Foundation Farm Raw Milk | The International Outbreak Museum

Outbreak: Foundation Farm Raw Milk
Product: Foundation Farm Raw Milk	Investigation Start Date: 04/10/2012
Location: Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington Counties, Oregon	Etiology: E. coli (STEC) O157:H7
Earliest known case onset date: 04/01/2012	Latest case onset date: 04/14/2012
Confirmed / Presumptive Case Counts: 11 / 5	Positive Samples (Food / Environmental): 2 / 13
Hospitalizations: 4	Deaths: 0

The Three Graces: Three Jersey herdshare milkcows await outside the milking station.
Investigators "lean in" to catch the sample slung by Dr. Keene. Note the ankle-deep "river" of mud, excrement, and urine in the milkcow's pasture captured in the photo just behind Dr. Keene. Pasture samples tested positive with matching strains of E. coli.
Dr. Bill Keene leans in for a closer look.
Dr. Keene kneels to swab the milking station which abutted the muddy paddock. Not surprisingly, the sample was positive for E. coli O157 which matched the human cases.
Milking jug hung to air-dry over "clean" milking station.
Swabbing the milking jug.
"Sterilized" containers used to hold raw milk sold to herdshare customers.
Muddy fields with a deluxe chicken “coop” in the background.
Another day in the life of a field epidemiologist.
Pig sty just underneath the milking area.
Resident turkey overseeing the epi investigation.
Milk jars from customer households – one of which tested positive for E. coli O157:H7.
Epidemic curve of the outbreak.

OUTBREAK SUMMARY:

This outbreak highlighted the persistent hazard of raw milk consumption, already well documented in the medical literature. Four of the 11 cases were hospitalized — some critically ill and all with hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS), subsequently shown to have been caused by E. coli O157:H7. Although most sales of raw … Continue Reading ››