The human case of avian influenza in Texas, where the H5N1 virus was confirmed in a dairy worker who had contact with infected cattle, is alarming American authorities. The USDA, the United States Department of Agriculture, has put the consumption of raw milk under control because “avian influenza appears to be concentrated in the mammary tissue of cows, although the presence of virus replication needs to be identified in other tissues”.
According to the American epidemiologist Eric Feigl-Ding, “at this moment it would be preferable to choose the pasteurized milk. Many experts – he writes on X commenting on the USDA documents – agree that the consumption of raw milk carries the risk of infection”.
The epidemiologist Massimo Ciccozzi, interviewed by Adnkronos Salute, is however sceptical: the possibility of H5N1 infection through raw milk “is really very rare. Perhaps if you milk it by hand and then touch your eyes. We are talking about hypotheses that they must be confirmed – he specifies – because we are always faced with a respiratory virus”.
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