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Warning on milk issued in central part of state
By Stephen Smith, Globe Staff | December 28, 2007
State health authorities urged consumers last night not to drink milk produced by Whittier Farms in Central Massachusetts, after an investigation showed it is the likely source of a bacterial illness that killed two elderly men and made two other people sick.
The dairy company, a homey throwback that runs two stores and sells milk in glass bottles delivered to customers' doorsteps, agreed to halt production and alert its customers, who mainly live in Worcester County. The company's milk is sold under several brand names, including Whittier, Schultz, Balance Rock, Spring Brook, and Maple, according to state authorities.
Disease trackers used sophisticated laboratory tests and gumshoe detective work to establish the potential connection between the dairy and the four cases of listeriosis, a type of food poisoning that is especially dangerous to the elderly, pregnant women, newborns, and people with chronic medical conditions.
Investigators have so far been unable to pinpoint the exact source of the contamination in the production process, but milk samples gathered last week at one of the dairy's two retail stores tested positive for listeria, the bacterium that causes the disease, said Dr. Alfred DeMaria, the state's director of communicable disease control.
He said he believes the milk was tainted after pasteurization, perhaps when flavoring was added or during bottling.
"All we know is there's a link between the dairy and listeria," DeMaria said. "We've reached the point where that link is so strong we need to take action."
Representatives of the company, whose website spotlights prized milk-producing cows named Cindy and Abby, did not return phone messages last night. A recording on the answering machine at the Whittier Farms retail store in West Sutton featured a woman saying, "we are presently closed. We will be addressing the [state] press release shortly. The information to date is inconclusive, and we will address the issues as soon as possible."
The company has cooperated with the investigation, state authorities said.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 2,500 people a year become seriously ill with listeriosis and 500 die.
Each year in Massachusetts, about 20 to 25 cases are identified, but DeMaria said those represent only a fraction of the true number of infections, because most people experience only mild flulike symptoms - including fever, muscle aches, nausea, or diarrhea - and never report them to authorities. In more serious cases, the disease spreads to the nervous system, causing headaches, stiff neck, and convulsions.
Listeria lives in soil and water and can easily contaminate dairy and beef products. The germ thrives in the cold, meaning milk can be a particularly good vehicle for the germ.
State inspectors regularly visit dairies and the labs the dairies use to do their own quality-control testing. The state also collects samples and independently conducts testing to make sure milk is safe.
The first of the four listeriosis cases under investigation, a 75-year-old man who died, was reported to state authorities in June. The second case came to light in October, when a 78-year-old man was diagnosed and died.
But it was only last week, when the state laboratory in Jamaica Plain reviewed results from two additional cases in November, that a link emerged. Testing showed that the bacteria infecting the four victims, also including an 87-year-old man and a 34-year-old pregnant woman, shared identical genetic fingerprints - meaning their illnesses were probably caused by the same source. State authorities declined to identify the victims by name, citing patient confidentiality laws, but did say that the woman's pregnancy ended in miscarriage.
When investigators interviewed the people who became sick last month, they discovered that one victim still had an open container of Whittier Farms milk in the refrigerator. Tests showed the product harbored the same type of listeria that had made the four people sick. At least one of the men who died had consumed Whittier milk, according to family members, DeMaria said.
When food safety and disease specialists visited the Whittier processing plant in Shrewsbury last week, they found the company's pasteurization system to be fully intact and free of contamination, a strong clue that the tainting of milk happened at some subsequent point during processing, DeMaria said.
State authorities described Whittier as a fairly small operation with a reach largely limited to Worcester County. According to a 1997 account in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, the mom-and-pop dairy breeds and milks its own cows, hauling the milk to its own creamery, processing it, and selling it at its own stores and nearby farmstands.
Dr. Andrew Hoffman, a Tufts University veterinarian specializing in large animals, lives near the Whittier farm in West Sutton and has been drinking its milk for five years.
"My refrigerator is full of it," he said. "We serve it every day, and we've never had a problem."
Hoffman said he has long admired the Whittier Farms operation, noting that it has won national awards. In 2001, Whittier Farms was recognized for the quality of its milk and for how it cared for its herd, which then numbered 350.
"I'm well educated about how a good dairy farm is run, and they're an exceptional dairy farm," he said. "The farm is extremely hygienic and their practices are very meticulous.
"I think this is probably a fluke."
By Stephen Smith, Globe Staff | December 28, 2007
State health authorities urged consumers last night not to drink milk produced by Whittier Farms in Central Massachusetts, after an investigation showed it is the likely source of a bacterial illness that killed two elderly men and made two other people sick.
The dairy company, a homey throwback that runs two stores and sells milk in glass bottles delivered to customers' doorsteps, agreed to halt production and alert its customers, who mainly live in Worcester County. The company's milk is sold under several brand names, including Whittier, Schultz, Balance Rock, Spring Brook, and Maple, according to state authorities.
Disease trackers used sophisticated laboratory tests and gumshoe detective work to establish the potential connection between the dairy and the four cases of listeriosis, a type of food poisoning that is especially dangerous to the elderly, pregnant women, newborns, and people with chronic medical conditions.
Investigators have so far been unable to pinpoint the exact source of the contamination in the production process, but milk samples gathered last week at one of the dairy's two retail stores tested positive for listeria, the bacterium that causes the disease, said Dr. Alfred DeMaria, the state's director of communicable disease control.
He said he believes the milk was tainted after pasteurization, perhaps when flavoring was added or during bottling.
"All we know is there's a link between the dairy and listeria," DeMaria said. "We've reached the point where that link is so strong we need to take action."
Representatives of the company, whose website spotlights prized milk-producing cows named Cindy and Abby, did not return phone messages last night. A recording on the answering machine at the Whittier Farms retail store in West Sutton featured a woman saying, "we are presently closed. We will be addressing the [state] press release shortly. The information to date is inconclusive, and we will address the issues as soon as possible."
The company has cooperated with the investigation, state authorities said.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 2,500 people a year become seriously ill with listeriosis and 500 die.
Each year in Massachusetts, about 20 to 25 cases are identified, but DeMaria said those represent only a fraction of the true number of infections, because most people experience only mild flulike symptoms - including fever, muscle aches, nausea, or diarrhea - and never report them to authorities. In more serious cases, the disease spreads to the nervous system, causing headaches, stiff neck, and convulsions.
Listeria lives in soil and water and can easily contaminate dairy and beef products. The germ thrives in the cold, meaning milk can be a particularly good vehicle for the germ.
State inspectors regularly visit dairies and the labs the dairies use to do their own quality-control testing. The state also collects samples and independently conducts testing to make sure milk is safe.
The first of the four listeriosis cases under investigation, a 75-year-old man who died, was reported to state authorities in June. The second case came to light in October, when a 78-year-old man was diagnosed and died.
But it was only last week, when the state laboratory in Jamaica Plain reviewed results from two additional cases in November, that a link emerged. Testing showed that the bacteria infecting the four victims, also including an 87-year-old man and a 34-year-old pregnant woman, shared identical genetic fingerprints - meaning their illnesses were probably caused by the same source. State authorities declined to identify the victims by name, citing patient confidentiality laws, but did say that the woman's pregnancy ended in miscarriage.
When investigators interviewed the people who became sick last month, they discovered that one victim still had an open container of Whittier Farms milk in the refrigerator. Tests showed the product harbored the same type of listeria that had made the four people sick. At least one of the men who died had consumed Whittier milk, according to family members, DeMaria said.
When food safety and disease specialists visited the Whittier processing plant in Shrewsbury last week, they found the company's pasteurization system to be fully intact and free of contamination, a strong clue that the tainting of milk happened at some subsequent point during processing, DeMaria said.
State authorities described Whittier as a fairly small operation with a reach largely limited to Worcester County. According to a 1997 account in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, the mom-and-pop dairy breeds and milks its own cows, hauling the milk to its own creamery, processing it, and selling it at its own stores and nearby farmstands.
Dr. Andrew Hoffman, a Tufts University veterinarian specializing in large animals, lives near the Whittier farm in West Sutton and has been drinking its milk for five years.
"My refrigerator is full of it," he said. "We serve it every day, and we've never had a problem."
Hoffman said he has long admired the Whittier Farms operation, noting that it has won national awards. In 2001, Whittier Farms was recognized for the quality of its milk and for how it cared for its herd, which then numbered 350.
"I'm well educated about how a good dairy farm is run, and they're an exceptional dairy farm," he said. "The farm is extremely hygienic and their practices are very meticulous.
"I think this is probably a fluke."