{"id":5415,"date":"2024-05-01T17:26:55","date_gmt":"2024-05-01T17:26:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=5415"},"modified":"2024-05-01T17:28:03","modified_gmt":"2024-05-01T17:28:03","slug":"bird-flu-highlights-concerns-around-raw-milk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=5415","title":{"rendered":"Bird Flu Highlights Concerns Around Raw Milk"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Testing suggests that pasteurization inactivates the virus. But what about raw milk and cheese?<\/p>\n

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While maintaining that avian influenza poses a low risk to the general public, health officials again warned on Wednesday about the potential risk of unpasteurized milk.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe continue to strongly advise against the consumption of raw milk,\u201d Dr. Donald Prater, acting director of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition at the Food and Drug Administration, said at a news conference.<\/p>\n

Raw milk, in the best of times, \u201cis one of the one of the riskiest foods that we have,\u201d said Benjamin Chapman, a professor and food safety specialist at North Carolina State University. But with cases of avian influenza<\/a>, or bird flu, detected in dairy cows, it could potentially be even riskier now, health experts warn.<\/p>\n

Nearly all of the dairy milk sold in stores is pasteurized, and testing by the F<\/a>.D.A. has so far shown that this process inactivates the avian influenza virus H5N1.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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If you\u2019re consuming pasteurized milk or dairy products, \u201cI\u2019m confident the risk is extraordinarily low at this point,\u201d said Dr. Dean Blumberg, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at UC Davis Health.<\/p>\n

Raw milk,<\/a> on the other hand, isn\u2019t pasteurized and can contain dangerous germs. While the Food and Drug Administration has long recommended consumers avoid drinking it, more than two dozen states<\/a> have legalized the sale of raw milk.<\/p>\n

The same bacteria that commonly cause food-borne illnesses, like salmonella,<\/a> E. coli and listeria<\/a>, can fester in raw milk. Between 1998 and 2018, researchers linked over 200<\/a> outbreaks, which sickened 2,645 people and led to 228 hospitalizations, to raw milk. People who are very young or very old, are pregnant or have compromised immune systems are particularly likely to get seriously ill from the pathogens in raw milk, said Darin Detwiler, a food safety expert and professor at the College of Professional Studies at Northeastern University.<\/p>\n