Bird flu is detected in raw milk sold in California stores

Cows graze in a field at a dairy farm on April 26, 2024 in Petaluma, California. - Image: Justin Sullivan / Staff (Getty Images)
Cows graze in a field at a dairy farm on April 26, 2024 in Petaluma, California. - Image: Justin Sullivan / Staff (Getty Images)

Bird flu virus has been detected in a batch of raw milk sold in California stores, state health authorities reported.

The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) said on Sunday that it has detected bird flu virus in a retail sample of cream top, whole raw milk produced and packaged by the Fresno County-based Raw Farm, LLC.

For its part, Raw Farm has voluntarily recalled the batch of affected raw milk, which has a “best by” date of 11/27/2024 printed on the packaging.

“Out of an abundance of caution, and due to the ongoing spread of bird flu in dairy cows, poultry, and sporadic human cases, consumers should not consume any of the affected raw milk,” the CDPH said in a news release. “Customers should immediately return any remaining product to the retail point of purchase.”

No illnesses linked to the recall raw milk have been reported at this time.

“All test results performed by Raw Farm and all the official tests by CDFA have been negative,” Raw Farm said in statement on their website. “However, Raw Farm is voluntarily recalling a single lot of Raw Farm milk, only comprised of quart and half gallon fluid milk sizes, with a Lot ID of #20241109 produced on Novemeber 9, 2024 with an expiration date of 11/27/24.”

The CDPH has increased its testing of raw milk in response to the spread of bird flu nationwide. Across the country, there have been 55 human cases of bird flu this year with the majority, 29, of them being reported in California.

The recall also comes as raw milk fan Robert F. Kennedy Jr has recently been named by President-elect Donald Trump as his pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. In a post on X last month, Kennedy criticized the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) “aggressive suppression” of raw milk.

Earlier this year, the FDA said that genetic fragments of the H5N1 bird flu virus have been detected in one in five retail samples of milk it tested.

However, the FDA maintains that commercial, pasteurized milk is still safe to drink. “To date, the retail milk studies have shown no results that would change our assessment that the commercial milk supply is safe,” the FDA said in its update on Thursday.

Pasteurization, the process by which milk is heated to a high temperature for a specific period of time, kills harmful bacteria and viruses. The agency said that even if raw milk was detected to have the virus, the pasteurization process is generally expected to eliminate pathogens to “a level that does not pose a risk to consumer health.”

The CDPH warned that raw milk, which is not pasteurized, has been linked of outbreaks salmonella, listeria, and E. coli.

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