UNIVERSITY PARK — After three weeks of testing as required under a state monitoring program for bird flu in dairy cattle, animal health experts in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences revealed that the university’s dairy herd has been certified as free of highly pathogenic avian influenza, or HPAI.

“The Penn State dairy herd has achieved ‘monitored herd’ status under the Pennsylvania Lactating Dairy Cow Health Monitoring Program,” said extension veterinarian Ernest Hovingh, clinical professor of veterinary and biomedical sciences and director of Penn State’s Animal Diagnostic Laboratory. “This means the herd has met all program requirements, including having multiple negative weekly test results for the HPAI virus.”

Penn State announced in July that it would test its herd in response to an outbreak of avian flu that has affected dairy cattle in more than a dozen states since March. As of Aug. 22, the virus had not been found in Pennsylvania dairy herds, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and state animal health authorities.

The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture has encouraged all dairy farms in the state to enroll in its voluntary monitoring program, which is aimed at providing critical data on the status of dairy herds in Pennsylvania and detecting HPAI as quickly as possible should it arrive in the commonwealth.

Research Professor and Attending Veterinarian Jacob Werner said, “It’s a very simple process to take a sample and submit it to the lab and there’s no charge for the testing, since that’s covered by the USDA’s National Animal Health Laboratory Network.”