Latest California child to become ill after drinking raw milk does not have bird flu, CDC says

A Northern California child who consumed raw milk and became severely ill did not have the bird flu virus, according to tests conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC said Thursday that it found no evidence in the child of the H5N1 virus — or any flu virus.

“The sample was negative for all flu targets,” Kevin Griffis, director of the CDC’s office of communications, told STAT, a subscription-based news publication that focuses on biopharma and the life sciences.

The Times has been unable to confirm the finding, despite requests for information.

Last month, the child — a toddler — had been visiting relatives in Marin County with family, according to Lisa Santora, the director of Marin Health and Human Services. The child’s mother purchased Raw Farm raw milk, mistaking it for unhomogenized — or cream top — pasteurized milk.

Last week, raw milk sales from Fresno-based Raw Farm were suspended after samples taken from products on retail store shelves and from the farm tested positive for H5N1.

It is unclear how many people have consumed the recalled and suspended milk products, but the owner of the farm, Mark McAfee, estimates the products may have reached 90,000 customers.

The child developed a high fever and after three days of vomiting was taken to the emergency room, where the child was swabbed nasally for influenza. The rapid test was negative.

The following day, health officials — upon learning of the raw milk consumption — contacted the child’s family, and an oral swab was performed. This one tested positive for Influenza A.

Officials tested the child’s family too; all tested negative for Influenza A.

Influenza A viruses include many human seasonal flu viruses, as well as H5N1.

That sample was preserved in a medium and sent to a local lab for testing, as well as to a state lab. Neither lab could find virus in the sample — there was too little virus present, said Santora, resulting in what’s called a “flat negative.”

A sample was also sent to the CDC, where investigators could not identify the H5N1 virus, or any influenza virus, according to STAT.

There have been 58 cases of human-acquired H5N1 bird flu in the United States since March 2024, when the virus was first reported in dairy cows. Most of these cases involve dairy or poultry workers who worked with infected animals.

In November, another California child, from Alameda County, was found to have the virus. That child had mild symptoms, and it was unclear how the virus was acquired.

CDC testing of a sample from that child showed similarities in genetic sequencing to the H5N1 flu virus circulating in dairy cows.

No one has yet reported H5N1 infection from drinking raw milk.

However, on Thursday, Los Angeles County health officials announced that two cats had died after consuming recalled raw milk from Raw Farm.

Since the beginning of the dairy outbreak in March, several cats have died from drinking raw milk.