Bird flu detected in raw milk sold at California store

Bird flu, a virus that can also affect humans, has been discovered in a batch of raw milk sold in California store refrigerators, state regulators said Sunday. While there have been no reported illnesses in this most recent case, it comes just a few days after a child tested positive for bird flu for the first time in U.S. history.

Bird flu was detected in whole raw milk from Raw Farm that has a “best by” date of Nov. 27, 2024, the California Department of Public Health said. Raw Farm has issued a voluntary recall, and retailers have been notified to pull the product from their refrigerator racks, the department added. Consumers who may have it in their homes are advised not to drink it.

Concerns over the H5N1 avian virus are mounting this year after scientists began detecting it in mammals such as dairy cows, indoor and outdoor cats, mice and a backyard pig. The H5 virus, formerly understood to circulate only among birds, has now also infected at least 55 people in the United States this year. However, the CDC says that infection via an intermediary animal happens “very rarely.”

Unlike pasteurized milk - which undergoes a heating process that kills bacteria and viruses such as H5N1 - raw milk is associated with a number of serious health risks, including exposure to salmonella, E. coli, brucella, campylobacter and listeria.

“Public health experts have long warned consumers against consuming raw milk or raw milk products due to elevated risks of foodborne illness,” the CDPH said. “Drinking or accidentally inhaling raw milk containing bird flu virus may lead to illness. In addition, touching your eyes, nose, or mouth with unwashed hands after touching raw milk with bird flu virus may also lead to infection,” it added.

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Pasteurization, named after 19th-century chemist Louis Pasteur, has been used routinely in milk production in the United States since the 1920s. By the 1950s, it had become a widespread practice that “led to dramatic reductions in the number of people getting sick,” the CDC said.

The practice is known to kill the H5N1 virus in milk. Yet dairy farmers say they’ve been seeing an increasing demand for unpasteurized milk, with social media influencers and raw dairy evangelists touting raw milk online to millions of viewers, often claiming unproven or largely disproven health benefits. Some states have taken steps to legalize its sale on store shelves. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. - who was recently tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to lead the Department of Health and Human Services - has said he wants to boost access to it.

The actress Gwyneth Paltrow, who has been criticized for touting unsupported health claims via her wellness brand Goop, said in a podcast interview that she drinks unpasteurized cream in her coffee daily, promoting the same brand of raw milk whose product is being pulled from California stores this week.

[RFK Jr. wants fluoride out of drinking water. Oregon shows what might be coming.]

Though it’s possible to contract the virus through drinking raw milk, the majority of known human cases of H5N1 in the United States have been transmitted through close, prolonged and unprotected contact with infected birds - or places contaminated with their bodily fluids, according to the CDC. Humans can become infected when the virus is inhaled through dust or droplets in the air, or gets into a person’s eyes, nose or mouth.

As for symptoms, bird flu in humans has presented itself with a wide range of severity. Some have shown no sign of illness at all, the CDC said, while others have experienced severe symptoms or died of the disease. No deaths have been reported in the United States.