Water Damage Restoration in Fresno, CA

After two limited recalls, all raw milk and cream from a Fresno-based dairy farm must be removed from store shelves. The cows at Raw Farm are infected with H5N1 bird flu, state officials say.

The recall, which is voluntary, encompasses all milk and cream products not included in the recalls announced last month, officials said in a statement Tuesday night.

State officials quarantined the Raw Farm dairy herds — which are in Fresno and outside Hanford — Thursday and suspended future sales.

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This new recall is meant to remove all products remaining on store shelves.

Public health officials identified the H5N1 virus in retail raw milk samples on Nov. 21 and Nov. 27. Further testing of Raw Farm’s bulk milk storage and bottling facility showed more of the virus.

The recall applies only to raw whole milk and cream. However, the state is urging consumers to avoid other raw milk products, including cheese and kefir, as well as raw milk pet food products, including “raw milk pet food topper” and “pet food kefir.”

The state’s Department of Food and Agriculture has placed the farm under quarantine and has suspended distribution of any raw milk product produced on or after Nov. 27.

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No human bird flu cases have yet been associated with raw milk products from Raw Farm.

State health officials warn that drinking or accidentally inhaling raw milk infected with H5N1 could lead to illness.

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“In addition, touching your eyes, nose, or mouth with unwashed hands after touching raw milk with bird flu virus may also lead to infection,” state officials said in a statement.

Symptoms of bird flu infection include eye redness or discharge, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, diarrhea, vomiting, muscle or body aches, headaches, fatigue, trouble breathing and fever.

“Anyone who has consumed these specific products and is experiencing these symptoms, should immediately contact their health care provider or local health department,” the statement said.

Less than a week after California health officers confirmed a finding of bird flu virus in store-bought raw milk, state agriculture officials descended on Mark McAfee’s Raw Farm dairy “like never before” Wednesday and began collecting samples from the farm’s two herds, creamery, bulk milk tanks and trucks, according to the owner.

The visit follows a recall of Raw Farm products, and also comes amid a growing series of H5N1 bird flu outbreaks in state dairy farms. Raw Farm maintains 1,800 head of cattle spread over two herds — one in Fresno, the other outside of Hanford, according to McAfee. The company also owns a Fowler-based creamery.

“I think they are on full attack mode,” he said, describing the search as thorough. In addition to milk, Raw Farm produces cheese and kefir.

As California Department of Food and Agriculture officials collected samples and conducted tests at the dairy Wednesday, some health experts raised questions and concerns about the recent positive test results.

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Nov. 26, 2024

Last week, public health officials in Santa Clara County detected bird flu virus in a store-bought sample of McAfee’s raw milk. Two days later, the California Department of Public Health confirmed the finding.

But when state agriculture officials tested cows at McAfee’s dairy farm on Monday, they failed to detect the virus.

The fact that none of the animals are known to be infected with the virus has puzzled and concerned public health experts. Generally, once the virus appears on a farm, it spreads and does not just disappear.

“The fact that all the supplemental testing is negative really bothers me,” said John Korslund, a retired U.S. Department of Agriculture veterinarian epidemiologist, in an email.

Officials from the CDFA could not be reached for comment Wednesday, but infectious disease experts told The Times that officials were likely reviewing testing procedures, as well as the actual origin of the sampled milk.

According to testing records, the initial sample of store-bought raw milk carried high levels of the virus, and was found to have a polymerase chain reaction cycle threshold — or Ct — of roughly 25.

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“A herd should not be immediately negative after a reading of 25 if it is truly milk from the same herd, IMO,” Korslund wrote in an email.

Richard Webby, director of the World Health Organization’s Collaborating Center for Studies on the Ecology of Influenza in Animals and Birds, and a researcher in the department of Infectious Diseases at St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., agreed.

“OK, that’s not a weak positive … and definitely not on the borderline where some tests would be positive and others negative,” he said after reviewing the test records.

Webby, Korslund and other experts say the test that was used only looks for the H5 part of the H5N1 virus, and it can’t determine if the virus is inactive, or alive. A second test — one called a virus isolation test — needs to be done to confirm the sample is H5N1 and that it is active.

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State and federal health officials say the H5N1 bird flu virus poses a low risk to the public. However, they have urged people not to drink raw, unpasteurized milk. There has been no reported outbreak in consumers associated with the bird flu in contaminated raw milk.

The milk was bottled on Nov. 9. Raw Farm LLC has recalled all products associated with the positive sample. McAfee estimates the recall involved roughly 2,000 gallons of half- and quarter-gallon “cream top” whole milk products.

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Since the beginning of the outbreak, 461 herds have been infected in California — including herds in Fresno and Kings County, where McAfee’s herds are located.

Early in the H5N1 dairy outbreak, federal health officials tested pasteurized milk samples and found virus in 20% of the samples collected from retail shelves. However, when further testing was conducted — virus isolation — they were able to show it was inactivated virus that had been denatured by heat.

So, why then would a raw milk sample test highly for virus and a dairy herd not test positive?

Korslund acknowledged that testing and sampling can sometimes be compromised, but he was not inclined to doubt the tests in this instance. He said the Ct value — and the lack of subsequent positive tests — suggests a “product integrity issue rather than a herd infection.”

“What if somewhere in the bottling process, pasteurized shelf milk was spiked into the raw milk to meet inadequate supply demands? In such a scenario, we don’t have a testing issue; rather it’s a product integrity issue that normally would be undetectable,” he said.

This is why virus isolation testing is critical, Korslund said. It would help determine whether the virus in the sample collected was alive or not.

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A spokesman for the state’s health department said testing on the sample was complete. He did not say whether viral isolation had been completed, but noted the positive result has been confirmed by state and now federal laboratories.

McAfee said he does not think the virus is present in his herd. The tests that the state’s agriculture department have been regularly conducting — twice a week — on his bulk milk have been negative. In addition, he noted, a test taken on Monday also showed no virus.

In addition, he said, he monitors each cow at his farms with a high-tech device — made by the Austrian company smaXtec — which sits in a cow’s udder and sends real-time information about the animal’s body temperature, milk acidity, etc.

He said there are no indications that virus is moving through his herd based on that data.

He also said all his equipment — from his trucks, to his bulk tanks and bottling plant — are closed to outside farms and milk; they are used only by Raw Farm, LLC.

He said he’s worried state officials are determined “to find something.”

State health officials said Sunday that bird flu virus was detected in a retail sample of raw milk from the Fresno-based Raw Farm dairy.

The sample was collected by officials with the Santa Clara County public health office, who have been testing raw milk products from retail stores “as a second line of consumer protection.”

County officials identified the virus in “one sample of raw milk purchased at a retail outlet” on Nov. 21, according to statements from both the state and the county. The county contacted stores on Friday and recommended they pull the raw milk from sale. The test results were confirmed on Saturday by the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory System at UC Davis.

“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,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University in Providence, R.I. “What we don’t know is how much risk H5N1 poses to people that drink unpasteurized, infected milk.”

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The test was positive only for the “H5” part of the virus. However, health officials say an H5 finding in a California dairy product is likely H5N1. No other H5 bird flu viruses have been detected in dairy cows.

Raw Farm has issued a voluntary recall for all quart- and half-gallon-sized milk products produced on Nov. 9, with an expiration date of Nov. 27, with a lot ID of #20241109.

So far, there have been no reports of illness associated with this recall.

“Out of an abundance of caution, and due to the ongoing spread of bird flu in dairy cows, poultry, and sporadic human cases, consumers should not consume any of the affected raw milk,” wrote the state’s health officials in a statement.

Nuzzo said evidence from animal studies suggests the virus “could pose a risk if ingested in large enough quantities, but we have not yet seen human cases resulting from raw milk consumption. Given that ingestion of raw milk has no credible health benefits, I personally would avoid drinking it.”

Researchers have found that barn cats who drink raw milk tend to die as a result of their exposure. And laboratory studies have shown similar results.

Last week, the CDC reported samples taken from a child in Alameda County who was showing mild respiratory symptoms were positive for H5N1. It is unclear how the child was exposed to the virus, although investigators ruled out exposure to infected dairy or poultry animals. They also ruled out raw milk.

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Throughout California, 29 people have tested positive for the virus, and all but one — the child in Alameda County — are dairy workers. Nationwide, the number is 55, with 32 exposed via dairy, 21 via poultry, and two with no known source.

In addition, a teenager in British Columbia was also infected, and has remained in critical condition for more than two weeks. The source of that child’s infection also remains unknown.

There is no evidence of person-to-person transmission of the virus.

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Nov. 22, 2024

Since March, 402 California dairy herds have tested positive in the state; 616 herds have tested positive nationwide.

Mark McAfee, the owner of Raw Farm, said that the testing he and the California Department of Food and Agriculture have conducted on his milk — since he started voluntary testing in late April — have all been negative.

“In the last two days CDFA has collected extra dairy samples from our farm bulk tanks and even retail samples and they are all officially Negative for HPAI,” he wrote in a statement. HPAI is the acronym for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza; it is often used interchangeably with H5N1, as well as other highly pathogenic bird influenza strains.

The California Department of Public Health confirmed that the agriculture department had tested McAfee’s milk after receiving news of the finding, and results were negative.

Raw Farm is the largest producer and retailer of raw milk in the state, where the product is legally sold in retail stores. McAfee said he has about 1,800 head of cattle on two dairies — one in Fresno, the other near Hanford.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration does not allow for the interstate transfer of raw milk for human consumption, and advises the public not to drink or consume raw milk products. Officials say that pasteurization inactivates the virus.

Several states have recently changed laws to legalize raw milk products, including Iowa, Louisiana and Delaware — which all changed laws this spring allowing for wider consumer access.

In addition, President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination for Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is a vocal proponent of raw milk and has said he wants to increase people’s access to unpasteurized milk.

The Raw Farm recall notice requests that stores remove the product from its shelves, and urges consumers to return the product to the store from which it was purchased for a free replacement or refund.

McAfee said it is unlikely any of the product remains on store shelves.

“It’s all gone,” he said. “We take back anything that doesn’t sell after seven days.”

The virus has shown up in wastewater sites across Santa Clara County, including Palo Alto, San Jose, Gilroy and Sunnyvale.

It’s also been detected in 24 of the 28 California wastewater systems tested by WastewaterScan — an infectious disease monitoring network led by researchers at Stanford, Emory University, with lab testing partner Verily, Alphabet Inc.’s life sciences organization.

We are living in a “very highly charged time for raw milk,” McAfee said. “It’s all over the news with RFK announcing he wants raw milk for everyone to improve the immunity and gut microbiome for America.”

“Our mission is to nourish our consumers with the highest quality raw milk and that is what we are doing,” he said, citing his testing protocol and history with the state’s agriculture department.