Dairy Education Board (06/28/98)

SUNDAY – JUNE 28, 1998

I invite everybody to visit a new feature on the NOTMILK and
Dairy Education homepages: the HALL OF SHAME.  Models, celebrities,
athletes and politicians shall forever be immortalized for betraying
their fellow citizens by posing for the dairy industry brainwashing
campaign.  GO TO:

http://www.notmilk.com/deb/shame.html

Now - from the ridiculous to the very serious.

There is a magazine that 100,000+ milk producers subscribe to, "HOARD’S
DAIRYMAN."  This year there have been dozens of articles describing
bacteria in cows that are nearly impossible to eradicate.  The name of
that organism strikes fear in farmers and should do the same to milk
consumers.  We’re talking about "Mycobacterium Paratuberculosis."

The most recent issue of HOARD’S revealed good news to the dairyman (and
dairywoman).  According to this magazine, "Heat treatment
(pasteurization) destroys this dangerous bacteria."

The British medical journal, LANCET, recently revealed a direct link
between this bacteria and CROHN’S disease in humans.  Cows get a disease
called JOHNE’S (pronounced: yo-nees) and pass on this bacteria to humans
in milk and dairy products.  Cows with this condition have continuous
diarrhea.  A diagnosis of CROHN’S disease usually results after many
years of irritable bowel syndrome, a condition shared by more than four
million American women and two million American men.  The number one
symptom in humans and cows is a shared experience: persistent diarrhea.

This "good news" in HOARD’S was based upon a study performed by the
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).  It took me two months
to get that study, and upon receipt, I called the scientist whose name
appears as its senior author, Judy Stabel, Ph.D.  After reading the
study and talking with this scientist I believe that we have something
to be very concerned about!

Every scientific article begins with an ABSTRACT which summarizes what
is to follow.  The title of the article is:

"Heat Inactivation of Mycobacterium paratuberculosis in Raw Milk: Are
Current Pasteurization Conditions Effective?"  The abstract says:

"Currently, it is not known whether commercial pasteurization
effectively kills mycobacterium paratuberculosis in contaminated raw
milk."  This sentence contradicts every conclusion made from this very
same paper!

The second page of Stabel’s paper (published in the December, 1997 issue
of Applied and Environmental Microbiology) reveals:

"Bacteria were not totally inactivated until after 15 minutes of
incubation (pasteurization) at 72 degrees centigrade." I’ve got some
very bad news for all milk drinkers…normal pasteurization at this
temperature calls for a 15-second treatment, not 15 minutes!

I received a letter, written by Joseph Smucker, team leader of the Milk
Safety Team at the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, a
branch of the Food and Drug Administration.  That letter written to
numerous government officials at FDA and USDA ends with:

"After a review of the available literature on the subject, it is the
position of FDA that the latest research shows conclusively that
commercial pasteurization does indeed eliminate this hazard."

Such a position has relieved an enormous fear shared by every milk
producer.  However, such a conclusion was incorrectly reached and is not
shared by the author of the critical study cited to justify such a
conclusion.

British scientists have taken milk samples at the point of retail
purchase and have cultured live tuberculosis bacteria from the same milk
purchased by consumers.  In her paper, Dr. Stabel writes:

"There is no definitive evidence to date that viable M. paratuberculosis
is present in retail pasteurized dairy products."

I contacted Dr. Stabel and asked her why there is no evidence.  "Have we
ever tested milk samples at retail purchase sites?"  Her response was
"No."  I asked, "Why not?"  She replied, "I don’t know."

The FDA and USDA have misinterpreted Stabel’s paper, and scientific
evidence suggests that this dangerous bacterium does indeed survive
pasteurization.  This is just another example of how Americans are being
betrayed by regulatory agencies like FDA and USDA.

The milk is indeed a DEADLY POISON!

********************************

ADDITIONAL REFERENCES SUPPORTING THE SURVIVAL
OF PARATUBERCULOSIS AFTER PASTEURIZATION:

Grant IR, Ball HJ, Rowe MT (*) (Feb 1998).-
Lett Appl Microbiol 26: 166-170.
Dept. of Food Science, Queen=B4s University of Belfast, UK.

Sung N, Collins MT (Mar 1998)
Appl Environ Microbiol 64: 999-1005.
Dept. of Pathobiological Sciences, Univ. of Wisconsin

*******************************

Robert Cohen
Executive Director
http://www.NOTMILK.com