Bird flu virus detected in California raw milk

By Susanne Rust | Los Angeles Times

State health officials confirmed Sunday that H5N1 bird flu virus was detected in a retail sample of raw milk from the Fresno-based Raw Farm dairy.

The sample was collected by officials with the Santa Clara County public health office.

Raw Farm has issued a voluntary recall for all quart and half-gallon-sized milk products produced on Nov. 9, with an expiration date of Nov. 27, with a lot ID of #20241109.

So far, there have been no reports of illness associated with this recall.

Last week, the CDC reported samples taken from a child in Alameda County who was showing mild respiratory symptoms were positive for H5N1. It is unclear how the child was exposed to the virus, although investigators ruled out exposure to infected dairy or poultry animals. They also ruled out raw milk.

Throughout California, 29 people have tested positive for the virus, all but one — the child in Alameda County — are dairy workers. Nationwide, the number is 55, with 32 exposed via dairy, 21 via poultry, and two with no known source.

In addition, a teenager in British Columbia was also infected and has remained in critical condition for more than two weeks. The source of that child’s infection also remains unknown.

Since March, 402 California dairy herds have tested positive in the state; 616 herds have tested positive nationwide.

Mark McAfee, the owner of Raw Farm, said that the testing he and the California Department of Food and Agriculture have conducted on his milk — since he started voluntary testing in late April — have all been negative.

“In the last two days CDFA has collected extra dairy samples from our farm bulk tanks and even retail samples and they are all officially Negative for HPAI,” he wrote in a statement. HPAI is the acronym for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza; it is often used interchangeably with H5N1, as well as other highly pathogenic bird influenza strains.

Raw Farm is the largest producer and retailer of raw milk in the state, where the product is legally sold in retail stores. McAfee said he has about 1,800 head of cattle on two dairies — one in Fresno, the other near Hanford.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration does not allow for the interstate transfer of raw milk for human consumption and advises the public not to drink or consume raw milk products. Officials say that pasteurization inactivates the virus.

Several states have recently changed laws to legalize raw milk products, including Iowa, Louisiana and Delaware — which all changed laws this spring allowing for wider consumer access.

In addition, President-elect Trump’s nomination for Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is a vocal proponent of raw milk and has said he wants to increase peoples’ access to unpasteurized milk.

The Raw Farm recall notice requests that stores remove the product from its shelves and urges consumers to return the product to the store from which it was purchased for a free replacement or refund.

MCafee said it is unlikely any of the product remains on store shelves.

“It’s all gone,” he said. “We take back anything that doesn’t sell after seven days.”

The virus has shown up in wastewater sites across Santa Clara County, including Palo Alto, San Jose, Gilroy and Sunnyvale.

It’s also been detected in 24 of the 28 California wastewater systems tested by WastewaterScan — an infectious disease monitoring network led by researchers at Stanford, Emory University, with lab testing partner Verily, Alphabet Inc.’s life sciences organization.

We are living in a “very highly charged time for raw milk,” MCafee said. “It’s all over the news with RFK announcing he wants raw milk for everyone to improve the immunity and gut microbiome for America.”

“Our mission is to nourish our consumers with the highest quality raw milk and that is what we are doing,” he said, citing his testing protocol and history with the state’s agriculture department.