United States: California has ceased distributing raw milk products from Raw Farm as additional testing of two samples of its products came back positive for bird flu, state officials reported on Tuesday.
Impact on California’s Dairy Industry
Bird flu has been circulating among the U.S. dairy cattle since March and has affected nearly half of the 500 herds in California, the U.S D.A said. In their recent findings, some people have been advised to avoid raw milk since it has what people might refer to as bird flu, as reported by Reuters.
Raw Farm currently produces raw milk from 1700 cows and sells 70,000 gallons (265,000 liters) weekly, according to the owner Mark McAfee.
According to the US Food and Drug Administration, pasteurized milk products are safe because the process eliminates the bird flu virus, stated California authorities.
Raw milk can be sold in thirty states as a result of this ruling.
There is no report that people have contracted bird flu through raw milk, but many cats have been reported to die from raw milk, according to the U.C.C.D.P.
Safety in Pasteurized Milk
Raw milk constitutes less than 1% of fluid milk sales in the United States and can be part of the products that include psychedelics and sunshine, which RFK junior – soon to be the head of Trump’s health department has claimed that the FDA is withholding from the American people.
Just last week, the California Department of Public Health pulled two lots of products from Raw Farm after retail testing conducted by officials from Santa Clara County.
The California Department of Food and Agriculture confirmed on Tuesday that the farm is under quarantine, and the distribution of its raw milk product is stopped. State dairy inspectors collected a milk sample on the farm on November 27th, which returned positive for bird flu the next day, according to spokesman Steve Lyle.
McAfee from Raw Farm also told me that Kennedy is considering him for a policy place at the FDA, and McAfee himself is a consumer of Kennedy.
Kennedy is to be approved by the Senate after Trump’s inauguration in January. A representative for Kennedy declined to comment when contacted.
McAfee estimates his distribution will shut down in one to two months and, in the meantime, is delivering his milk to the bulk milk supply to bottle, pasteurize, and sell as other brands.
Nationwide Testing Initiative
Speaking to the state health department, it was clear that Santa Clara is the only county testing retail milk products for bird flu in California. According to the county public health department, it has been carrying out testing on one retail container of raw milk from every dairy that sells raw milk in the county every week since June.
In October, the USDA announced that it would launch a nationwide bulk milk testing program in a bid to try to rein in the spread of the virus among cattle that are used for milk production, as reported by Reuters.
H5N1 bird flu has infected almost 60 in the U.S. this year; the CDC revealed 31 were in California, most of them farm workers infected with flu-stricken poultry and cattle.