According to a brand new examine, uncooked milk, which is marketed as a pure and healthful different to pasteurised dairy, could include hidden hazards. The analysis discovered that the influenza or flu virus can stay infectious in refrigerated uncooked milk for as much as 5 days. The findings come at a time when outbreaks of chook flu in dairy cattle have raised issues in regards to the potential for a brand new pandemic. The examine was performed by Stanford University.
“This work highlights the potential danger of avian influenza transmission by way of consumption of uncooked milk and the significance of milk pasteurization,” mentioned examine senior creator Alexandria Boehm, the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Professor of Environmental Studies within the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability and the Stanford School of Engineering.
More than 14 million Americans devour uncooked milk yearly. Unlike pasteurized milk, uncooked milk just isn’t heated to kill doubtlessly dangerous pathogens. Proponents of uncooked milk declare that it leaves extra useful vitamins, enzymes, and probiotics than in pasteurized milk, and may enhance immune and gastrointestinal well being.
The Food and Drug Administration has tied uncooked milk to over 200 outbreaks of diseases, and – along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – warns that germs, such E. coli and Salmonella, in uncooked milk current “severe” well being dangers, particularly for youngsters, the aged, pregnant ladies, and folks with weakened immune programs.
The researchers explored the persistence of a pressure of human influenza virus in uncooked cow’s milk at typical refrigeration temperatures. The flu virus, known as H1N1 PR8, survived and remained infectious within the milk for as much as 5 days.
“The persistence of infectious influenza virus in uncooked milk for days raises issues about potential transmission pathways,” mentioned examine co-lead creator Mengyang Zhang, a postdoctoral scholar in civil and environmental engineering. “The virus may contaminate surfaces and different environmental supplies inside dairy amenities, posing dangers to animals and people.”
Additionally, the researchers discovered that flu virus RNA – molecules that carry genetic data however will not be thought-about a well being danger – remained detectable within the uncooked milk for a minimum of 57 days. By comparability, pasteurization fully destroyed infectious influenza within the milk and diminished the quantity of viral RNA by nearly 90%, however did not eradicate the RNA solely. Although publicity to influenza virus RNA doesn’t pose a well being danger, RNA-based testing strategies are sometimes used to conduct environmental surveillance of pathogens like influenza.
“The extended persistence of viral RNA in each uncooked and pasteurized milk has implications for meals security assessments and environmental surveillance, notably as a result of most of the methods utilized in environmental surveillance detect RNA,” mentioned examine co-lead creator Alessandro Zulli, a postdoctoral scholar in civil and environmental engineering.
The analysis grew out of an earlier undertaking – funded by the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment’s Environmental Venture Projects program – targeted on human norovirus and the subfamily of viruses chargeable for the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the U.S. alone, flu viruses infect greater than 40 million folks and kill greater than 50,000 yearly. These varieties of viruses can unfold from animals to people, as within the case of swine flu, which led to as many as 1.4 billion human infections globally in 2009-2010.
Although chook flu has not confirmed as harmful to folks but, it may mutate to turn out to be so. Recent detection of chook flu in cattle has raised questions on its potential transmission by way of milk and different dairy merchandise.
The examine’s findings underscore the significance of bettering monitoring programs, notably as chook flu continues to unfold amongst livestock, in keeping with the examine’s authors.
The examine enhances earlier analysis involving a number of of the identical researchers that pioneered the usage of wastewater for detection of avian influenza. That evaluation revealed industrial and industrial dairy waste as main sources. By analyzing wastewater, public well being officers may detect virus exercise in close by cattle populations.
“We by no means thought that wastewater may very well be used to detect and reply to zoonotic pathogens circulating locally,” Boehm mentioned. “It has been superb to observe our work on detection in wastewater scaled throughout the United States and the world.”
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