People shouldn't drink raw milk in an attempt to gain immunity from bird flu, health experts have warned.
However, experts have warned that this apparent uptick in raw milk consumption could harm individuals' health in multiple ways and also increases the possibility that the bird flu virus could spill over to humans. By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.The virus has also made its way to dairy cows, infecting at least 46 herds across nine U.S. states so far, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Bird flu viruses like H5N1 can very rarely jump to people, and in the current cow outbreak, there's been one probable case of cow-to-human transmission.
Raw milk can also carry disease-causing microbes such as Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes, so experts consider it risky to consume even outside the context of bird flu. Notably, between 1998 and 2018, 202 outbreaks of illness — most of them bacterial in nature — were linked to drinking raw milk, leading to 2,645 illnesses and 228 hospitalizations in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .