The study was conducted in the wake of the bird flu virus detected in the dairy herds of nine states in the United States.
A new study has added more evidence to the argument that virus-infected raw milk may not be safe for mammals, especially humans.
Virologist Yoshihiro Kawaoka said, “Don’t drink raw milk — that’s the message."
Watch: Gravitas | US: Bird Flu virus found in pasteurized milk, probe results awaited Meanwhile, the mice who drank the contaminated milk became ill and had ruffled fur and lethargy.
Bird flu virus also discovered in an ill dairy cow's beefThe US Department of Agriculture on Friday (May 24) said that bird flu was found in beef for the first time.
In the latest study, published on Friday (May 24), it was found that unpasteurised milk - contaminated with bird-flu virus H5N1 - if fed to the mice, will make them sick and damage their organs.
The study was conducted in the wake of the bird flu virus detected in the dairy herds of nine states in the United States.
A new study has added more evidence to the argument that virus-infected raw milk may not be safe for mammals, especially humans.
Virologist Yoshihiro Kawaoka said, “Don’t drink raw milk — that’s the message." Kawaoka works at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and was head of the study. In the United States, most of the commercial milk is pasteurised.
Food and Drug Administration has found traces of the virus in 20 per cent of dairy products sampled from grocery shelves across the country.
Also Read: Bird flu in raw cow milk kills more than half of cats on Texas farm
However, no signs of infectious virus have been found by the officials in those samples and have said that it is safe to consume pasteurised milk.
While speaking to The New York Times, Boston University Center on Emerging Infectious Diseases Director Dr Nahid Bhadelia said that the findings will have global implications.
“If this becomes a more widespread outbreak in cows, there are other places where there isn’t central pasteurisation and there are a lot more rural communities that drink milk," she added.
How the study was carried out?
While carrying out the study, Dr Kawaoka and his colleagues looked for viruses in the milk samples which were collected from an affected dairy herd in New Mexico.
The researchers discovered that there was a slow decline in the levels of the virus in a sample of milk which was stored at 4 degrees Celsius and hinted at the chances of H5N1 being present in refrigerated raw milk for several weeks.
The findings from the study were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Watch: Gravitas | US: Bird Flu virus found in pasteurized milk, probe results awaited Meanwhile, the mice who drank the contaminated milk became ill and had ruffled fur and lethargy.
Bird flu virus also discovered in an ill dairy cow's beef
The US Department of Agriculture on Friday (May 24) said that bird flu was found in beef for the first time.
However, the officials said that a single sickened dairy cow's meat did not have permission to enter the food supply of the country and hence, beef was safe to eat.
The USDA said that they found the virus while testing 96 dairy cows, who were diverted from the supply after federal inspectors saw signs of illness while carrying out routine inspections of carcasses present at meat processing plants.
(With inputs from agencies)
