In an effort to rid dairy cows of bird flu, federal agriculture officials are ordering the nation’s raw milk to be tested — a move that’s never been done before. 

To start, six states will be required to send their raw — or unpasteurized — milk to the U.S. Department of Agriculture for testing.

While Minnesota is not in the first round of states, industry leaders say it’s only a matter of time. 

“According to state officials, [they] very much assume that we will be in the testing regime,” Lucas Sjostrom, executive director of the Minnesota Milk Producers Association, said. 

“This is kind of a preventative measure to see what happens next,” Sjostrom added.

He says that pasteurized milk is and has been safe to drink. As for the impact on price, Sjostrom says he doesn’t expect a big immediate impact. 

In March, for the very first time, a case of bird flu was detected in a cow. Since then, more than 700 herds have been confirmed in 15 states.

In Minnesota, Sjostrom says nine herds were infected and that all cows have since recovered. 

About 60 people — mostly farm workers with close contact to dairy cows with bird flu — have become mildly sick. 

From educators and scientists to farmers, there have been calls for national testing for months. 

“It gives us the ability to know where viruses [are], and probably just as important where [the] virus isn’t so we can dedicate our resources into virus elimination across the country,” said Keith Poulson, director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, part of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

He also adds it’s too early to predict impacts due to how fresh this is for everyone. 

“We don’t really know what the long-term effects are for our international trading partners and just dairy cattle health in general. We, you know, we’re only nine months into this,” Poulson said.