A Knox County, Tennessee dairy farm has recently come under harsh scrutiny since an E. coli outbreak hit Mascot last Thursday. Health officials have reported that a few children have become sick from the E. coli outbreak and that the proper authorities will contact anyone who may have exposed. Investigators collected samples from the farm in an attempt to locate from where the outbreak originated and issued a cease and desist order. Until the current situation is settled, no one may purchase cow or goat mild from the dairy farm.
Journalist Laura Halm of ABC 6 News (wate.com) interviewed the owner of McBee Dairy Farm, and the owner stated that all of her customers are properly warned about the risk; it is not illegal for them to drink raw milk, and the farms goal was to keep their costumers safe. She is quoted saying “We were aware of it and our customers have all been made aware of it several times,” and “We advised everyone to stop drinking their milk and hold it until we got our testing back”.
The dairy farm explained that if any tests came back positive for the presence of E. coli, they would isolate the cows in order to determine the origin of the outbreak. Hopefully, the farm will be able to restart their milk deliveries by the end of next week.
Laura Halm also interview a Knox County Health Director name Martha Buchanan, where she is quoted saying “In children, in particular, if they get E. coli 157 and the symptoms would be fever, vomiting, and diarrhea. They can kind of have a mild case and then in a few days they can get really sick.”