Raw Milk Recall Follows Four E. Coli Infections

North County Times
By Bradley J. Fikes - Staff Writer
September 24, 2006

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NORTH COUNTY ---- Four Southern California children, including two in San Diego County, have fallen ill with E. coli infections that the state thinks may have come from unpasteurized milk products sold by a Fresno dairy.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture has ordered a recall of all raw products from Organic Pastures Dairy Company. Products affected include milk, buttermilk, cream, whey and colostrum, a special milk produced by cows shortly after birth.

Aged cheese is not affected, nor are raw dairy products from other companies.

Three of the four children were hospitalized, said CDFA spokesman Steve Lyle. That includes an 8-year-old girl in San Diego County who was treated and released. An 8-year-old boy in San Diego County did not need to be hospitalized. A 7-year-old boy in Riverside County and a 10-year-old girl in San Bernardino County were hospitalized.

While the E. coli bacteria, 0157:H7, is the same as the type implicated in the recent outbreak in raw spinach, testing has shown the bacteria that infected the children did not come from the same source as that found in recent spinach tests.

The E. coli has not been found in the raw milk itself, the department said in a Friday news release. But it said epidemiological data point to a connection between the company's raw milk and the E. coli infections....

The state veterinarian, Dr. Richard Breitmeyer, issued an expanded order Friday to pull all whole and skim raw milk and cream produced by Organic Pastures Dairy Co. The previous day, a recall had been ordered, limited to raw milk.

The Henry's Marketplace stores got the first state order Thursday night, and pulled all the milk off their shelves before opening Friday, said Sonja Tuitele. On Friday, it complied with the expanded order and got rid of the other raw dairy products from the company.

For now, Henry's is waiting to see when those products will be declared safe to consume.

"We put the health of our customers first, so we prefer to err on the side of caution," Tuitele said. Raw milk products from other companies unaffected by the recall may be available at some stores.

Mark McAfee, owner and founder of Organic Pastures, said all the evidence he's seen indicates his company's milk is not the culprit, because it is carefully monitored, and because in two of the children's cases, spinach and undercooked ground beef had also been consumed recently.

McAfee criticized the state for issuing a "twisted, biased, overheated, unfounded press release" announcing the recall. However, McAfee later expressed sympathy for the state agency, which he said was driven to act by immense pressure after the spinach contamination.

More than 100 people nationwide in 23 states have been sickened with E. coli linked to bagged spinach from Natural Selection Foods of San Juan Bautista, leading to the death of one person.

However, McAfee said testing has shown no signs of the deadly bacterial strain in his company's milk.
"We've put it in our milk and it doesn't grow," McAfee said.

Organic Pastures advocates raw milk as being nutritionally superior to pasteurized milk, helping build immune system strength that helps people resist diseases. Its milk is "naturally low in bacteria," because of the way its cows are treated, according to a statement on the company's Web site (www.organicpastures.com).

Local health officials don't agree. They say any possible health benefit from raw unpasteurized milk is far outweighed by the dangers from E. coli and other dangerous microbes. Bacteria grow not only inside cows, but on their surface, on the skin and udders.

"It's not worth the risk. I wouldn't give it to my family," said Dr. Donald S. Herip, medical director of corporate health for Palomar Pomerado Health.

The variety of E. coli in this outbreak multiplies quickly, so even a tiny amount is dangerous, Herip said. This raises the potential for "cross-contamination," a term health officials use to describe how contaminated products from one source, mixed with others during transportation and processing, can infect much larger amounts.

But pasteurization kills the dangerous bacteria with heat, so even if they were originally present, the milk is safe to drink, Herip said.

If members of the public see any Organic Pastures raw milk products on shelves, they should report it by calling (619) 338-2379, said Dr. Wilma Wooten, deputy health officer for the San Diego County Department of Health and Human Services.

As for any raw milk products from the company already in homes, Wooten said they should be thrown out.

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