United States: Health officials announced that the bird flu virus was found in a sample of raw milk from a California dairy farm. The milk came from Raw Farm, based in Fresno, which is the largest producer of raw dairy in the state. The contaminated sample was discovered by the Santa Clara County public health office, which has been testing milk in stores to keep consumers safe.
The recall of all quart and half-gallon milk products distributed on Nov. 9 is voluntary, Raw Farms said. Bulk testing of raw milk at farms is what has allowed the H5N1 to be discovered on a farm by farm basis in California, so this isn’t surprising given how fast H5N1 is spreading among farms in California and the fact that these outbreaks on farms are being found in large part because of bulk testing of raw milk from farms, Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University, told the Los Angeles Times.
‘We don’t know how close H5N1 is to infecting people who drink unpasteurized [sic], infected milk,’ she said.
As reported by the Nypost, yet health officials said they found only the “H5” part of the virus in the sample collected, but they still believe it’s contaminated with H5N1. There have been no H5 cases reported in the state and no H5 cases have been confirmed in any of the state’s cows.
The latest result is the first time any of Mark McAfee’s products have tested positive for the virus since he began enrolling in voluntary testing in April, said McAfee, who owns Raw Farm.
That’s not the first time Raw Farm has found itself putting bad products on the market while thinking they are good. Earlier this month, the company had to recall its raw cheddar cheese products involving an E. coli outbreak in several states. In October, at least 165 people became sick from a salmonella outbreak linked to the dairy company.
A study of recent animal studies published in the Los Angeles Times stated that recent animal studies found that ‘the bird flu virus could represent a risk if consumed in large quantities, but we have not yet seen human cases of the disease due to consumption of raw milk,’ Nuzzo told the newspaper. Spending money on raw dairy products because raw milk has no nutritional value.