California health officials said that the bird flu virus was detected in a retail sample of raw milk as cases continue to rise across the state.
The bird flu virus was detected in a retail sample of raw milk from a California-based dairy farm as cases continue to rise across the state, health officials announced.
The contaminated sample came from Fresno-based Raw Farm, the largest producer and retailer of raw dairy in California. The tainted sample was detected by officials from the Santa Clara County public health office, which has been testing raw milk already placed in retail stores across the state “as a second line of consumer protection.”
Raw Farms has since issued a voluntary recall of all quart and half-gallon milk products produced on Nov. 9. The products are set to expire on Nov. 27 and have the lot ID #20241109.
No cases associated with the Raw Farms products have been reported yet.
“This isn’t surprising, given how quickly H5N1 seems to be spreading among farms in California and given the fact that these outbreaks on farms are being discovered in large part due to bulk testing of raw milk from farms,” Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University, told the Los Angeles Times.
