AMES, Iowa —

When the current outbreak of the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus was detected in dairy cattle in March 2024, a group of researchers at Iowa State University started to ask questions.

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“If this virus can show up in cow milk, can it show up in other types of milk?” Todd Bell, a professor of veterinary pathology at ISU, recalled asking.

Bell, Rahul Nelli, a research assistant professor of veterinary diagnostic and production animal medicine at ISU, and more than a dozen other researchers examined the mammary glands of commonly milked livestock to find out.

Their conclusion: the milk-producing glands of production animals like sheep, goats, beef cattle and alpacas, as well as pigs an

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