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People should n’t tope raw milk in an attempt to clear exemption from bird flu , health experts have warned .
These warnings follow tidings that a bird flu subtype calledH5N1 was get in cattle herdsacross the U.S. and report that the computer virus has beendetected in unpasteurized , or raw , milksamples collect from sick cows .
Raw milk sales have reportedly increased following news of bird flu detected in U.S. dairy cows.
Since March 25 , shortly after news of the moo-cow infections first came to faint , hebdomadal sales of natural milk have increase by as much as 21 % compared with previous years , the market research firmNielsenIQ revealed to PBS . Anecdotally , farmers have report that consumers are seeking raw Milk River to potentially gain immunity from H5N1 .
However , experts have warned that this unmistakable uptick in natural milk consumption could harm individuals ' health in multiple ways and also increases the possible action that the bird flu virus could spill over to humans .
" advisedly consume cutting milk in the hope of becoming resistant to avian influenza is playing Russian toothed wheel with your health,“Mike Payne , a researcher at the Western Institute for Food Safety and Security at the University of California , Davis , told theLA Times . " Deliberately trying to taint yourself with a known pathogen flies in the expression of all medical knowledge and usual sense . "
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H5N1 is a subtype of highly pathogenic avianinfluenza(HPAI ) , a type of influenza that induce severe disease and end in birds . The virus typically causes irruption in domestic fowl and can be carry by furious birds that do n’t needfully get gruesome . However , a late eruption has been propagate among mammal . In the past few yr , the computer virus has infect at least48 mammal species , include foxes , skunks , raccoons , sealsandpolar bears .
The virus has also made its means to dairy farm cows , infecting at least 46 herd across nine U.S. State so far , according to theU.S. Department of Agriculture . Bird grippe viruses like H5N1 can very seldom leap to multitude , and in the current cow eruption , there ’s beenone likely event of cow - to - man transmittance .
However , health official say that the risk of the virus to the general public remains low-down . This is in part due to the pasteurisation process , which set photograph by destroying pathogens in milk before it ’s sold commercially . Researchers are still studying possible ways that the computer virus pass on from skirt to moo-cow , but it ’s believed that the jump was made when infect wild birds came into contact with H2O and food that the oxen consumed .
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration ( FDA ) has statedthat there is n’t enough evidence to know if H5N1 viruses can be transmitted to the great unwashed through unpasteurised milk and dairy products . Due to having special information on the potentiality for infection , the FDA recommends against eat up these products .
Raw milk can also hold disease - causing microbessuch asSalmonellaandListeria monocytogenes , so expert consider it risky to consume even outside the circumstance of bird flu . Notably , between 1998 and 2018 , 202 eruption of malady — most of them bacterial in nature — were linked to drink peeled Milk River , leading to 2,645 illnesses and 228 hospitalizations in the U.S.,according to theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC ) .
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Yet despite these cautions , raw Milk River proponent remain uncowed .
In a web log stake , the California - based Raw Milk Institute ( which claims that pasteurise milk is allergenic to consumers ) has line the warnings from health expert as " distinctly fearmongering . “Mark McAfee , the institute ’s founder and the possessor of Fresno ’s Raw Farm , tell the LA Times that his phone has been ringing off the come-on with " customers asking for H5N1 Milk River because they need immunity from it . "
As of now , there have been no reported casing of human - to - homo transmission of the H5N1 virus , think of it ca n’t yet distribute easily from person to person . But vexation remain that increased picture to human beings could blackmail the virus to make headway the necessary mutations for this leap to occur .
Between 2003 and 2014 , H5N1 has infect about 890 multitude and make 463 expiry in 23 country around the orb , placing the estimated fatality pace at 52%,according to the World Health Organization . Such cases have primarily been reported in connection with hoi polloi having lineal contact with septic animals .
The CDC notesthat while some cases of bird flu cause no or few symptoms , others have reported colds , coughs as well as fever , and the disease can sometimes be life history - threatening without aesculapian discourse .
This clause is for informational design only and is not meant to offer medical advice .
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