I like raw milk products, but there is some risk.

[SarahD]

I drank lots of raw milk when I was a kid because my aunts and uncles were dairy farmers. Now I have friends who make raw milk cheese from cow milk and goat milk. I don't worry because I know the milk and cheese are handled carefully. But I would never buy raw milk products on the internet and have them shipped to me because I don't know anything about the producers and the shipping process is a perfect opportunity for listeriosis.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/16/health/raw-milk-cheese-e-coli-outbreak/index.html

[marble falls]

1. After spending 16 months with Brucelossis, I can assure you: there are incredible risks with raw milk ...

... That said, twenty years ago I used raw milk products. But I knew the producers and I knew the cows. The cows were monitored by state inspectors and the milk rooms and processing rooms were monitored by the county inspectors.

I've had no contact with cattle or unpasturized milk products in twenty years.

[SarahD]

2. Brucellosis is no fun.

Where I grew up, every cow had to be vaccinated against brucellosis, no exceptions, no religious exemptions, end of discussion. The rule applied to all cows whether or not they sold the milk.

[marble falls]

4. The only other people I know who've had it were two people, one involved with giving vacine to bison in Montana ...

... and the other working for USAID with water buffalo in Indonesia.

Go figure. I almost gave up with it. It was more enervating than cancer. It has so many symptoms - I began to feel maybe it was psychosomatic.

Thank G*D for my primary care physician and the contagious disease specialist. It went on so long I felt maybe I was just aging quickly.

[RockRaven]

3. Given that Listeria can still grow at zero degrees C, the shipping isn't the

big issue when it comes to listeriosis. Not because shipping dairy doesn't add danger (it may, with poor temp control), but because avoiding shipping doesn't eliminate it -- one can have a perfect cold chain from producer to table and Listeria monocytogenes will still multiply throughout. That's part of why pasteurization is such a big deal from a public health/epidemiology standpoint, because refrigeration isn't enough by itself when it comes to Listeria.

[SarahD]

5. Pasteurization kills it

But careless handling of pasteurized milk can allow it to get going. The bacteria can be found in many places, so more storage, more having, etc. give it a better chance to flourish.

[3Hotdogs]

6. Then we go to a more basic question: Do we need milk in the first place.

We are not baby cows. (At least, I ain't.)

[Elessar Zappa]

7. Might not need it but people like dairy products.

No big deal.