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A recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine fed mice contaminated milk from cows sick with H5N1 from an infected herd in New Mexico. Within a day, the mice became ill, and later high viral load was found in the respiratory organs and mammary tissue and somewhat high in other organs. They concluded that milk from infected cows could pose a risk to animals when untreated, which we can extrapolate to posing a risk for humans, as well. We already knew that it killed half of the cats on two dairy farms, so this isn’t totally new, but it does underscore the risk to mammals. In short, it’s very possible that drinking raw milk from a sick cow could pass H5N1 to humans, and we don’t know if it will be a mild eye infection like dairy workers get (who are exposed via aerosolized particles and droplets on surfaces) or more serious due to the different viral levels and manner of transmission. Drinking normal grocery store milk is safe because the pasteurization process kills the virus. We don’t have any info yet on whether these results extend to eating the meat of infected cows, though we do know that cooking meat to medium-well or well-done drastically reduces viral levels in the lab.
Sources: CIDRAP, NY Times, USDA
While we’re hearing a lot about Michigan’s H5N1 outbreaks, that doesn’t mean they have it worse than other states - instead, it’s likely that Michigan actually has the best surveillance and public health response. At last count, Michigan had 19 infected dairy herds, more than any other state. The second dairy worker in the U.S. to test positive for bird flu was in Michigan, but unlike the first, this case was identified through public health monitoring of exposed workers. In Michigan, state officials have taken a much more active approach, in part because they know first hand how bad bird flu can be based on their experience having to cull millions of poultry over the past two years. Their state Dept. of Agriculture declared an animal health emergency, which includes some biosecurity requirements, and there seems to be more cooperation with public health authorities by farm owners, managers, and workers. Given all that information, we suspect that Michigan is a leading indicator of what’s actually happening across the U.S.