Those January illnesses in California from E.coli O157:H7 linked to Organic Pastures Dairy Co. raw milk are continuing to stir controversy.
The latest controversy is being sparked by a new summary report on the illnesses issued by the California Department of Public Health, and is at two levels:
1. The number of total illnesses from raw milk.
The CDPH reports there were ten illnesses associated with very similar E.coli O157:H7 in January, and at least six of them were likely caused by raw milk from OPDC.
“As of February 26, 2016, ten northern and central California residents infected with the outbreak strain of E. coli O157 and with illness onset in January have been identified,” the CDPH says in a summary report. The agency acknowledges that it could link only six of the illnesses to OPDC. “Of the nine (patients) that were interviewed, six (67%) reported consuming OPDC brand raw milk prior to illness onset and three denied known raw milk exposure.” A tenth person “was lost to followup and couldn’t be interviewed,” the agency says.
In conclusion, CDPH says, “The epidemiologic, laboratory, and environmental investigation strongly indicates that raw milk produced by OPDC in early January 2016 was contaminated with E. coli O157 and caused illness in at least six California consumers.” It adds its belief that all ten illnesses were associated with the dairy, noting “that the outbreak strain of E. coli O157 identified in this cluster is very uncommon. The predominant PFGE pattern combination EXHX01.6177 / EXHA26.0628 had only been seen once in the national PulseNet database prior to January 2016, in a child with illness onset in October 2015 who did not drink raw milk, though her family reported that they frequently drank OPDC raw milk…..the laboratory findings to date support that the outbreak strains are from a single source.”
Mark McAfee of OPDC has argued all along that not all ten illnesses were associated with raw milk.
2. The number of children sickened by raw milk and the number who may have developed hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS).
Here, McAfee is in disagreement with CDPH. The agency says, “The patients are primarily children, with a median age of 8 years (range, 1 to 26 years). Onset dates of illness ranged from January 14 to January 28, 2016. Four were hospitalized, including two children with hemolytic uremic syndrome.”
McAfee questions the state’s suggestion that the two children with HUS were associated with raw milk consumption. He contends that two of the four hospitalized children were among the group of at least four not known to have consumed raw milk, or had contact with those who consumed raw milk.
Of the two hospitalized children associated with raw milk, according to McAfee, one was hospitalized for two days, and never developed HUS. The other was hospitalized for 11 days, with HUS, and needed a blood transfusion, but didn’t require kidney dialysis.
“The state report implies four cases of HUS, and that is not true,” says McAfee.
McAfee says he has asked the CDPH to change the summary findings to clarify the number of HUS cases, and which were associated with raw milk.
The CDPH also appears to take issue with OPDC’s conclusion that a single cow was responsible for the entire episode of illnesses associated with OPDC in January. CDPH reports that it found the same rare strain of E.coli O157:H7 at OPDC in February, after Cow 149, thought by OPDC to be the only source of the offending pathogen, had been removed from the herd. “Feces, soil, and water collected from OPDC on February 8, 2016 tested positive for E. coli O157:H7, and PFGE patterns for those isolates also matched those patterns associated with the illnesses. The collection of environmental samples from OPDC on February 8, 2016 focused on feces likely deposited on February 6, 7, and 8. It is unlikely that the positive findings from February 8, 2016 represent conditions linked entirely to Cow 149. The isolation of E. coli O157:H7 and non-O157 Shiga toxin-producing E. coli from cattle used to produce raw milk for human consumption is concerning and could result in additional illness to raw milk consumers in the future if not addressed at the dairy.”
McAfee says he disagrees with the CDPH conclusion about the risk of additional illnesses. “They found the pathogen in dirt and manure in certain areas” during the February inspection. “That cow (#149) was not in those areas.” He says the presence of the E.coli pathogen in such places is something that occurs on dairy farms of all types. He blames the moisture of a very wet December. “Cow 149 was the vector” in the illnesses connected with OPDC, he maintains.
But he adds that in response to this latest outbreak, he has doubled OPDC’s testing so that it is testing 20 samples each day “in a co-mingled protocol.” That should reduce further the chances of contaminated milk being distributed, as was the case in January, when he says tainted milk was distributed because of a “false negative.”
McAfee also takes issue with my comparison in a previous post between OPDC and a previous producer of raw milk on California, Alta Deena, which had illness outbreaks associated with its milk. “We have 500 cows on 500 acres,” he says. Alta Deena was a confinement operation he says, with thousands of cows.
David,
I am going to quote State regulators regarding this OPDC internal voluntary recall that happened three months ago. The state did not recall OPDC products because there was ” no actionable information”. The CADPH information was over broad with about 50% of ill consumers completely denying consumption of OPDC raw milk. OPDC produces raw milk in the most intense regulatory invironment in the world. Our Test & Hold program has been enhanced 20 fold since January. 20 samples are taken every day and tested. Our absolute highest priority is the safety of our products and the health of our consumers. Yes….we are a target. That comes with being the # 4 brand of organic milk in the USA
Mark’s suggestion, “that not all ten illnesses were associated with raw milk.” is a reasonable argument that deserves more scrutiny, yet will obviously be ignored in the end by tptb for the sake of developing and furthering their argument against raw milk consumption.
Now there are ten and six of them were “likely” caused by raw milk from OPDC with four cases remaining unrelated to raw milk consumption?
PFGE bacterial typing is not the quintessential disease or illness solving element. The CDPH is merely grasping at straws in order to formulate half-baked conclusions based on numerous assumptions.
From David’s above article he quotes the CDPH as stating, “Feces, soil, and water collected from OPDC on February 8, 2016 tested positive for E. coli O157:H7, and PFGE patterns for those isolates also matched those patterns associated with the illnesses.”
Association is not causation and according to a cautionary note on PFGE testing by the Mayo clinic, “The fact that 2 strains share the same pattern does not prove that they are epidemiologically related…the greatest power of PFGE typing is in showing strain dissimilarity, not in proving similarity or relatedness.”
http://www.mayomedicallaboratories.com/test-catalog/Clinical+and+Interpretive/80349
Now, if only things were as simple as identifying a lone microbe! Unfortunately this current tunnel vision approach “on an alleged pathogen”, is an oversimplification of the illness paradigm that is leading us down the garden path.
Here is a statement that deserves repeating, “What is safe raw milk to me? It is my direct, unadulterated connection to the Earth that feeds my family and me. It is as intimate of a relationship as my relationship with my God. We are supposed to be a country of peace and tolerance and acceptance. No government in a free country should interfere with this.”
http://nourishingliberty.com/raw-milk-trial-in-canada/
David, do you have the link to this report?
No, I don’t believe it has been posted.
Lets reframe this commentary. What is safe raw milk? Edwin Shank, one of the Listed RAWMI dairymen did the quick math. It appears that with 3000 gallons of raw milk per day produced at OPDC, and many years between illnesses, the odds of illness from OPDC raw milk is about 1 in 48 million servings. These illlnesses are fully recoverable and thus far have not been associated with a fatality or serious long term illness. With its new 20 fold enhanced Test & Hold daily testing SOP, these 1 in 48 million odds will be changed to some far greater number.
The odds of increased immunity is 1 in 1. The odds of reduction of asthma, excema, Crohns, allergies….all 100% and 1:1.
Currently, 3900 kids die each year from asthma. Hundreds of thousands visit the hospital and suffer from side effects of medications and ear infections. Crohns rips the guts out of thousands more and with th best of western medicine….these Americans get to live with a plastic bag attached to their lower abdomens. Raw milk prevents and cures Crohns. Simple as that ( Kimelies story and so many others ).
The true conversation is about what America has done to its real food and what America has done to its farmers that are trying so hard to nourish America. If we continue down the path of sterilization of our Food, we will surely die off in the coming generations. We already see this trend. All of the major emerging health threats are immunity related and start in the gut!!! Autism, antibiotic resistance, Crohns, CDif, inflammation, excema, allergies, ear infections, colds…..all gut related. Fix the gut…fix your health.
On the other hand….in the last hand full of years, there have been at least six deaths from pasteurized dairy products….ice cream, cheeses, and pasteurized milk…. All killers. As far as anyone can tell…there are few. If any real benefits to consumption of pasteurized dairy. In fact doctors say that they trigger allergies, asthma etc.
Lets do the new current math and lets base it on the 17 current peer reviewed and published studies done in the EU about raw milk. There is no ongoing controversy about raw milk in CA. What there appears to be is an insatiable hunger to write about and create controversy when none exists. Our regulators could not find actionable evidence for a recall. OPDC acted alone….for this we get beat up.
Our friends in the EU can not believe our food culture of suing, liability and litigation.
One more time…our greatest and highest priority is the health of our consumers and the safety of our products. We will learn…we will improve and we will endure for the greater good of all and especially the children. If you are near Fresno, we invite everyone to come see the cows and visit OPDC. It is gorgeous!!
With the strange progression of statements on this outbreak, all the raw milk movement needs is another serious HUS case behind Cow 149’s bacteria and not only could Marler-Clark own a central California dairy, but the game could be over for raw milk nationwide.
ever the optimist, ain’t you?! Amanda Rose \\\\\ but rather than your hope that ” … the game could be over for raw milk nationwide” … OPD will overcome this challenge, too. We’re privileged to have front-row seats, watching a genius who has the courage and love of fellowman, put himself and his mistakes, on public display, while he [ and his team ] learn-by-doing … dragging the dairy industry into the 21st century. Mark McAffee is educating America about a lot more than just milk
Hey Gordon. I’m in the “get a goat” camp. I’ve been there since I stopped drinking OPDC milk after all of the outsourcing shenanigans. My milk comes from one of two goats, milked by hand in a bucket. A hero to you is a liar to me.
Amanda = more power to you if you’re self-sufficient. I gotta say : inasmuch as you seem to prefer Organic Pastures fails, then your policy is actually quite selfish. There are 300 million people in this Babylonian system – city dwellers – who don’t have the wherewithal to grow their own = milk that is.
…. The relentless sniping at one of the leaders of the Campaign for REAL MILK, is more of a hindrance than a help. Me, Mr McAffee and others who take on the idiots in the corrupt govt.s, are moved by what guys in the old union movement said : “what we have for ourselves, we wish for others” = making REAL MILK available to every one who wants it. Would you prefer we don’t? If so, then let’s have some constructive input
Mark is his own wors enemy. The movement needs leader who dont have his history of lies and deception
until such a leader steps forward, alla you critics will just have to suffer the one who got you this far, hanging off his coattails. Would the Campaign for REAL MILK have changed the law in 40 + states, had Mark McAffee not visited every one of them, to show the flag … AT his own expense?!
Because he had absolutely no financial incentive to expand legal sales of raw milk…
I’m guessing you’re from the generation or 2, after me, Pete. I’m so old I remember when “profit’ was not a dirty word.
….. As Mr McAffee will tell you – if you could ever muster the integrity to meet him in person – Organic Pastures cannot possibly supply all the REAL MILK for all the informed consumers who demand it. Mark has helped every single one of the hundreds of raw milk dairies which have sprung up in America, AFTER he came through town. For no direct compensation. And you have a problem with that?
… I don’t apologize for being a tiresome Old Covenant Prophetic type, repeating = your motive for slagging Mark McAffee’s and Michael Schmidt, is >>> covetousness. do you also hate the very success of the Campaign for REAL MILK? Schmidt and McAffee, being most visible punching-bags, on which to take it out
@Amanda Rose
You write:
“With the strange progression of statements on this outbreak, all the raw milk movement needs is another serious HUS case behind Cow 149’s bacteria and not only could Marler-Clark own a central California dairy, but the game could be over for raw milk nationwide.”
As to my ability to understand your writing, you write at cross-purposes to yourself.
What on earth is your point, generally speaking?
(My continued difficulty in seeing the fruitfulness of your comments suggests to my mind an old poem:
“clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots.” This poem depicts a progressive downward path.)
Mr. J. Ingvar Odegaard
I expect my comments aren’t all that fruitful, Ingvar.
My general point is this: A movement that holds McAfee up so highly can only be hurt by his ridiculousness. Re-read the previous posts on this particular outbreak, particularly McAfee’s comments and what he said the state report would say. Then put your common sense hat on. Imagine in a month that a baby dies from McAfee’s milk in one of Sally Fallon’s baby formulas. At that point, consider how difficult it would be to pass raw milk legislation in another state. RAWMI sure won’t be the ticket.
Old-timers here realize that I used to help OPDC on political issues and, in the process, found a shocking amount of outsourcing and became aware of other label claims problems. Just hunt this blog for all of it.
@Amanda Rose
Thank you for your explication.
Mr. J. Ingvar Odegaard
Controversial? OPDC’s quick action and honesty in this situation are commendable. Their testing protocols are wonderful. Keeping 500 cows on 500 acres is great.
*——— farm* can sicken their own workers and lie openly about the cause, keeping 60 cows and 160 goats in a manure pack dry lot, and you can’t say anything against them because you are afraid of libel–but OPDC has an outbreak, catches it quickly without a mandatory recall, and suddenly you have two blog posts insinuating they are too big? What gives Gumpert?
Blaine and I just returned home after five days serving as CA State Delegates to the annual National Farmers Union convention. This year it was held in Mineapolis.
In cooperation with a doctor who was also a farmer and delegate from Nebraska, we passed very serious Farmers Food Insurance Liability Policy reform. Kind of like Hail & Rain coverage for crops but instead it covered food liability insurance coverage that is attainable for all farmers of any size. As we all know, if you do not have insurance, you can not bring food to markets. This insurance is expensive and very difficult to get and keep. Even farmers markets require food liability insurance. More and more lettuce, spinach, melon, tomato, fruit, meat, dairy product producers are being shut out of Markets…. No insurance Means… No market access.
With this proposed NFU national farm policy, accessible food liability insurance would be a program that all farmers could use and assure access to consumer markets. No longer would the roving bands of liability insurance lawyers be able to trample farmers and decide which foods will no longer be available. We all know that less processed foods are being recommended as the best and healthiest. These are also the foods with highest liability.
I think we did some good for American Farmers and also the American Consumers. This food liability insurance reform is long overdue. Now that the oldest American Farm organization supports this policy with its lobby…. It is up to us to get this ball rolling and make it happen.
One last thing, at the NFU conference, there were just two happy dairymen. The rest are rapidly going bankrupt….why? Because of the lower than cost payment programs that are killing off dairies by the hundreds right now.
The two happy dairies both operate on farm creameries and both sell raw….one in CA and the other in Texas. It was observed that raw milk dairies know their consumers and respond directly to their needs. The CAFO pasteurized dairies are lost in the market because they have no idea of market direction. They do not know what their consumers are wanting or saying.
Tragically…..there was literally nothing that the two raw dairymen could do for their friends that serve the processors. To much is needed and it is too late. We did support the establishment of a NFU emergency dairy committee that will meet to develop critical policy and lobby the USDA to intercede to increase milk prices paid to farmers. That’s all we could do. All so sad.
In an effort to encourage those many discouraged dairymen, I will post something that I discovered (in my imagination of course, a few minutes ago):
“Luke, Luke, come back to the raw source. Your great grandfather was strong in real nutrition. The pasteurized source has damaged you. You are strong in the source. Come back to the raw.”
and
“These are not the regulations you are looking for.”
Mr. J. Ingvar Odegaard
ahem,
(in dramatic voice)
The rebel base at Rawmi has prepared a battle plan, code named “creamery.”
And yet, Senior Senator PMO has made an alliance with Emperor CAFO and they are threatening the local legislatures, sending out spies and Thugians, even as their own markets collapse.
Meanwhile the rebel alliance has gained strength, spreading throughout the member states, provinces, and territories, increasing incomes, employment, and health. Universities are studying ways to increase the rebel forces. Communities are coalescing, protected from the Thugians by Sheriffs. On the planet, Moms, …
Will the Imperial Diet be stopped?
What is this “Death Star” whispered about? Is it located on Allopath?
Or is the Death Star the Imperial Administrative Law, a darkening shadow that has been spreading everywhere, pasteurizing and homogenizing commerce and initiative, guided by the paramilitary FDA?
(I had better put a cork in it and go to work now.)
All the best to everyone,
Mr. J. Ingvar Odegaard
[posted March 11th, 2016 at 1641 hrs PST (1241 UTC 3/12/2016)]