Illegal sales of raw milk prompt Nevada officials to reiterate warnings about product’s risks

Libby Lovig, general manager of the Nevada Dairy Council and a nutritionist in the industry for nearly three decades, frequently finds herself explaining the same narrative: Raw milk is unhealthy; consuming it can kill you.

The Southern Nevada Health District this month said there had been an increase in the illegal sales of the product locally, reminding residents about the health risks associated with drinking raw milk.

Even though sales of the product are illegal here, some locals commute to neighboring California or Utah — where raw milk is sold in retail stores — to obtain what they say is comparable to breast milk with valuable nutrients, minerals, proteins and vitamins.

Don’t be fooled, Lovig stresses.

Consuming raw milk — which might contain E. coli, salmonella, listeria and campylobacter — can lead to serious injury or death, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said.

“(People) are wanting to go more toward natural foods, more complete foods and less processed foods, but getting swept into that is this whole raw milk thing, which raw milk is not a good thing, and it’s a much better product and much safer if it is pasteurized,” Lovig said. “Unfortunately, it’s just getting swept up into that, and here we are.”

Raw milk is taken straight from the cow or goat and has not been pasteurized — a process named after a French microbiologist and introduced to the U.S. in the early 1900s that uses heat to kill bacteria that are naturally found in milk, Lovig said.

Though the udders of animals are typically cleaned with iodine before being milked, pathogens such as salmonella, E. coli, streptococcus and mycobacterium can still occur and be found in milk. Pasteurization kills those bacteria, making the milk safe to drink, Lovig explained.

A Cambridge University study found that “access to unpasteurized milk leads to more outbreaks than pasteurized milk,” and that the consumption of raw milk — though still small — has “continued to be a public health challenge in the United States despite persistent recommendations against the practice.”

Between 1998 and 2018 when the study was conducted, health departments reported 21,919 foodborne outbreaks and 423,595 outbreak-associated illnesses to the Foodborne Disease Outbreak Surveillance System. Almost 1% of these — or, 202 — outbreaks and 2,645 illnesses — about 0.6% — were linked to unpasteurized milk, including 228 hospitalizations and three deaths, the study reported.

Compare that with pasteurized milk, which was responsible for nine outbreaks and 2,133 (0.5%) illnesses, with 33 hospitalizations and three deaths.

“While most healthy people will recover from an illness caused by harmful germs in raw milk — or in foods made with raw milk — within a short time, some can develop symptoms that are chronic, severe or even life-threatening,” the FDA said on its website. “If you or someone you know becomes ill after consuming raw milk or products made from raw milk — or if you are pregnant and think you may have consumed contaminated raw milk or cheese — see a health care professional immediately.”

The health district said it didn’t have specific numbers of illnesses in Southern Nevada caused by the consumption of raw milk.

Most recently, dozens of salmonella illnesses were caused in July by raw milk sold from Raw Farm in Fresno, Calif., according to The Associated Press. Health officials said it was the largest reported salmonella outbreak linked to raw milk in the U.S. in the past decade.

Nearly 40% of the illnesses reported were in children age 5 and under; 20 people were hospitalized, but no deaths had been reported.

There’s also the new concern of the highly pathogenic avian influenza A virus, otherwise known as H5N1, which was detected in a dairy cattle herd in late March 2024 and has since spread to 200 dairy herds across the nation, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As of Wednesday, 14 states had outbreaks of H5N1 in dairy cattle, and the virus was shown to appear in high levels in the raw milk of sick cows.

Nevada is currently bird flu negative, Lovig said, meaning the virus has not been found recently in dairy cattle or milk within the state.

Proponents list benefits; health officials say bunk

In an April post on its company blog, Raw Farms wrote that people are drinking raw milk in 2024 because pasteurization removes nutrients, bacteria and enzymes — like lactase — that help with digestion, so the raw milk is allegedly easier for the body to process. The blog added that raw milk could help with weight loss, skin and bone health and mood improvements, then blamed lactose intolerance in the U.S. on pasteurized milk.

“We need to have more natural and more nutritional-based therapies for everyone,” Mark McAfee, the CEO of Raw Milk Farms, said in a 2013 testimonial in favor of proposed Nevada legislation allowing sales of raw milk in the state. “Literally, food is medicine. Nevada needs to feed itself. We do not need people driving up to Lake Tahoe at midnight with ice chests to rendezvous and get their raw milk and then drive it back to Nevada.”

Reddit user JacobK702 echoed this in a June post that “Raw milk has many health benefits since it contains good bacteria ‘culture’ just like kombucha, yogurt and probiotics.”

Lovig countered that such claims were typically falsified and anecdotal. She added that there was no scientific data to support that lactose intolerant people can process raw milk better than pasteurized products.

The FDA also noted that raw milk does not cure or treat asthma and allergies; is not better at preventing osteoporosis than pasteurized milk; is not an immune system-building food; is not “nutritionally superior to pasteurized milk;” and does not help with milk digestion.

Interstate commerce of raw milk is illegal.

Assembly Bill 209 in the 2013 Nevada Legislature sought to legalize the sale of raw milk in Nevada as long as the county milk commission certifies it. The proposal was approved by the state Assembly and Senate, but was vetoed by Gov. Brian Sandoval.

“While the bill makes some efforts to address the safety concerns of ‘certified raw milk,’ the proposed regulations will not mitigate the health risks associated with consumption of unpasteurized milk,” Sandoval wrote in his veto. “The Food and Drug Administration, the American Medical Association, and our own State Health Officer agree that Assembly Bill 209 presents significant public health risks. Based on these concerns, I cannot support the bill; I veto it and return it to you without my signature, and without my approval.”

The sale of raw milk in Clark County is illegal, and products are confiscated for destruction when found. Repeated violations can lead to the revocation of health permits among other enforcement actions, the health district said.

Lovig noted that it’s not illegal to have a raw milk dairy, but the licensing process is so difficult that almost “nobody has done it.” Farmers seeking to establish a legal raw milk dairy would need to push for the creation of a county milk commission — which needs to include members like a veterinarian, dairy farmer and someone from the public — and follow strict cleaning regulations.

Regardless, Lovig emphasizes that raw milk — legal or illegal — is not the way to go and can cause more harm to a person’s health than the alleged good. Pasteurized milk has the same nutritional benefits with the added safety, she added.

“Raw milk can contain a large variety of disease-causing pathogens, and it’s especially dangerous for our kids and our elderly and people with a compromised immune system,” Lovig said. “I’ve never seen a positive impact from raw milk. … Pasteurization occurred back in the 1920s because people died from drinking raw milk or eating things that weren’t good for them. It saves lives.”

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