Food Poisoning Law Blog : Food Poisoning Lawyer & Attorney : PritzkerLaw : Food Safety, Outbreaks & Recalls

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Another Minnesota raw milk outbreak is under investigation and state health officials have discovered an association between the outbreak and the Hartmann dairy farm in Sibley County. The outbreak involves three people infected with Campylobacter jejuni and four people stricken with the parasite Cryptosporidium parvum. 

A state health department press release said the illnesses were reported to the Minnesota Department of Health by health care providers, as required by law. When state health investigators contacted the sick people to inquire about potential causes, the ill people reported that they had consumed raw milk.  Those who named a source of the milk named the Hartmann farm, the press release said.  Laboratory tests found that the Campylobacter bacteria and Cryptosporidium parasites in most of the ill people were genetically identical to organisms found in animal and environmental samples taken on the Hartmann farm this past summer. 

The Hartmann farm was implicated in May and June as the source of an outbreak of  Minnesota E. coli O157:H7 infections. As a part of this earlier illness outbreak, the state ordered the owner to stop selling milk until he addressed the unsanitary conditions on his farm. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture also directed him to comply with the state law that allows for the sale of unpasteurized milk only on the farm at which the milk was produced. It is not clear how the seven new ill people acquired their raw milk.. 

“We’re concerned that people are continuing to get sick after consuming products from this farm,” said Kirk Smith, the health department's Foodborne Diseases Unit supervisor. “We’re also concerned that some people who became ill were given the Hartmann dairy product by friends or neighbors who did not tell them the source.”

Law firm PritzkerOlsen, P.A., is investigating this outbreak and is accepting cases from families sickened by the bacteria or parasites. To talk to a food safety lawyer at the firm, call 1-888-377-8900 or complete the free consultation form on the side of this Web page.

Common symptoms of Campylobacter infection include fever, diarrhea (sometimes bloody), abdominal pain, malaise, and vomiting. Symptoms last for about a week in most people but can last for up to three weeks in 20 percent of cases. In addition, Campylobacter infection occasionally results in complications such as arthritis and Guillain Barré syndrome, which is characterized by sudden onset of paralysis. Cryptosporidium infection is marked by watery diarrhea, vomiting, cramping, abdominal pain, and weight loss. Symptoms often last two weeks but may wax and wane for a month or more. Cryptosporidium infection can be life threatening in people with weakened immune systems. 

Kirk Smith noted that in addition to the illnesses associated with the Hartmann farm, MDH has identified 47 other people since January 1, 2010 who became ill after drinking raw milk from a variety of sources throughout the state; none of these 47 cases was part of an identified outbreak (no two cases reported the same source). Most of the individual cases have been in children or young adults, he said.