From a document on the Grey Bruce Health Unit website:
“It is impossible to produce sterile milk directly from an animal source. Sources of contamination include commensal or pathogenic flora of the udder or teat canal, the animal’s skin, fecal soiling of the udder, contaminated milking equipment, water used to clean the milking equipment, and milk storage containers. In addition, commensal or pathogenic organisms from milkers, insects, rodents, birds, and other animals may enter milk.
The consumption of unpasteurized or raw milk has always been dangerous and the same holds true today. Pasteurization of milk kills most potential pathogenic organisms but does not sterilize the milk.
i The following pathogens have been cultured in raw milk: Enterotoxigenic Staphylococcus aureus, Campylobacter jejuni, Salmonella species, E.Coli (EHEC) (ETEC), Listeria monocytogenes, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Mycobacterium bovis, Brucella species (abortuscattle melitensis-goats), Coxiella burnetii, Yersinia enterocolitica, Streptococcal species. The elimination of gross contamination of milk during milking, improved storage and processing times and conditions have been helpful in reducing the bacterial load in milk but pasteurization is the key safety measure….”
Read it all on the Grey Bruce Health Unit website.
This document seems to arise from the same kind of thinking that’s used subterfuge to covertly change the regulations in B.C. to have raw milk declared a hazardous substance.
The Bovine 
Y’know, just about everything GBHU says about raw milk is also true of pasteurized milk — except it is left without an immune system!
Interesting that they keep statistics on people that may be made ill from unpasteurized milk but no mention of pasteurized product. We know that pasteurized is not 100% safe same for raw. Health Canada has provisions for reporting illness from alternative therapies but to report illness from prescription product is most difficult, I know since I tried on several occasions. I also found out that any report no matter how trivial is just reported as made sick from that product whether it be heart burn or tummy ache it is treated much as life threatening. It would be nice if they mentioned the lack of illness from Michael Schmidt’s operation just to clarify the difference in hygiene.
here is the link to the grey bruce health unit. if you have any questions or concerns about their statements feel free to contact them directly. Like for instance the lack of comparative context to the raw milk numbers they quote. What are the incidents of illness due to pastuerized milk in northamerica?
http://www.publichealthgreybruce.on.ca/communicable/Raw_Milk/
Okay.
Uh huh.
Food is inherently dangerous and only government can make it ‘safe’.
Yep.
(sarcasm)
The listeria from the raw milk cheeses was more likely an enviromental contaminant in the production, handling, and distribution of the cheese. Listeria in raw milk rarely survives the cheese making process (because of competition from lactic-acid bacteria), but can take a foothold as a post-processing contaminent, as the cheese ages and the lactic acid cultures die off.
Of course, as has been noted elsewhere, calling it a “raw milk outbreak” is in itself pejorative. It’s as if raw milk is a disease in itself. Whereas that’s not the case at all for most of those who seek it out.
It remains an enduring mystery why raw milk raises such hackles in public health circles.
Aww c’mon. The Bovine! Figure it out……
Raw milk infuriates and alternately, exposes, government and industry health ‘professionals’ for the control freaks that they are, who happen to love the money $$$ and status, it (the sickness industry) provides them.
Raw milk, much like oppostion to vaccinations, is very painful to them because it might mean people start getting well and no longer need them.
Further, if things really went in the direction of actual justice, all these so-called ‘professionals’ will be in a prison, if not executed outright.
I think it’s deeper than that actually. It’s like the raw milk movement is an affront to their world view. We’re like heretics in their eyes.
@the bovine~
Yes, you are certainly right there. The ‘educated’ mainstream professionals, the corporatists and government agents/politicians ALL tend have a world view that they mostly believe to be absolute and utterly ‘scientific’ and totally defensible for that reason, ie., that it is ‘scientific and absolute’. Their fanaticism is terrifying and obviously it is destroying the planet’s ecosystem and the natural diversity that makes life liveable…..
Over 300.000 dollars for our chie medical doctor at the health unit
Over 100.000 dollars for Chris Munn the director workn on the anti raw milk campaign in Grey Bruce Owen Sound.
They are severely struggling because they have not managed after 16 years to stop Glencolton Farms or start a dialogue.
They are in the front rows of this battle in Ontario and have achieved so far nothing, except creating some phony outbreaks.
Just for comic relief in the midst of all the bureaucratic e. coli that we struggle to keep our heads above, MNR (OMAFRA’s muscle) quietly returned all of my seized property last week – including the 40lbs of “uninspected” pork that caused the whole ruckus in the first place.
Apparently we, the people are prevented from trucking it around fresh (distribution), but the government can legally re-distribute it after two years in an MNR freezer. I forgot to ask if they had inspected it for me before bringing it back! What would the GBHU have done? Perhaps if they got to store the Glencolton milk for a day or so (modest fee of course), it would become “safe” for distribution? Seems to work for OMAFRA…
For what it’s worth, here’s what I wrote to the GBHU via their website:
Isn’t it time that the GBHU actually talk with those of us who live in its jurisdiction and consume raw milk? Isn’t it time that those comprising the GBHU look at how we have taken responsibility for our own health and how it has improved, serious conditions resolved, illness and disease considerably less than in the general population? As an almost 75-year-old woman, I have enjoyed excellent health for the past thirty years simply by improving life-style choices that include opting for unadulterated foods and learning how to manage stress more effectively. As a result, I and others like me are not a burden to the illness care system that is quickly making its way to a bankruptcy situation while taking the rest of the economy with it. Until you present a more balanced perspective and more credible intentions in your public ‘education’, I for one cannot credit any of your pronouncements. That taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars continue to be poured into this approach makes no sense whatsoever . . . unless, of course, it is to ensure the future of the illness care industry.”
GBHU is simply and enforcement arm. They are not trained or authorized to think for themselves or use common sense. If you believe otherwise you will simply be beating your head against a brick wall . I know it is frustrating because they are the visible and in your face side of government that we see when we try to live our food security dream. While the public gets to a see a bunch of boring men in business suits and ties and sporting Blackberry’s and IPADs as representing the “true face of government ” and the WILL OF THE PEOPLE !
Maybe you can help me … I’m looking for a raw milk provider for my family in Dufferin County? Can you e-mail me any information you may have? gillian@gigiphotography.com Thank you kindly! Until we can get out our own cow, this is route I need to take!