Is milk cow puss?

Is cow puss in milk even after they clean it?

• Answer:

  Not if the dairy producer (which happens to be 99% of all dairy producers!) is very strict about keeping milk from those cows that have mastitis separate from the milk from healthy cows. Such milk from infected cows gets thrown away. However, human error can occur and if the milk from that infected cow does get into the human food chain, there still is pus (which is infiltrations of dead/alive white blood cells [particularly neutrophils]) in the milk even after it is cleaned or pasteurized. Pasteurization is only useful for killing the "harmful" bacteria that is found in the milk. In a healthy udder, the environment is sterile, and thus the milk itself is sterile (no bacteria to speak of). However, when the milk is being squirted out either by hand or by the milk machine, bacteria that is always found on the outside of the teat will and does get into the milk. To prevent this, or at least minimize the amount of dirt and bacteria that may get in the milk, the teats are always cleaned (and hands are washed too, or clean gloves are put on) prior to being hooked up to the milk machine. However, there's still a chance that the farm hand doesn't clean a teat properly or forgets to clean a teat (which probably happens I'm sure, especially if there are 100 to 1000 cows to milk twice a day!!), and bacteria still ends up in the milk