California dairy farm recalls raw milk after bird flu detection

Bird flu virus has been found in a retail sample of raw milk from a Fresno-based Raw Farm, the largest producer and retailer of raw milk in California, health officials have confirmed. This has raised concern among the rising cases across California.
Santa Clara County public health office has now been testing raw milk that’s already available in the retail stores across the state to protect consumers.

The raw milk farm has issued a voluntary recall of all their quart and half-gallon milk products produced on November 9 and which are set to expire on November 27, having the lot ID #20241109.
“This isn’t surprising, given how quickly H5N1 seems to be spreading among farms in California and given the fact that these outbreaks on farms are being discovered in large part due to bulk testing of raw milk from farms,” Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University, told the Los Angeles Times.

Nuzzo added that they are still not clear how much risk H5N1 poses to consumers of the unpasteurized and infected milk.

The dangers of raw milk

Raw milk could be carrier of many dangerous germs like Salmonella, E. coli, Campylobacter, Staphylococcus aureus, Yersinia, Brucella, Coxiella, and Listeria, all of which could pose serious risks to health. Raw milk can also contain viruses such as H5N1 avian influenza. Vulnerable population like children under 5, adults over 65, pregnant women, and people with weak immune system are especially at grave risk from bird flu.

Pasteurizing milk can kill raw milk pathogens without significantly impacting milk nutritional quality.
While only the “H5” part of the virus has been found in the collected sample, health officials feel it may be contaminated with H5N1.
Drinking or inhaling raw milk, touching your eyes, nose, or mouth with unwashed hands after touching raw milk with bird flu virus can all lead to the infection.

Recently, the first US case of H5N1 bird flu was reported in a child in California as per The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The child reportedly experienced mild symptoms and was administered flu antivirals.
Bird flu has been spreading in the US since several months. CDC confirmed that since April 2024, avian influenza A (H5) virus infections in 52 people in the United States have been reported. Twenty-one of these cases were associated with exposure to avian influenza A(H5N1) virus – infected poultry and 30 were associated with exposure to infected dairy cows.