Our Take On H5N1: Context and Helpful Resources

“Does Vintage Meadows test for bird flu?” “Have you heard about bird flu?” “What precautions are you taking for the bird flu outbreak?”

These are questions that have been brought to us lately, and we are not surprised. The news has been rampant with fearmongering headlines, striking uncertainty in the hearts of Americans nationwide. We welcome your uncertainties, your questions, and your fears. We want to be as open as we can, welcoming these conversations instead of shutting them down.

With that being said, these questions are more complicated than they may seem at first. We try to keep abreast of food and farming news; however, the media is full of sensationalism, and, as you know, it can be hard to discern truth from fiction. 

As it relates to food safety and animal health, we always go back to what we know: healthy pastures, healthy feedstuffs and healthy animal environments make strong animal immune systems and healthy animals. We and our dairy farmer, Steve, spend a lot of energy and capital making sure this happens to all our classes of animals. Posted here is their schedule of veterinary and milk inspections/testing. They perform whole herd checks every 3 weeks, complete veterinarian herd health analysis every 3 weeks than DHI testing every 3 weeks (weighing each cows milk, checking somatic cell counts, etc).

Bacterial testing is a big part of this process. Specific H5N1 testing is not part of the regular protocol; however, because of the intensely personal nature of the milking and caretaking process, cows that are not well (extremely rare occurrence) are spotted right away and removed from the milking herd and treated naturally.

Following are some key points from an article that Dr. Mercola posted recently concerning H5N1.

  • The first cases of H5N1 bird flu transmission from birds to dairy cows were reported in the U.S. on March 25, 2024, spreading to 845 dairy herds across 16 states, though most cows reportedly recover within days

  • Between January 2022 and December 2024, nearly 123 million birds were euthanized in attempts to stop the spread of bird flu, raising questions about the necessity and impact of mass culling practices

  • Raw Farm in California was temporarily shut down and had its products recalled after milk tested positive for bird flu, despite no confirmed cases of humans contracting bird flu from consuming raw milk. Yet, according to CDC data from 2005 to 2020, no virus has ever been documented to transmit through raw milk, with all 3,807 recorded milkborne illnesses being linked to bacterial pathogens rather than viruses

  • The FDA's testing protocol established in August 2024 requires raw milk to be tested for bird flu using PCR tests with a cycle threshold of 45, which critics argue is likely to produce false positives

  • Federal mandatory H5N1 testing protocols have been implemented in six states (California, Colorado, Michigan, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, and Oregon) as of December 16, 2024, with plans to expand nationwide

We will continue to monitor the H5N1 reporting. Obviously we care a great deal about the health and the efficacy of the products we sell! All of our products pass our values test and we believe in and trust in our farmers (for the products we do not raise ourselves). 

Until recently, this is not a virus that is commonly tested for, and even now, the majority of farms, especially small local dairy farms like our milk provider, have not begun regular testing their milk for this virus that we're still learning about. Additionally, according to the USDA, there have been no confirmed cases of HPAI H5N1 in our area or in the state of Indiana (source).

We highly recommend doing further research from reputable sources, not from the fearmongering news, about HPAI H5N1. The Raw Milk Institute and the Weston A. Price Foundation are great places to start. We have located some research-backed articles that you may find helpful and interesting:

Vintage Meadows milk, from Forest Grove Dairy in Middlebury, IN, is of the highest quality. Not only does the dairy farmer practice the highest levels of cleanliness, milk from sick animals (which rarely happens) is never sold. The following paragraph is from Steve, our dairy farmer, as he describes the milking process: 

  • "Our process is as follows: The cows are gathered from the pastures into the barn where they wait their turn to enter their favorite stall to be milked (it's funny but some very patiently wait for their favorites). Their udders are washed and the milking cups are placed on their udders.  The milk passes through a stainless steel, sealed pipeline, through a 'plate cooler' that rapidly chills it, until it ends up in a stainless steel tank.  The milk is agitated every few minutes to maintain even cooling.  The milk then gravity flows to the jugs that are manually filled, capped, and placed on carts in the walk-in cooler to be distributed.  The sealed pipeline is flushed and cleaned after every milking and the milk itself is tested every other week and all the pertinent bacteria counts are recorded [more details above]. The barn is washed every day. This amazing level of cleanliness, in addition to the health of the cows (which starts with the health of the pastures), is what allows our milk to remain fresh for several weeks unopened in the refrigerator!"

It is our hope that this information and these resources are helpful to our readers and customers as you continue to educate yourselves on the current dairy issues. Please keep in mind that we are not scientists, nor are we dairy cow experts. We share this information with the expectation that additional research will be done. We are not an definitive source, but we can share our beliefs and what we base our practices on.

If you have more questions, would like to chat or learn more, you can reach out to us by filling out the form below. We hope this information helps you as you continue in your health journey!

Ryan Schrock