No, there are likely no immune benefits from raw milk - Your Local Epidemiologist

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And other raw milk rumors addressed

KATELYN JETELINA AND EDWARD NIRENBERG
MAY 16, 2024

The news about H5N1 in dairy cows has prompted increased sales of raw (i.e., unpasteurized) milk. This could be due to increased awareness of raw milk in general. However, another driver is that consumers think they can get immunity against H5N1.

This is highly unlikely, and the risk-benefit tradeoffs of raw milk need to be seriously considered.

Immune protection from drinking raw milk? Highly unlikely.

There are two hypothetical routes to immunity, but on a biological level, are likely impossible to come from consuming raw milk:

Antibodies. Milk (both raw and pasteurized) is full of nutrients and antibodies, and it’s not unreasonable that a cow infected with H5N1 would have antibodies in its milk. But these antibodies are only good for local things, like GI infections. This is called passive immunity because it is short-lived and generates no memory. Once consumed by humans, these antibodies do not enter blood circulation. Thus, they can’t help with respiratory infections like H5N1. Cow milk has another issue: it overwhelmingly contains a specific type of antibody (called IgG1), but it is rapidly degraded by our stomach acids.

Virus. The FDA has indeed detected H5N1 viral fragments in milk. But, for the immune system to be activated, the virus has to jump a lot of hurdles. First, the flu’s membrane is fatty, so it can be digested by bile acids, inactivating the virus. Its proteins are also sensitive to gastric juices. If the virus does survive, it would need to replicate, and the extent to which the GI tract can support H5N1’s replication is unclear. However, among cats that drank raw H5N1-infected milk in the current outbreak, more than 50% died. We don’t know if it would have the same impact on humans, but these aren’t great odds to play around with.

Continued at https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/no-there-are-likely-no-immune-benefits

[Passages]

1. What are the alleged benefits?

Is it the idea/notion that raw must be healthier? Incredibly poor judgment.

[justaprogressive]

2. A child's initial immune system is boosted by ITS MOTHER's RAW MILK. nt

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3. This article is about cow's milk. hello???

[justaprogressive]

4. Thanks for explaining the sky is blue.

I was merely noting that since mother's milk is raw it might lead others to believe
that the same would be true for unpasteurized cow milk.!

Didn't think I'd actually have to explain that...

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5. What is your point?