draggonlaady

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health issued a consumer alert on Friday after learning that a local farm’s raw milk could be contaminated with Brucella. Brucellosis, also called Bang's disease, Crimean fever, Gibraltar fever, Malta fever, Maltese fever, Mediterranean fever, rock fever, or undulant fever, is a highly contagious zoonosis caused by ingestion of unpasteurized milk or meat from infected animals or close contact with their secretions.

Twin River Farm in Ashley Falls is the subject of a DPH investigation after a suspected human case was reported by an individual who had contact with the farm.

According to the DPH, Brucellosis is a bacterial infection that can cause flu-like symptoms including sweats, headache, fever, swollen lymph nodes, and back pains. In some cases, the infection can cause long-lasting and chronic symptoms. Adults are more likely to fall seriously ill than children.

Twin Rivers Farm milk is not sold in retail stores and the advisory does not apply to pasteurized milk. Anyone who has purchased raw milk from the farm is advised to discard it. Those who have consumed it are told to seek medical attention and contact their local board of health.

Raw milk containers from Twin River will have the following information on them:

Twin Rivers Farm 
PO Box 408 Ashley Falls, MA


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So...Brucellosis is NOT a fun thing. Possible consequences not listed above include: encephalitis, meningitis, endocarditis, and chronic/recurrent bone and joint issues. In cattle it can also cause orchitis (that'd be infection and inflammation of the testicles, doesn't that sound fun?) though I don't find that in the CDC or NCBI's info.

Brucellosis is preventable, and thankfully rare--the vast majority of female cattle in the US are vaccinated. (Males aren't vaccinated, because steers are a common source of spread, lacking placental fluid and such, and bulls aren't vaccinated because of the risk of sterility inducing orchitis, making them useless as a bull.) The old vaccine against Brucellosis was almost as nasty as the disease itself, for humans anyway--stick yourself with THAT needle and end up hositalized or dead. Whee. Also, the old vaccine is where the risk of orchitis in bulls came from. Thankfully, there's a newer, better, safer vaccine, and I have no idea why anyone anywhere would use the old one.
Now, I don't know that the dairy involved here is not following vaccination protocols. But I do know the vaccine is effective (which is why this is a rare disease you may never have heard of), so I have suspicions. The vaccine is required for shipping cattle across state lines, but if they are breeding their own replacement heifers and not vaccinating, or getting replacements from other locals who are not vaccinating, the risks go up.
So: VACCINATIONS GOOD.

Brucella in food sources is ALSO preventable, by the simple expedient of FIRE! Heat the foot, brucella dies. Is simple. And FIRE! is fun.
So: PASTEURIZATION GOOD.

Further info on Brucellosis:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001623/
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/brucellosis_g.htm