H5N1 survives in cheese made from unpasturized milk

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/avian-influenza-bird-flu/aging-might-not-be-enough-eliminate-h5n1-viruses-raw-milk-cheese
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.13.643009v1.full.pdf
This was part of an evaluation that the FDA started in Dec 2024.  The Silo study that they were supposed to have started in October (10/3) probably never got started.  That project was supposed to test the pasturization process because the CDC had found that the virus may be surviving the most common pasteurization method.
The current study was funded by the FDA.  It found that the virus could survive for at least 60 days after the cheese was made.  They did the study at various pH levels and found that pH 5.0 did inactivate the virus by 60 days, but not at higher pH.  They verified their results on actual cheese samples made from infected raw milk from a dairy making cheese from raw milk that had made a batch with some of their cows infected.  They found that they could detect live virus for up to 60 days.  They have been worried about it since Dec. and they likely need to update their warnings.
Since the pasteurization method were likely never tested (their protocol was bogus and wouldn't have done any decent job of evaluating pasteurization) and the child in Calif and the adult in Missouri only had contact with dairy cows through the milk that they drank, my guess is that they never wanted to know the answer, because they had previously claimed that the milk supply was safe.
Ron Okimoto