State agriculture officials on Thursday banned Fresno-based Raw Farm from distributing its raw dairy products to retailers amid ongoing concerns about possible bird flu infections among its cattle.
However, with the exception of two limited recalls announced in the last few days, products from the farm that are already on store shelves can remain available for sale.
The ban comes after several days of contradictory test results conducted by different state and local health agencies, in which county public health departments found presumptive positive samples in bottled raw milk on store shelves, while state agriculture officials did not detect the virus in bulk milk tests.
On Thursday, California’s agriculture department reached out to the owner of Raw Farm LLC, Mark McAfee, and instructed him to suspend all sales to retailers.
“When raw milk disappears from the stores, that will be it,” he said.
According to McAfee, neither the agriculture or health department have recalled any products other than those involved in two limited recalls made in the past week involving quarter-gallon “cream top” whole milk products.
McAfee confirmed to The Times that his cows have H5N1 bird flu virus. He said he was not aware the cows had the disease until this week because they “are so healthy that they do not show the classic signs or symptoms. They are mostly all asymptomatic.”
He said two or three of his 1,800 cows had spiked a virus on Oct. 10, but he said they were not positive for the virus. He said he removed those cows from the herd.
It is unclear how long the cows were separated, or if a veterinarian or other professional tested the animals for H5N1.
He said regular bulk milk testing by the state’s agriculture department has consistently been negative.
“Obviously, we have some asymptomatic shedders at very low levels,” said McAfee.
He said he had a previous fever spike among his cows in August. Again, he said, the virus was not confirmed in the herd at that time.
He said he monitors each cow at his farms with a device that sits in a cow’s udder and sends real-time information about the animal’s body temperature, milk acidity, etc.
Last week, public health investigators from Santa Clara County tested a retail sample of raw milk they acquired at a store. That sample tested positive for presumptive H5N1 bird flu. The state’s public health department soon confirmed that finding and Raw Farm recalled a specific batch that was already off the shelves.
Meanwhile, the state’s agriculture department, which had been routinely testing Raw Farm milk products kept getting negative results — leaving infectious disease experts confused.
Then on Wednesday, Santa Clara County Public Health officials announced a second batch of presumptive H5N1-positive milk from Raw Farm. They made the announcement only hours after state agriculture investigators swept Raw Farm’s two herds, creamery, trucks and milk tank for samples.
According to McAfee, some of the samples collected by state officials also tested positive.
Questions to the state’s agriculture and public health departments, which were closed for the Thanksgiving holiday, went unanswered Friday.
On Wednesday, health officials from the L.A. County’s public health department expanded its list of retail stores that may have carried recalled raw milk products.
Untroubled by the positive tests and the possibility of selling raw milk products tainted with the bird flu virus, McAfee told The Times that he is urging consumers to “get to the store. Immediately!”
The magnitude of the risk to raw milk consumers is unclear. So far, 55 Americans have contracted H5N1 bird flu this year; these were predominantly dairy and poultry workers who were likely infected through their close proximity to animals and not by consuming contaminated products.
In two of those cases the source has not been identified, including a child in Alameda County who tested positive earlier this month.
In addition, a teenager in British Columbia was infected more than two weeks ago and has been in critical care since.
McAfee said herd immunity among his cows is his goal, and that when he’s clear to restock store shelves, “all of our raw milk will have antibodies to influenza HPAI H5N1. That’s awesome!”