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'milk is safe': new study confirms pasteurization kills bird flu virus h5n1
researchers tested hundreds of american milk products and found no infectious virus in pasteurized items
jul 8 2024
2 minute read
researchers didn't find bird flu virus in any of the pasteurized dairy samples.
tim boyle/getty images
since first reported in march, american officials have confirmed highly pathogenic avian influenza (hpai) in dairy cattle in 12 states, raising questions about whether consuming dairy from infected cows poses a risk to humans. according to the cfia , hpai hasn’t been found in canadian livestock. the virus’s rapid spread across the united states — in roughly 200 cows and three dairy farm workers — led erica spackman, a virologist in the u.s. department of agriculture (usda) in athens, ga., to ask: “how far is the virus getting through?”
according to a new report by spackman and her collaborators published in the journal of virology , a journal of the american society for microbiology, “milk is safe.” after testing hundreds of milk products from different states for avian influenza virus type a (h5n1 , the hpai subtype), they found no infectious virus in pasteurized dairy.
spackman said that the heat used during pasteurization eliminates h5n1. “just like bacterial pathogens that occur in milk, or other viruses that could occur in milk, the sanitation processes that are in place are getting rid of the pathogens.”
in testing 297 pasteurized retail milk products (including 23 different types of dairy items) from 17 states, researchers didn’t find “even the least little bit of virus” in any of the samples. they did, however, detect “totally inactivated,” non-infectious traces of viral genetic material in 20 per cent of samples.
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“(the new findings) give us reassurance that what we have been doing — pasteurization — is keeping us safe from what we don’t know about,” said spackman.
pasteurization kills pathogens that can cause serious illness or death, whether viruses like h5n1 or bacteria such as e. coli, listeria and salmonella. consuming raw, unpasteurized milk or products made with it, such as cheese, ice cream and yogurt, poses risks that pasteurized products do not. “i liken drinking raw milk to playing russian roulette,” alex o’brien, safety and quality coordinator for the center for dairy research, told the associated press .
in canada, milk must be pasteurized to be sold (raw milk cheeses, however, are available). in the u.s., more than two dozen states have legalized the sale of raw, unpasteurized milk and other dairy products, and sales are spiking despite government health warnings.
the work of spackman and her collaborators followed an unrelated survey by the annenberg public policy center , which found that most american adults don’t understand the risks of consuming raw milk. fewer than half (47 per cent) know that drinking raw milk is less safe than pasteurized milk. nearly a quarter (24 per cent) either erroneously believe that pasteurization isn’t effective at killing pathogens in dairy products or are unsure whether that’s true.
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patrick e. jamieson, director of the annenberg health and risk communication institute at the annenberg public policy center of the university of pennsylvania, said, “it is important that anyone planning to consume raw milk be aware that doing so can make you sick and that pasteurization reduces the risk of milk-borne illnesses.”
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