Key Points
Health experts have stepped up warnings against drinking raw milk during the outbreak, the scope of which is still unknown...
The institute's founder, Mark McAfee, told the Los Angeles Times this weekend that his customers are, in fact, specifically requesting raw milk from H5N1-infected cows..
With the virus apparently having a field day in cows' udders, researchers have found raw milk to be brimming with high levels of H5N1 viral particlesand those particles appear readily capable of spilling over to other mammals..
Cats, on the other hand, appear to have receptors more widely distributed, with infected cats showing viral invasion of the lungs, hearts, eyes, and brains.. Raw milk devoteeswho claim without evidence that drinking raw milk provides health benefits over drinking pasteurized milkdismiss the risk of exposure to H5N1..
In a Q&A document, the Food and Drug Administration notes that it does "not know at this time if HPAI A (H5N1) viruses can be transmitted through consumption of unpasteurized (raw) milk and products (such as cheese) made from raw milk from infected cows.".
