Personal Injury Law

E. coli Linked from Cow to Victims and Simsbury Town Farm Dairy

By Bill Marler, Esq.

The Courant reported this morning that the Connecticut State Department of Agriculture said Friday that the E. coli outbreak that seriously sickened five people who drank raw milk from the Town Farm Dairy most likely came from one cow.

The agency conducted numerous tests of the farm's cows, property and equipment and found the infection in the fecal matter of one of the cows.??"We're not sure about how the bacteria got into the milk. No matter how clean you are on a farm, there's still some possibility that you're going to get bacteria into the milk," said Dr. Bruce Sherman, a veterinarian and the director of the bureau of regulation and inspection for the state agency.??

Raw milk is not treated to kill potentially harmful bacteria, but its fans say it has better flavor and is more nutritious than pasteurized milk.?  "We didn't find anything glaringly wrong that they were doing at Town Farm Dairy," Sherman said. "... It's just that retail raw milk for human consumption is always a risk."??

To show that this really is all about making a buck, here is the interview with the Farm’s Vice-president:

[T]he farm might not be able to last another month. It had to stop producing and selling raw milk and stop pasteurizing milk after people got sick. Since then, the farm has sent milk to be pasteurized off-site and sells the product in bulk to a co-op, but that sale does not help the farm reap much profit, Sullivan said. He said the farm could lose at least $10,000 a month if it continues to operate that way.

"That income is less than a fourth of what we get for bottle milk, and, unfortunately, that doesn't even cover the feed. We will have to be selling some cows in order to get the income to keep feeding the rest of the cows," Sullivan said.??

For information on Raw Milk - Click - Here

Full post as published by Marler Blog on August 09, 2008 (boomark / email).