Drinking Raw Milk Linked To Campylobacter Outbreak, 14 Sick In Utah

Drinking raw milk is an udderly risky thing to do. There are millions upon million of reasons why this is the case—namely all the dangerous microbes that can remain active in milk that has not been pasteurized. So, it’s not a surprise that drinking raw milk has been linked to an outbreak of campylobacteriosis in Utah. This outbreak has already left at least 14 people sick, according to the Salt Lake County Health Department (SLCoHD). Those who have gotten sick have ranged in age from 2 to 73 years with 12 of them having already confirmed that they drank raw milk.

There’s a reason why scientists decided that pasteurizing milk is a good idea over a century ago. The process got its name from Louis Pasteur, a French microbiologist who in the 1860s showed that heating wine to certain temperatures could deactivate various unwelcome microbes and thus put a cork on infections from drinking the wine. When it comes to milk, the standard for pasteurization is heating milk to at least 145° F for at least 30 minutes. Bring this heat can then deactivate nasty bacteria such as Brucella, E. coli, Salmonella, Listeria, and, yes, Camplyobacter, which is nicknamed “Campy” and is the bad bugger behind campylobacteriosis. The risk of infections is one of the big reasons why people don’t tend to drink milk straight from a cow’s udder.