APHIS now describes the National Milk Testing Strategy as a five-stage roadmap for states to show elimination of H5N1 from dairy herds. The public-facing terms are bureaucratic but important: provisional unaffected, unaffected, and affected. The strategy combines dairy processing-plant silo monitoring, state surveillance, case investigation, and mandatory testing for interstate movement of lactating dairy cattle. [1]

The paper's May 10 brief on Idaho H5N1 and loosened APHIS testing focused on the tension between an ongoing dairy problem and a lighter interstate rule. Tuesday's update is about classification. A state is no longer just a place with or without a recent headline case; it is a category in a federal testing map.

CDC's human-monitoring page shows why that matters. From February 2022 through April 25, 2026, at least 33,000 people exposed to infected animals were monitored and at least 1,340 were tested for novel influenza A. Since September 28, 2025, at least 4,800 people were monitored and at least 150 were tested. [2]

The dispute is not whether testing exists. It is whether classification becomes control, or only a calmer way to describe persistence. APHIS says the roadmap is meant to support enhanced biosecurity and protect farmworkers; CDC says it is still seeing no unusual flu activity in people. Those are reassuring sentences, but they require the map to keep earning them. [1] [2]

-- NORA WHITFIELD, Chicago