Recently, with the ahead-of-print release of the Center’s for Disease Control’s (CDC) study, “Increased Outbreaks Associated with Nonpasteurized Milk, United States, 2007–2012” which will be published in January in the Emerging Infectious Diseases journal, there have been numerous articles and blogs supporting each side of the raw milk issue – that it is the “best thing since sliced bread” or that all states should ban it as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) did in 1987 with regards to interstate shipment.
The CDC article states that “US outbreaks caused by nonpasteurized milk increased from 30 during 2007–2009 to 51 during 2010–2012. Most outbreaks were caused by Campylobacter spp. (77%) and by nonpasteurized milk purchased from states in which nonpasteurized milk sale was legal (81%). Regulations to prevent distribution of nonpasteurized milk should be enforced.” CDC maintains a section on its webpage that discusses the risks associated with drinking raw milk.
I grew up on a small farm where we had dairy cows. My mom is a nurse and while we used milk from the cows, it was always boiled for our safe drinking. Although I believe adults have the right to decide what they want to eat or drink, everyone should base those decisions on facts. There are adequate facts to support the nutritional value of pasteurized milk and the risk of raw milk. That said, based on my personal experience as a former microbiologist at a county lab that was approved for milk testing, and knowing how small a dose is needed of pathogens such as E. coli O157:H7 to cause illness – you won’t find any raw milk in my possession.
In fact, I am really not much of a milk drinker anyway – though my twin is! I will admit that if she wanted to drink raw milk – I would probably make sure she had the facts and let her make that decision (of course Mom would surely have something to say). But she is a healthy adult and can make her own decision. However, I would take issue if she decided to provide it to her grandchildren.
While an argument can be made that the risk of contracting a disease is low if good practices are followed on the farm and the raw milk is tested under a rigorous testing program, the cost can be huge if it is your child who happens to be the one who comes down with, for example, hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). The causative pathogen is usually E. coli O157:H7 and it is a potentially fatal foodborne disease characterized by diarrhea (sometimes bloody) and severe abdominal pain. Kidney failure and related complications may also result. And while many other pathogens take 1000’s of cells before any illness will result – E. coli O157:H7 can cause disease with 5-10 cells.
Young children and elderly or immunocompromised people are more subject to serious complications as their immune systems are not as highly developed as an adult, or respectively, their systems are weakened. And while cases may be few, I refuse to see any child connected to me die or have to undergo a kidney transplant because they had been served raw milk.
While adults can make their own choices on the facts they gather, I hate to see them make the same choices for children as I cannot imagine the pain they will experience if it turns out to be that one in a million time that there were a few pathogen cells present, and they and their child’s lives are changed forever. It has been said that pasteurization is one of public health’s most effective food safety interventions ever developed; a simple way to protect those we love.
