By Matthew Goodbred
@redlineproject
Human cases of H5N1 avian influenza A, commonly known as the bird flu virus, are slowly rising across the United States. For the first time, this year’s outbreak is heavily linked to dairy cows, which has led to recalls of contaminated raw milk products in California.
The spread of bird flu among dairy cows has increased the chance of infection of those who consume raw milk products, Raw Farm, located in Fresno, California, has issued a recall on all of its raw milk and cream products produced between Nov. 9 and Nov. 27 due to bird flu contamination in retail products. This recall does not extend to any pasteurized milk products as the pasteurization process renders the virus inactive.
Bird flu virus is commonly spread from infected wild birds through their bodily fluids which can infect many other animals, including poultry, livestock animals, and humans. Human-to-human transmission is very rare but should still be avoided as the virus can mutate to more easily infect humans, this particular outbreak new links to dairy cows and timing close to the typical US flu season have increased this worry.
The first cases of dairy cows infected with bird flu virus began in March of this year, which has since spread to hundreds of herds, with most infected herds being in California.
Nearly all 58 confirmed human cases of the H5N1 so far have been farm workers who have come in contact with infected cows or poultry. Most cases have been mild, and none have yet been related to the consumption of raw milk products.