The Family Cow raw milk outbreak that sickened 80 people in four states with campylobacteriosis appears to be over as no new cases have been reported since the end of February, a Pennsylvania health official said this week.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health has not yet determined if it will issue an offiicial final report on the outbreak. As of the last update, issued February 28, there were 80 confirmed cases in four states. Thirty one percent of the case patients, who ranged in age from 2 to 74 years old, were under 18. At least nine people were hospitalized.
The Family Cow outbreak is Pennsylvania’s largest raw milk outbreak and the fifth largest raw milk outbreak nationwide in modern history, according to data from state health departments and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The case totals by state are as follows:
Pennsylvania: 70
Maryland: 5
New Jersey: 2
West Virginia 3
Between 2001 and 2011, 90 raw milk outbreaks that sickened 1,550 people were reported to the CDC. Campylobacter was one of the most common source pathogens for those outbreaks, others include Salmonella, E. coli, Brucella and Listeria.
