“We are shut down due to testing results showing DEAD VIRUS PIECES in some of our samples. Nothing alive,” McAfee said, despite the fact that testing for live virus is still pending. “We are testing and will have more data soon,” he added.
Another document McAfee sent was an assessment from Margaret E. (Peg) Coleman, a microbiologist and raw milk advocate, who argues, among other things, that there is a lack of evidence of milk-borne transmission of bird flu viruses, specifically high pathogenic avian influenza viruses (HPAI). That includes H5N1, an HPAI that is currently causing an unprecedented nationwide outbreak in US dairy cattle.
Human infections
On this point, Coleman isn’t wrong. The outbreak of H5N1, which was declared in March, is the first time an HPAI has been detected in US cows. And the outbreak has been like no other seen anywhere in the world before. As such, there are many questions and unknowns about the risk the dairy outbreak poses to humans, including whether people can be infected with the virus by drinking high levels of it in milk.
To date, no human infections have been linked to Raw Farm’s raw milk.
However, real-world evidence from H5N1 infections in dairy workers strongly indicates that people can become infected from milk. To date, at least 34 dairy workers in the US have developed H5N1 infections after working with infected cows. The workers’ infections are largely thought to occur via milk, including from having milk splashed in their eyes or touching their faces with milk-contaminated hands. One of the most common symptoms among dairy workers is conjunctivitis, aka pink eye.
In its alert last week, the California health department warned that while pasteurization effectively kills bird flu, raw milk consumers are at risk of the virus, writing:
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