Tag Archives: Wisconsin

Dozens sickened by raw milk, yet Wisconsin keeps farm names secret

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Wisconsin state officials are refusing to identify a dairy farm that supplied unpasteurized milk at a potluck dinner where 38 participants, including members of the Durand High School football team, were sickened with Campylocater.

sprout.santa.barf.xmasDespite requests from The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel under the state’s Open Records law, officials with the Department of Health Services and the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, have been unwilling to provide the information.

Moreover, they’ve refused to identify a dairy farm that supplied unpasteurized milk at a June 2011 elementary school event in Racine County where 16 people were sickened.

“It’s outrageous. The public has the right to this information. Who is the state of Wisconsin trying to protect, the public or bad operators?” said Bill Lueders, president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council.

In the Racine County incident, unpasteurized milk from a local farm was served at a school event at North Cape Elementary School in Raymond, about 10 miles northwest of Racine.

“Allegedly, teachers at the school event thought drinking milk directly from a farm would be a good educational experience for the students,” State Rep. Don Pridemore (R-Erin) said in a statement after the illness outbreak.

7 sickened with E. coli and Campy from manure-in-wells in Wisconsin

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A young family visiting Door County for a weekend in mid-September were the subject of a public health investigation when they returned to their Calumet County home and their four-month-old daughter came down with an illness that was identified as E. coli bacteria from a bovine source.

Garden_Decoration__Well_“The department of health got involved. They asked me where I was. That was several phone calls, to try to narrow it down,” said the infant’s mother (she asked that we not use their names).

It turns out the family had stayed that weekend at a West Jacksonport home now identified as in the area of concern for well contamination after a Sept. 8 manure spreading session that included spreading into a sinkhole. This was the Monday after torrential rains wreaked havoc and saturated the landscape.
“I used well water to make her bottles,” she said. “No odor or color to the water. There was no sign.”

And there was no sign in the baby that she was ill until the family returned to their Calumet County home. Then she started exhibiting signs of food poisoning and was brought in for a medical examination, where it was determined that she was infected with E. coli.

“The department of health nurse said since the E. coli was combined with a campylobacter bacteria, that’s really indicative of a bovine source. They were able to track it to the source based on the type of bacteria in the water.”

The mother said she does not understand why manure spreading is not more regulated.

“Especially with the fractured bedrock and shallow soil. It doesn’t take much for it to get in the groundwater.”

Reporting on the West Jacksonport well contamination at the Nov. 10 meeting of the Door County Board of Health, Door County Health Officer Rhonda Kolberg said drinking manure-contaminated well water in the area of concern after Sept. 8 sickened a total of seven people.

“They were spreading as they normally would. They spread into a sinkhole, which they should not have done,” Kolberg said. “We found out about it because the people with the affected well called DNR, and their water was brown and foamy.”

Mark Borchardt, the U.S. Department of Agriculture microbiologist who helped track down the 2007 source of contamination at The Log Den when 211 customers and 18 employees were struck with gastro-intestinal illness from norovirus at the recently opened restaurant (the outbreak was eventually traced to the restaurant’s new septic system), did the viral testing of the West Jacksonport wells.

“He was trying to find a correlation between manure and the water,” Kolberg said. “He did determine it was bovine contamination.”

Unpasteurized raw milk being blamed for illness that sickened dozens of Wisconsin students

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A friend posted on facebook how much she enjoyed the visit to the apple cider mill – a fall tradition.

colbert.raw.milkI asked if the cider was pasteurized.

She said yes.

Good.

Not so good for the Durand High School in Wisconsin where a parent provided  unpasteurized raw milk for a team football dinner

Eight students were hospitalized, and nearly 150 middle and high school students stayed home to avoid getting sick. 

State health officials say it was Campylobacter that caused the illness, and the health department said Friday that it likely came from unpasteurized raw milk.

Over 100 sick; Wisconsin school district deals with aftermath of Campylobacter

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After a severe illness sends dozens of students home sick, attendance is back to normal at Durand schools.

football.vomitMore than 100 total students in the district were reported absent last wee, with Durand’s football team being hardest hit by the illness.

There are 19 confirmed cases of campylobacter; all are members of the football team.

24 sick: crypto outbreak in Wisconsin linked to ‘recreation water’

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Four new North Shore cases bring the total number of confirmed Crypto illnesses in Whitefish Bay, Fox Point and Bayside to 12, in addition to 12 probable cases in which symptoms subsided before they were diagnosed.

Jamie Berg of the North Shore Health Department said the investigation has been definitively narrowed to a pool, lake or river. None of the illnesses has required caddyshack.pool.poop-1hospitalization.

Several area pools have closed as a precautionary measure.

Two Wisconsin E. coli cases under investigation

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The source of two cases of E. coli O157:H7 reported in Manitowoc County in March are under investigation, said Amy Wergin, public health nurse manager for the Manitowoc County Health manitowoc post cardDepartment.

“It doesn’t appear that the public is at risk,” she said.

The department is conducting the investigation with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, she told htrnews.com.

“We have two cases of E. coli that have the same fingerprint. We are trying to discern what the link is between the two,” Wergin said. “Right now, these are the only two in the nation with this fingerprint.”

Four other cases in May of 2012 had the same strain — two in Manitowoc, one in Brown County and one in Colorado, Wergin said.

While the source of the E coli is yet unknown, if it was linked to a large fast-food restaurant chain, there likely would be more cases, she said.

170 sickened; I went for a swim at the lake and all I got was norovirus

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The Jackson County Health Department in Wisconsin began an investigation Monday, July 9, after receiving notification of several persons who became ill after swimming in Lake Wazee Beach area on July 4th. Initially food poisoning was suspected, however, after investigation, the water in the beach area is thought to be a potential source for illness.

To date there have been over 170 persons confirmed ill with vomiting, diarrhea, headache, nausea, stomachache fever and body aches. Illness does seem to be resolving itself in most persons after about 24-36 hours.

Testing of lake water by U.S. Department of Agriculture officials has not proven any conclusive organism, however markers for fecal contaminants were found to be present in the beach water. E. coli and blue green algae appear not to be factors in causing the illness. Norovirus is being suspected due to onset and symptoms of ill individuals. Samples from several ill persons have been sent to the WI State Lab of Hygiene for testing and results are pending.

Restaurant inspections in Wisconsin town designed to protect business?

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When the China Buffet in Appleton, Wisconsin (that’s in the U.S.) was closed by health inspectors last week, it not only marked the first time in a decade that local health types had closed a joint, but went against stated policy.

“You balance putting a restaurant out of business with assuring the public’s health,” said Kurt Eggebrecht, the city’s health officer. “The potential is there for people to misunderstand that (violations are) an ongoing problem and therefore they won’t eat at that restaurant.”

The Post Crescent reports that Appleton’s philosophy, shared by some health departments across the state, is that inspections are meant to be spot checks, and represent just a snapshot of compliance. They refuse to score restaurants, rank them, or mandate inspection records be posted at the establishment.

Restaurants and city officials are not required to inform customers when there is a sudden closure like the one at China Buffet, 982 W. Northland Ave. The closure was ordered after a contractor who was working on the building discovered hundreds of cockroaches and called the health department. An emergency inspection found numerous violations, including employees who weren’t properly washing their hands and raw food, including chicken and eggs, left overnight at room temperature.

Appleton Mayor Tim Hanna was quoted as saying, “Our goal is helping restaurants succeed. The goal isn’t to make us look good, but help them succeed and at the same time help the public. We’re protecting the public by shutting them down if there’s a problem. We’re not doing that by putting out a press release letting the public know.”

I wouldn’t want to eat there: Wisconsin city takes rare action in temporarily closing China Buffet

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For the first time in more than a decade, city health inspectors in Appleton, Wisconsin, ordered a restaurant closed for unsanitary conditions earlier this year.

And it was a China Buffet.

The Post Crescent reports the emergency order was prompted after a contractor who was working at the building discovered “hundreds” of cockroaches and called the city health department, according to documents obtained by the newspaper through a public records request. Inspectors then found that employees weren’t properly washing their hands, raw food was sitting out and the restaurant was in general disrepair.

“We went from zero to 100 on this one,” Appleton Health Officer Kurt Eggebrecht said. “Given it’s the first time we’ve done this in 12 years, it’s very significant. What we base our decisions on is, was there a potential for someone to become ill, and in this case there was.”

Vivian Liu, China Buffet manager, said the restaurant never had sanitation problems during 16 years of operation, and the inspection came at a particularly bad time when a cooler had stopped working.

“Safety is a priority here. It’s always been a clean restaurant, but with the cooler and plumbing problems they came at a bad time,” Liu told The P-C. “We’ve changed many of our procedures and have employees cleaning on a different schedule every day.”

Inspectors dispatched to the restaurant the day the complaint was made in March discovered:
• Raw chicken, eggs and shrimp left overnight at room temperature.
• Temperatures of cooked items such as noodles, milk and cooked chicken in a cooler well above required levels.
• Heavy infestation of cockroaches.
• Excessive grease build-up, dirty food contact surfaces and food without date markings.

The restaurant closed without public notice on March 15, remained closed March 16, and was reopened March 17.