California health officials are warning people to avoid a certain batch of raw milk after it tested positive for the bird flu.
The state says Raw Farm, LLC of Fresno County has voluntarily recalled a batch of cream top, whole raw milk with the lot code 20241109. It has a best by date of 11/27/2024.
"Consumers should immediately return any remaining product to the store where it was purchased," the California Department of Public Health said on Sunday.
No illnesses linked to the raw milk have been reported, health officials said.
Raw Farm emphasized follow-up testing produced negative results for the virus.
"We're not making a big deal about it, because it's not a big deal," Kaleigh Stanziani, VP of Marketing at Raw Farm, said in a video statement released along with a press release. "That's kind of the awkward thing about this voluntary recall. We have had only negative test results and so has CDFA."
Raw Farm's CEO and founder Mark McAfee told Scripps News that the California Department of Public Health received a sample of raw milk from a county health department inspector in Santa Clara, Calif. McAfee also questioned the chain of custody in obtaining and testing the sample.
Scripps News reached out to the California Department of Public Health for clarity on the process in which the sample in question was obtained but had not heard back as of the publishing of this story.
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Bird flu is a virus that typically spreads in wild birds, but more recently it has been detected in dairy cows and other mammals. The risk to humans is rare.
"For most of us right now the risk is low," said Andrew Pekosz, a virologist and professor in Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. "Public health officials are really responding to this avian flu outbreak to try to minimize and contain it, so it doesn't become more widespread than it already is."
Drinking raw milk has gained new attention because of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — President-elect Trump's pick to be the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Kennedy has promoted raw milk and claimed it has health benefits
McAfee shares that position and said his farm performs rigorous tests to ensure the safety of the milk it produces. He also said consumers should not be alarmed by the voluntary recall.
"You have nothing to worry about whatsoever," McAfee said.
But health officials refute that.
The FDA says unpasteurized milk can pose a serious health risk.
"The science really doesn't support any kind of benefits of raw milk over the potential risk that you can have in terms of getting infected with things that can seriously cause illness in you," Pekosz said.
The sale of raw milk is legal in almost every state, but retail sale of unpasteurized milk is only legal in about a dozen states.
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"No person-to-person spread of bird flu has been detected in California or the U.S. To date, all cases have reported mild symptoms (primarily eye infections), and none have been hospitalized," the California Department of Public Health said.
Symptoms of bird flu include cough, sore throat, eye redness, respiratory issues and fever.
