in 95% of participants.
Higher concentrations of those chemicals were associated with faster biological aging in men of certain age groups, but not in women.
“People should not panic.”
The compounds most strongly linked to accelerated aging were not the PFAS chemicals that typically receive the most public attention, the researchers noted.
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“The associations were strongest in adults aged 50 to 64, particularly in men,” Dr. Xiangwei Li, professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine and the study’s corresponding author, told Fox News Digital.
“While this does not establish that PFAS cause aging, it suggests that these widely present ‘forever chemicals’ may be linked to molecular changes related to long-term health and aging.”
The study found that two of the compounds were detected in 95% of participants, and higher levels were linked to faster biological aging in men ages 50–64. (iStock)
Midlife may represent a more sensitive biological period, when the body becomes more vulnerable to age-related stressors, according to the researchers.
Lifestyle factors, such as smoking, may influence biological aging markers, potentially increasing vulnerability to environmental pollutants.
While Li said “people should not panic,” she does recommend looking for reasonable ways to reduce exposure.
That might mean checking local drinking water reports, using certified water filters designed to reduce PFAS, and limiting the use of stain- or grease-resistant products when alternatives are available.
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Meaningful reductions in PFAS exposure will likely depend on broader regulatory action and environmental cleanup efforts, Li added.
The researchers noted that midlife could be a particularly sensitive stage, when the body is more susceptible to stressors associated with aging. (iStock)
Study limitations
The researchers outlined several important limitations of the research, including that the findings show an association, but do not prove that PFAS directly causes accelerated aging.
“The study is cross-sectional, meaning exposure and aging markers were measured at the same time, so we cannot determine causality,” Li told Fox News Digital.
The study was also relatively small, limited to 326 adults age 50 or older, which means the findings may not apply to younger people or broader populations.
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Researchers measured PFAS levels using data collected between 1999 and 2000, and today’s exposure patterns may differ.
Li added that while PFAS is known to persist in the environment and the body, these results should be validated through larger, more recent studies that follow participants over time.
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