“He made goat for me for dinner. He killed the goat,” Dorsey says, before clarifying that he didn’t actually witness the slaughter. “He killed it before. I guess he kills it. He kills it with a laser gun and then the knife.”
When the interviewer rightly questions Dorsey’s use of the term “laser gun”, Dorsey says: “I don’t know. A stun gun. They stun it, and then he knifed it. Then they send it to a butcher.”
Though it was undoubtedly a smart move for Zuckerberg to send the animal to be prepared by a professional after he killed it, he might have also considered hiring a chef, with Dorsey indicating the meat wasn’t exactly cooked when it was served.
“I go, ‘We’re eating the goat you killed?’ He said, ‘Yeah.’ I said, ‘Have you eaten goat before?’ He’s like, ‘Yeah, I love it.’ I’m like, ‘What else are we having?’ ‘Salad.’ I said, ‘Where is the goat?’ ‘It’s in the oven.’
“Then we waited for about 30 minutes. He’s like, ‘I think it’s done now.’ We go in the dining room. He puts the goat down. It was cold. That was memorable. I don’t know if it went back in the oven. I just ate my salad.”
A pledge to only eat animals he personally killed was part of Zuckerberg’s yearly self-imposed challenge in 2011. Laser guns weren’t specifically mentioned in the challenge, but at this point nobody would be surprised if he used one. Apparently the goat was one of six he kept at his Palo Alto property.
In May 2018, five children at Pam Walker’s day care in Tenn. were stricken with E. coli O157.
Kristi L Nelson of Knox News reports that science, public health officials said, sleuthed out the source of the E. coli infection: a goat farm across the road.
But for Walker, there’s been no closure — and she may never get the answers to exactly how a microorganism turned her dream of a bucolic child care center in a farm setting to a weeks-long nightmare.
Meanwhile, the health department was already investigating an E. coli outbreak among 10 children who’d consumed raw milk from a nearby dairy, French Broad Farms. Because it would be so unusual for two different E. coli O157 outbreaks to occur in the same area simultaneously, the health department, in the course of extensive interviews, looked for a link between Kids Place and the dairy. Did any children at the day care drink raw milk? Socialize or swim with anyone in the other group of infected children? Did any person or animal go back and forth between the dairy and the day care? The answers, they found, were no.
“Finding a bacteria that is microscopic, not visible to the naked eye, is really, really challenging,” said health department Director Dr. Martha Buchanan. “You have got to get the right sample at the right spot. And environmental cleaning did happen — the environment had changed when they went back” to sample.
With the positive culture from goat feces, the health department’s investigators determined that bacteria from the goats had somehow gotten into the baby house — and probably would have been present there before cleaning. When the specimens were sent back to the Tennessee Department of Health for DNA comparison with stool samples from the sick children, the DNA “fingerprint” from the goat samples and the Kids Place children were an exact match — but different from the DNA “fingerprint” of the cow feces from the dairy and the children who’d consumed raw milk, which matched each other. That meant, though unusual, that Knox County had two separate E. coli outbreaks in young children happening at the same time.
Finding it in goat feces, however, wasn’t a surprise. Goats, cows, sheep and other “ruminant” animals — animals that have a multichambered stomach and regurgitate and rechew food before digesting it — often carry E. coli in their digestive tracts. They can carry the bacteria, and shed it through their feces, but it typically doesn’t make them sick.
“Given that some of these illnesses have been linked to the goats at your facility, I recommend you no longer keep goats or other ruminant animals on your property, or that those who interact with the goats do not have contact with the children in your care,” Buchanan told Walker in a July 6 letter.
After the outbreak, Walker gave the goat herd to a friend. But the week after the health department informed her of the test results, she and her husband contacted the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine to have the goats tested again for E. coli. Dr. Marc Caldwell, assistant professor in large animal clinical sciences, remembers the test being requested merely to see if the goats were healthy, but Steve Walker said he wanted to see if this second test also would find a DNA fingerprint match between his goats and the children’s stool samples.
Techs from UTVM swabbed the goats themselves for fecal samples, rather than collecting feces from the ground as the health department did, and sent them to the Nebraska lab for culture. None of the goats tested positive for E. coli, but both herd dogs — also swabbed — did, while the health department’s dog feces samples were negative. It’s unusual, but possible, for dogs to carry E. coli, Caldwell said.
Caldwell said the test doesn’t prove the animals didn’t have E. coli O157 when the health department tested the feces. In fact, it doesn’t prove they didn’t have it that week, since the amount of bacteria shed from an infected animal can depend on heat, stress and other factors, and a certain amount has to be present for the antigen test — which is what the lab used — to show positive.
According to Outbreak News Today, in the animal study, 181 dairy goat farms and 24 dairy sheep farms were examined. STEC (Shiga-toxin-producing E. coli) and Campylobacter was found on most. STEC appeared on virtually all the farms studied. Campylobacter has been demonstrated in one out of three goat farms (33 percent) and almost all sheep farms (96 percent). These bacteria have found much less among cattle farmers and family members.
Listeria was less common, at about 9 percent of the goat and about 17 percent of the sheep farms. The bacteria was not found in the people studied. People run the risk of becoming infected with the listeria bacteria by eating raw milk soft cheese. The study also looked at Salmonella and ESBL-producing bacteria. These were not very common on the farms surveyed.
The results show that pasteurization of milk and hygiene after visiting a dairy goat farm or dairy sheep farm is important to prevent disease.
The bacteria found are in the intestines of the animals and thus enter the manure. A small amount of manure can contaminate raw milk or raw milk cheese. Contamination can be prevented by drinking only pasteurized milk or using it in other foods. In addition, people at a farm can become infected if they have contact with the animals or their environment. Visitors can reduce the risk of illness by washing their hands after contact with the animals or their environment.
In unrelated but related news, Brandon Macz of the Monroe Monitor reports that St. John Creamery in Monroe, Washington, announced on Thursday it is voluntarily recalling raw goat milk that may be contaminated with Escherichia coli (E.coli) bacteria.
A June 14 news release states the recall was initiated after “the presence of toxin-producing E.coli in retail raw goal milk dated 6/17” was discovered during routine sampling by the Washington State Department of Agriculture.
Included in the recall are half-gallon and one-pint containers of raw goat milk marked best by June 17-21.
Dozens of goats and sheep used by a Seattle medical research firm backed by a prominent food-safety expert were found in dirty, dilapidated conditions that endangered the animals’ welfare, a federal inspection found.
Many of the 42 goats and four sheep kept at a Redmond farm by Pi Bioscientific Inc., also known as Pi Biologique, suffered from “numerous medical ailments and severe health issues,” according to a March 3 report by the U.S. Animal and Plant Inspection Service (APHIS).
“Lack of adequate staffing, equipment and facilities has adversely affected the care and well-being of the animals, prevented proper biosecurity and has led to the severe discomfort and pain and suffering in these animals,” veterinarian Diane Forbes found.
The animals had little protection from weather and there was no way to remove manure, the report noted.
In addition, staff members couldn’t account for 18 goats and one sheep that apparently went missing since a 2014 inventory that found there were 60 goats and five sheep on the premises.
Mansour Samadpour, the director of IEH Laboratories in Seattle — the firm hired by companies including Chipotle and Costco to improve their food-safety practices — said Tuesday he is a shareholder in Pi Bioscientific and the problems have been corrected.
“We had no idea this was happening,” Samadpour said, adding that staff who had been hired to care for the animals on the farm weren’t doing their jobs properly.
The animals are used for antibody testing for medical research, Samadpour said. Pi Biologique distributes test kits for common food allergies, according to a company website.
The Department of Public Health now says that 41 people have been diagnosed with E. coli after visiting the Oak Leaf Dairy Farm in March. The patients range in age from 9 months to 45 years old, with a median age of five. Of the 41 patients, seven are adults and the other 34 are under the age of 18. Of those under 18, 22 are under the age of five.
Of those who were diagnosed with E. coli, 10 were hospitalized, and one remains in the hospital. Also, three of the hospitalized patients were also determined to have hemolytic uremic syndrome, a rare but serious illness that affects the kidneys and blood clotting. The one child still hospitalized is one of the three who had HUS.
As of 1:00 p.m. today, DPH is investigating 15 confirmed cases of E. coli O157 infection. The number of cases could increase in the near future as DPH is actively identifying individuals who were not initially reported.
So far, investigators have been able to link 14 of these cases to Oak Leaf Farm. The patients range in age from 1-44 years old, with a median age of six. In total, five patients have been hospitalized with three still in the hospital. Two of the hospitalized patients have been diagnosed with hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), as first reported last week.
Yesterday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) dispatched a team to Connecticut to assist in the investigation of this outbreak. Today, officials from DPH, the Connecticut Department of Agriculture, the Uncas Health District, and the CDC team are at the Oak Leaf Farm conducting an onsite investigation. The Farm remains voluntarily closed to the public, and the owners are cooperating with the investigation.
Oak Leaf Dairy Farm is no longer allowed to have the public visit its goats and may not distribute unpasteurized products, Mark Reynolds, the farm’s owner, said.
They also took home the 180 degrees champion goat cheese award for the second year in a row for their Aroha Raw Milk Jubilee which achieved a rare score of 100.
“We care so much about the girls and what we do. We know every single one,” Jeanne van Kuyk said.
“We’ve always loved goats. The love for goats has brought it all on.”
It’s the girls that make the cheese so good, she said.
In a release issued on Monday afternoon, the Smithsonian facility explains that on Feb. 18, a “routine fecal screening process” for goats showed signs of the bacteria. Although the goats were then removed from public view, follow-up tests confirmed E. coli in four goats and one cow last Friday.
“Based on these results, the Kids’ Farm was immediately quarantined and staff started appropriate protective measures, including treating all the farm animals with antibiotics,” the zoo says. The exhibit will reopen after zoo vets get “three consecutive weeks of negative test results.”
“As most people know, E. coli is everywhere in our environment,” Brandie Smith, an associate director at the zoo, explains in the release. “Because it is so common, we routinely test our animals. It’s unfortunate that we have to close the Kids’ Farm temporarily, but we’re taking the right preventative measures for our guests, staff and the animals.”
Educational events encouraging human–animal interaction include the risk of zoonotic disease transmission. It is estimated that 14% of all disease in the US caused by Campylobacter spp., Cryptosporidium spp., Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) O157, non-O157 STECs, Listeria monocytogenes, nontyphoidal Salmonella enterica and Yersinia enterocolitica were attributable to animal contact. This article reviews best practices for organizing events where human–animal interactions are encouraged, with the objective of lowering the risk of zoonotic disease transmission.
You’re not the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police): Where’s your horse?
This story could not be more Canadian:
RCMP in Warman, Sask., were allegedly forced to arrest a “stubborn” goat for refusing to leave a Tim Hortons on Sunday morning.
In a statement, RCMP said that employees initially “asked” the goat to leave – how politely Canadian, eh — and tried to walk him outside, but the rebellious animal turned around and sauntered back through the restaurant’s automatic doors.
Eventually two RCMP members were called to deal with the “disturbance.”
The officers believed that the goat was “cold,” and like many Canadians, was forced to take refuge in a Tim Hortons.
They added that the goat simply wanted to “sleep in the entrance.”
Faced with a noncompliant citizen, the RCMP officers “arrested” the goat and escorted him into their vehicle.
RCMP says the goat was “very unhappy” at his treatment.
“The members decided to take him home instead of holding cells at the detachment,” said the RCMP statement.
At first, they were unable to locate the owners of the goat after knocking on the doors of many local farms.
“He made goat for me for dinner. He killed the goat,” Dorsey says, before clarifying that he didn’t actually witness the slaughter. “He killed it before. I guess he kills it. He kills it with a laser gun and then the knife.”
“Then we waited for about 30 minutes. He’s like, ‘I think it’s done now.’ We go in the dining room. He puts the goat down. It was cold. That was memorable. I don’t know if it went back in the oven. I just ate my salad.”
