Raw milk has recently shot up in popularity, thanks to social media posts that emphasize its health “benefits” as compared to pasteurized milk. However, as U.S. public health officials claim, raw dairy, in fact, poses severe health risks with negligible proven benefits.
As reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), March 2024 witnessed a multi-state outbreak of the H5N1 virus, also known as the Avian influenza A or “bird flu” among dairy cows, where the number of infected cows remains unknown. As a result, the raw milk of said infected dairy cows is also contaminated with large amounts of the H5N1 virus.
Therefore, pasteurization or any other type of treatment is necessary to kill or neutralize germs, bacteria, and other types of pathogens not applied to raw milk. “Raw milk can be contaminated with harmful germs that can make you very sick,” explains the CDC on its website.
This Wednesday, the CDC reported its second human case infected by the bird flu virus in less than two months, even though humans have a low chance of contracting it, and the current cases have not yet been tied to raw dairy consumption. Even so, medical reports highlighted animals such as cats and mice falling ill upon drinking H5N1-laden milk.
Even without the bird flu virus, raw dairy contains other pathogens such as E. coli, salmonella, and listeria, which, once they infect humans, can also be transmitted to other humans and mutate, risking large-scale outbreaks of disease in the absence of adequate medical intervention.
Thus, the consumption of raw milk (or any contaminated, untreated poultry or dairy) puts more vulnerable populations at greater risk, as they do not have access to the necessary medical treatment. Oregon health officials have mentioned at least 11 recorded outbreaks caused by drinking raw milk since 1993.
Politicising raw milk
While commentators claim the warnings of bird flu to be a government overreach or excess, raw milk has come to be associated as a “rallying cry” for the right wing, highlighting the increasing consumption of raw dairy and poultry as a kind of subculture and resistance. Treated milk, on the other hand, is seen as a means of asserting control via the disproven belief that pasteurized milk contains chemicals, therefore dubbed “state-approved milk.”
Health experts stress that the “benefits” of raw dairy, such as probiotics and similar enzymes that are destroyed in the treating process, are too few to be considered helpful anyway. Thus, the CDC discouraged the general public from “unprotected exposure” to untreated milk.
Though the sale of raw milk is restricted to around 24 states, with interstate sales forbidden, raw milk sales have gone up more than 20% this March as compared to the previous year’s sales, according to NielsenIQ. It goes to the extent that the owner of Raw Farm USA, Mark McAfee, noted that raw products are barely in stock.
“People are seeking raw milk like crazy,” he said, “Anything that the FDA tells our customers to do, they do the opposite.” On the other hand, medical experts liken raw milk consumption to Russian roulette, explaining that the frequency and amount of consumption increases the chances of contracting illness accordingly.
