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Your Family Cow Dairy Campylobacter Outbreak

On January 27, 2012, Maryland and Pennsylvania health authorities issued an alert reporting multiple cases of Campylobacter infection associated with drinking raw milk from the Your Family Cow dairy, which sells its unpasteurized milk in retail stores in Pennsylvania, at its farm and at several drop-off locations.

By February 1, the Maryland Department of Health had confirmed the presence of Campylobacter bacteria in two bottles of raw milk produced by Your Family Cow. In a Feb. 3 statement to customers on Your Family Cow's website, dairy owner Edwin Shank took responsibility for the outbreak, saying, "You trusted us to never do this. But... it was us. Food from our farm has made people sick."

The number of Campylobacter cases continued to climb, and soon West Virginia and New Jersey had reported illnesses.

On February 29, the case-count had risen to 80 people with campylobacteriosis associated with raw milk produced by Your Family Cow. The following number of Campylobacter cases was reported by state: Pennsylvania (70 illnesses), Maryland (5), West Virginia (3), New Jersey (2).

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