Epidemiology of Milk-Borne Diseases

Secular trends in milk-borne diseases in the U.S.A. show numerous outbreaks associated with ingestion of raw milk in the early 1900s until the end of World War II. Diseases common in this period, but no longer milk-borne, were typhoid fever, scarlet fever, septic sore throat, diphtheria, tuberculosis, shigellosis, and milk sickness. Milk-borne and milk-product-borne diseases rarely reported somewhere in the world were botulism, Escherichia coli enteritis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa enteritis, listeriosis, Clostridium perfringens enteritis, Bacillus cereus gastroenteritis, Haverhill fever, Q fever, hepatitis A, poliomyelitis, toxoplasmosis, histamine intoxication and hypertension. After most milk was pasteurized, outbreaks decreased dramatically. Milk-borne diseases of contemporary importance in the U.S.A. are salmonellosis, campylobacteriosis, staphylococcal intoxication, brucellosis, and yersiniosis. These have usually been associated with ingestion of raw milk, certified raw milk, home-made ice cream containing fresh eggs, dried milk, pasteurized milk which was contaminated after heat processing, or either cheese made from raw milk or cheese in which starter activity was inhibited during its manufacture.