New federal guidelines released Friday will impact Minnesota farmers, as bird flu continues to spread among dairy cows.

This marks the first time in a decade that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has issued a federal order aimed at stopping the spread of a virus among animals.

According to the order, highly pathogenic avian influenza known as H5N1 is “a threat to the poultry industry, animal health, human health, trade, and the economy worldwide.”

Dairy cattle in eight states have tested positive for bird flu since March. So far, Minnesota is not among them.

The new federal order mandates all lactating dairy cows moving between states be tested for the virus, all sick cows be quarantined for 30 days and all positive tests reported to the USDA, effective Monday.

“The federal order is a big deal,” said Joe Armstrong, cattle production systems educator with University of Minnesota Extension. “The federal order has two purposes: one, to show the world that we are doing something about it and we’re trying to find the extent of the problem. And two, it’s to push the industry to come up with a plan. It’s going to change a lot about how cattle move around the country and it’s going to put some constraints on farmers on how they operate their business.”

Earlier this week, fragments of the bird flu virus were detected in grocery store milk samples.

The Food and Drug Administration insists the commercial milk supply is safe, in part because of pasteurization, which heats milk to a specific temperature for a period of time.

“The current level of concern for drinking pasteurized milk is really zero,” said Dr. Stacene Maroushek, pediatric infectious disease physician at Hennepin Healthcare. “The virus in milk has been tiny little particles of virus, not whole virus that are contagious.”

Maroushek said the risk of bird flu in humans remains very low.

A farm worker in Texas was infected last month with mild symptoms. It’s believed to be only the second human case ever in the United States.

“So far, the avian flu has not shown the ability to mutate to be able to pass human to human,” Maroushek said. “It is one of the variants of flu that could potentially be very bad for the human population, so we are being hyper-vigilant about watching it.”

Armstrong said they are also closely watching the spread among cattle, as Minnesota is home to nearly 460,000 dairy cows.

“It can impact the economy drastically and, especially in Minnesota, we rely on our dairy farms as a huge part of our economy,” Armstrong said.