In Nov. 2011, raw milk produced by Cozy Vale Creamery in Tenino, Washington, sickened at least three children and environmental swabs found E. coli O157 at the dairy.

Today, the owner and armchair epidemiologist says the publicity and lawsuit for making people barf is ruining his business and it’s "hanging on by it's fingernails."

Duh.

In a statement posted on the Cozy Valley (or Vale, they seem to be used interchangeably) Dairy website, the owner says the lawsuit, bad press and community gossip have "nearly ruined" the business.

"Cows still giving lots of good milk...do I use it as fertilizer and hope that business will pick up, or should I send the girls to the slaughter house," the statement reads.

“I'd like to let you know that recent publicity and gossip foisted upon Cozy Vale has nearly ruined us. Cozy Vale is hanging on by it's fingernails. If you'd like to see us continue our small farming enterprise, please let us know. Most of you know how important local products are to our local economy. I mean it's tough enough already being a Raw Milk Dairy Producer and add to it a lawsuit, bad press, and community gossip. My God!

“I've learned that no good comes from talking to the press. I've learned that no good comes from not talking to the press. I've learned that if someone sues you, you become guilty instantly...and you know what? They know that. I've learned that facts can be presented in a way that can be damaging or helpful and the choice is always for damaging, its just more delicious that way! I've learned that gossip in a small community always divides it and destroys....um...I really thought better of my small community.

“There never was any ecoli found in our milk product. They did not find any ecoli in any of the milk samples taken. And the WSDA sampled over 36 seperate containers of milk (that I counted anyway). They tested the milk that the sick person drank from, no ecoli found. When my facility was swabbed down, they did not find ecoli anywhere that the milk would be. They tried really hard to find it too...even went so far as to stick a swab up the ass of my cows! (Well not really, but thats what it felt like). They did stick the swabs in old poop, steaming hot fresh poop, cows tails and udders. I was horrified!

In 3 sample swabs, one in the milking room floor, the sponge mop head, and processing room floor ecoli was found. It looks as if the mop had spread it around. I am told that the strain of ecoli found on my dairy room floor was a common type...I do not understand all of that, and am still looking into that.

Luckily, floor cleaning was an easy fix...it was fixed the very next day with a simple bleach solution.”

Would you buy raw milk or any food from this local producer?

The Japanese health ministry said Thursday it has detected E. coli O157 inside beef liver for the first time, raising the likelihood that raw liver -- considered a delicacy in Japan -- may soon be banned from the dining table.

The findings, to be discussed by a ministry council next Tuesday, come as the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has been considering whether to prohibit butchers and restaurants from selling raw beef liver, in the wake of food poisoning deaths from raw beef served at barbeque restaurants earlier this year.

The ministry found live E. coli bacteria of the strain in the livers of two of the about 150 cattle it has examined at meat inspection centers nationwide since summer.

The ministry said the outcome of genetic testing has also shown that the bacteria existed inside beef livers of more than one cow examined.

So far, the bacteria have been found only on the surface of beef livers and the ministry had been warning consumers to be careful when eating raw livers.

Restaurants have already been asked by the government to refrain from serving raw beef liver since July while the ministry considered the safety of consuming raw beef and raw liver.

Of the 116 cases of food poisoning from eating raw beef liver confirmed between 1998 and 2010, 20 were caused by enterohemorrhagic E. coli bacteria, according to the ministry.

Elizabeth Weise in USA Today doesn’t really answer the who-should-pay question, but does ask, what if it were possible to almost entirely do away with E. coli in ground beef and it would cost only about a penny a burger?

Food-safety experts say it's entirely feasible with new technologies that have become available. One is a vaccine, the other a feed additive, which, given early enough, could bring down potential E. coli contamination to negligible levels.

The problem, experts in beef safety say, is that the economics are backward. The new interventions have to be administered long before the cattle are slaughtered, when the calves are young or in feedlots where they're growing.

It's hard to figure out who should pay for steps that would take place months and possibly years before the grill starts sizzling. The people who'd have to pay for them aren't the ones who would reap the direct benefits.’’’

These interventions aren't perfect, but they're very good, says Guy Loneragan, a professor of food safety at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. "The question is no longer, 'Can we get the technologies?' We've got them, or they're soon to arrive. The question is 'How do we implement?' "

So far only two small companies appear to be embracing them. One is a tiny feed lot cooperative in Kansas that's looking to vaccinate all its cattle "soon." The other is a Meade, Kan., cooperative that's staking its economic life on calling for retailers nationally to demand these interventions from the packers that supply their meat.

The regulatory landscape "is confusing," says Elisabeth Hagen, USDA's undersecretary for food safety. "But we're realizing that there's an issue here and somehow we have to bring everybody together and focus on the end product, the result of which is the safety of the food that goes to the American consumer."

Loneragan says they've gone as far as they can after the animal is slaughtered. Now the focus needs to be on ridding the animals of E. coli O157:H7 before they get to the slaughterhouse. The new methods to do that involve:

•A vaccine. The biggest and potentially most game-changing treatment is a vaccine introduced by Pfizer Animal Health in 2010 and given in a three-shot series starting when the calf is just 6 months old. This gets rid of the E. coli O157:H7 bacteria in 85% of the cattle, says Brad Morgan, a senior food-safety specialist at Pfizer Animal Health in Stillwater, Okla. Not only that, but even among the ones that still have the bacteria in the gut, the injections reduce the amount the animals shed in their manure by 98%, he says.

It's not all or nothing. Pfizer has done studies showing that if only 50% or even 25% of cattle are vaccinated, rates of E. coli are strongly reduced in the feed yard, and therefore in the packing plant. And Harvard's Hammitt says his research shows that Americans understand that food can't be "perfectly safe," but they want safer.

The vaccine costs $4 to $6 per animal for the full series, says Loneragan. There are several other vaccines in the regulatory pipeline here and overseas.

•The probiotic. The other intervention is a probiotic added to feed. These are beneficial bacteria cultures that out-compete the more dangerous forms of E. coli in the cattles' guts, much as yogurt is said to seed the gut with good bacteria to keep out the bad. Many studies have found that using "the right strain at the right dose you can get a fairly predictable 40% to 50% reduction in E. coli O157:H7," says Loneragan.

The American Meat Institute Foundation, the research arm of the meat industry trade group, says there just isn't enough data yet to know if these treatments work. While there's been a tremendous amount of research and it looks promising, "We're right at the cusp of understanding the technology," says Betsy Booren, the institute's director of scientific affairs.

Last year Cargill, one of the nation's largest beef producers, conducted a trial of the E. coli vaccine on 85,000 head of cattle at its Fort Morgan, Colo., beef-processing facility, says spokesman Mike Martin at Cargill's Wichita headquarters.

The trial's results were "inconclusive," Martin says, in part because the levels of O157:H7 they found on the cattle in general "were the lowest in years . …" There was "very little difference" in rates between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated cattle, he says.

Loneragan says in the studies he's done, E. coli O157:H7 levels were indeed low but dropped lower in meat from vaccinated cattle.

In the end, it's going to take movement by the biggest companies to move the industry. There are two that could make this happen in a second, McDonald's and Wal-Mart, says Chuck Jolley, a meat industry marketing company executive.

"If either decides to require it, the industry will turn around on a dime," he says.

Raw milk products produced by Organic Pastures of Fresno County are the subject of a statewide recall and quarantine order announced by California State Veterinarian Dr. Annette Whiteford.

Under the recall, all Organic Pastures raw dairy products with the exception of cheese aged a minimum of 60 days are to be pulled immediately from retail shelves and consumers are strongly urged to dispose of any products remaining in their refrigerators. Until further notice, Organic Pastures may not produce raw milk products for the retail market. The order also affects Organic Pastures raw butter, raw cream, raw colostrum, and a raw product labeled “Qephor.”

The quarantine order came following a notification from the California Department of Public Health of a cluster of five children who were infected, from August through October, with the same strain of E. coli O157:H7. These children are residents of Contra Costa, Kings, Sacramento, and San Diego counties. Interviews with the families indicate that the only common reported food exposure is unpasteurized (raw) milk from Organic Pastures dairy. Three of the five children were hospitalized with hemolytic uremic syndrome, a serious condition that may lead to kidney failure.

Surveys indicate that only about three percent of the public report drinking raw milk in any given week so finding 100% of these children drank raw milk and the absence of other common foods or animal exposures indicates the Organic Pastures raw milk is the likely source of their infection.

While laboratory samples of Organic Pastures raw milk have not detected E. coli 0157:H7 contamination, epidemiologic data collected by the California Department of Public Health link the illnesses with Organic Pastures raw milk.