Conflicting Claims from State Agencies and Producer
Milk is Milk blog by Alex Avery
Last Thursday, September 21, 2006, the California State Veterinarian ordered a statewide recall and quarantine for all dairy products from Organic Pastures of Fresno County after a report that a 10-year old girl in San Bernardino County contracted E. coli O157:H7 after consuming raw (unpasteurized) milk supplied by the company.
An investigation by the California Department of Health Services (CDHS) found two additional illnesses in children consuming raw milk, one 7-year old boy from Riverside County and and 8-year old San Diego County girl.
A call to the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) confirmed that all Organic Pastures’ dairy products had been recalled and quarantined.
Moreover, CDFA indicates that their investigation leads them to believe that a total of four children have contracted O157:H7 from Organic Pastures’ products — three from consuming raw milk and one after consuming raw colostrum. (Colostrum is defined as the first collection of a thick creamy liquid, without blood or infection, produced by the mammary gland of a parturient mother shortly after birth, usually within the first 6 hours. Colostrum is sold as a “dietary supplement” in California.)
In all, three of the four victims linked to Organic Pastures products went to a hospital, two are in intensive care suffering Hemolytic Uremic Syndrom (HUS) and kidney failure.
Testing of two of the four victims has shown that the genetic serotype of E. coli O157:H7 is distinctly different than the serotype implicated in the recent spinach outbreak - indicating that this outbreak is completely separate from the spinach outbreak.
Importantly, CDFA spokesman Steve Lyle says that a day or two prior to the illness outbreak and product recall, the agency had notified Organic Pastures that routine testing conducted by the state (conducted to protect consumers) had found two consecutive tests for bacteria in Organic Pastures’ milk had “high plate counts” of bacteria. CDFA informed the company that it had three days to bring the plate counts down to reasonable levels or face a shutdown of its operations. It was during that 3-day period when the illness cases were discovered and the recall was ordered.
But Organic Pastures owner Mark McAfee disputes the claims of the CDFA and CDHS. According to McAfee, he has threatened the state with a $100 million dollar lawsuit and predicted that his products would be back on store shelves before the end of this week and that the state agencies would issue an official apology and retraction.
As to the tests showing high levels of bacteria, McAfee stated that “we run high plate counts all the time” and that none of the plate counts were above the “15,000 bacteria per milliliter” standard required by California regulators. Yet CDFA informs MilkisMilk.com that, in fact, two of Organic Pastures’ samples tested above the 15,000 CFU standard and that this is not the first time that the dairy’s products have exceeded this standard.
In contradiction of the statements from the CDFA, none of the test results listed on Organic Pastures’ website exceed the 15,000 level.
Upon questioning the benefits of consuming raw milk products, McAfee referred MilkisMilk.com to the work of “Cambridge doctor, and MD, Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride” on “Gut and Psychology Syndrome” indicating that consumption of raw milk prevents autism and other diseases. However, when we searched for Dr. Campbell-McBride in the scholarly literature, we find that she has no affiliation with Cambridge University and has authored no scholarly papers of any sort. Rather, Dr. Campbell-McBride has a medical degree from Russia and runs an “alternative health clinic” (in the city of Cambridge) where she sells nutritional supplements and a book claiming that “bad gut flora” lead to autism and other “diseases.”
We are awaiting further information from the CDFA on this outbreak and the fate of Organic Pastures dairy products.
March 22nd, 2007 at 7:53 pm
The reader asks, “When did proper nutrition fall under the “alternative health†umbrella?â€
Answer: When one sells dubious “nutritional supplements†rather than dispenses sage dietary advice. More importantly, Dr. Campbell-McBride has presented no serious evidence in a scholarly, peer-reviewed journal to back up her sensational claims that raw milk prevents autism or any other disease.
Publication in peer-reviewed journals is a minimum standard in science, which Dr. Campbell-McBride has so far declined to meet.
In that light, I appreciate the commenter noting one of my own scholarly papers from the peer-reviewed literature, the extensive review of blue baby syndrome in Environmental Health Perspectives in 1999. The criticisms by ATTRA (an organic promotion organization) are dated and do not reflect the current state of this debate – for which my paper published in 1999 has had a major impact. In 2004, the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology devoted an entire symposium to the questions I raised in my review.
For example, we now know through the work of highly respected physician scientists such as Dr. Nigel Benjamin in London, that dietary nitrates provide likely significant public health benefits such as lower microbial risks and reduced blood pressure. So the current state of the art says nitrates are beneficial, not harmful, eliminating one of the few possible health positives from consuming organic produce.
You can read my latest letter on this issue published in a peer-reviewed journal here: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1552029
The summary from the ISEE symposium can be read here: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1310926
And a “whole-group†review paper bringing together scientists on all sides of this debate, including myself, is currently under review and should be published later this year.