The California Department of Public Health has warned consumers to avoid a single batch of Fresno-based company Raw Farm’s cream-top milk after a retail sample showed a positive detection of bird flu virus. The Department of Food and Agriculture, meanwhile, says 436 dairies have been affected since the virus first appeared in the state, 34 of which were announced Tuesday, Nov. 26.
Anja Raudabaugh, chief executive officer of Western United Dairies, said she’s not surprised there’s a raw milk recall in the midst of this avian flu outbreak.
“Raw milk is incredibly dangerous and we didn't need bird flu to know the dangers of drinking raw milk,” she said, noting that the detection demonstrates the thoroughness of California’s surveillance net.
Raudabaugh said farmers are “pretty stressed out” as the pathogen spreads northward up the state, but also saw this coming. She said the state veterinarian has warned the industry that the peak would occur around 600 to 700 herds.
“The quarantine procedures alone are enough to really set you back, not just with your sanity, but the cows get very sick,” she said.
Raudabaugh has spent time recently educating people outside of agriculture that this is not another pandemic, especially since there’s been no recorded human-to-human transmission.
But last week, CDPH located a possible bird flu case in a child from Alameda County, who had no known contact with an infected animal.
A CDPH spokesperson told Agri-Pulse that the case is a presumptive H5N1, though the Centers for Disease Control are conducting additional confirmatory testing and the initial positive test is still under investigation.
The agency also reported that no other person-to-person spread was detected or suspected and all other individuals who came in contact are being offered preventative treatment and testing.
David A. Kessler, a former Food and Drug Administration commissioner and former chief science officer under the Biden-Harris administration, wrote in the New York Times on Tuesday that he’s worried the critically-infected teen in British Columbia may be demonstrating a virus mutation that will enable person to person transmission.
He said it's especially worrisome considering the U.S. doesn’t have commercially available lab-produced antibodies to combat widespread human infection, though there are currently enough H5 vaccines to “cover the farmworker community.”
For Raudabaugh, her biggest concern is that California cows that have recovered are not returning to their original production.
“I will put a caveat that it is winter and dairy cows normally slow down in the winter, but they’re only coming back to 60 or 70% of their pre-avian flu level,” Raudabaugh said, adding this is not sustainable in the long term for the industry to meet demand.
