Wisconsin Raw Milk E coli Problem Under Review
A Wisconsin state government committee will start meeting next month to clarify a public policy response to the question of raw, unpasteurized milk. Scientists have proven over and over again it is at risk to be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7 and other pathogens, but die-hard pockets of raw milk advocates won’t let go.
Secretary Rod Nilsestuen of the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, says the group will consider the legal and regulatory affects and what conditions would be required to protect public health.
W isconsin law has required since 1957 that milk sold to consumers be pasteurized, but raw milk believers have gotten around the legislation through cow-sharing agreements and other arrangements.
In the past year, there has been more than one Wisconsin raw milk outbreak, including a raw milk Campylobacter outbreak caused by a family farm near Elkhorn in the southeastern part of the state. At least 35 people were sickened, including many children.
The raw milk study group’s chair will be Richard Barrows, a retired Associate Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The group also includes dairy farmers, cheese makers, consumers and food safety professionals.The Legislature will be advised of the committee’s recommendation.
A classic case of raw milk food poisoning that created a lot of awareness about the danger of raw milk involved E. coli O157:H7 and a cow share program in Woodland, Washington. A study of the 2005 raw milk E. coli outbreak said the scientific discovery of the outbreak’s source helped initiate legislative reform in the Washington Legislature regarding cow-share programs.
According to a recap of the outbreak by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the outbreak started in December 2005 with an unusually high number of E. coli O157:H7 cases in Clark County.
Eventually, 18 cases were discovered, at least nine of whom were children. Of those nine, five were hospitalized and four developed E. coli HUS, or hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), the leading cause of E. coli death.
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