According to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, the number of confirmed cases of Campylobacter infection has increased to a total of 20 confirmed cases – 16 cases have been confirmed in Pennsylvania and and four cases in Maryland.

Testing of the product is still underway at the Department of Agriculture.

Samantha Krepps, Press Secretary for the Department Of Agriculture told Fox 43, "Once the family found out there was a problem - they voluntarily stopped production."

Six people were infected with campylobacter linked to raw milk from the Family Cow dairy store in Chambersburg, Pa., including three in Maryland, the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said Friday.

The implicated milk comes in plastic gallon, half gallon and pint containers and is sold directly to consumers on the farm and at drop off points and retail stores in Pennsylvania. It's illegal to sell unpasteurized milk in Maryland, though some consumers have reported getting it anyway at pre-determined drop off points.

In yet another entry into the we’ve-been-doing-it-this-way-all-our-lives-and-no-one-has-gotten-sick sweepstakes, Edwin Shank, a fourth generation owner of the Family Cow farm told the Baltimore Sun he's never heard of a customer becoming sick from his milk, and no one on the farm has been sickened; through five generations his family has been drinking raw milk from their cows "for 100 years."

“We're disappointed that this is being made to look definite when, one, the testing hasn't been completed, and two, the test they did do came from an open jug of milk in one family's refrigerator.”

Shank said that he has a good relationship with the health department and wants customers to know that he disinfects his pipes after every milking and sends samples of milk for testing six times as often as is legally required. He's been selling organic milk for six years and added raw milk three years ago because of strong demand.

A table of raw milk related outbreaks is available at http://bites.ksu.edu/rawmilk.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reports that on June 29, 2011, the Wyoming Department of Health was notified of two laboratory-confirmed cases of Campylobacter jejuni enteritis among persons working at a local sheep ranch.

During June, two men had reported onset of symptoms compatible with campylobacteriosis. Both patients had diarrhea, and one also had abdominal cramps, fever, nausea, and vomiting. One patient was hospitalized for 1 day. Both patients recovered without sequelae. During June, both patients had participated in a multiday event to castrate and dock tails of 1,600 lambs. Both men reported having used their teeth to castrate some of the lambs. Among the 12 persons who participated in the event, the patients are the only two known to have used their teeth to castrate lambs. During the multiday event, a few lambs reportedly had a mild diarrheal illness. Neither patient with laboratory-confirmed illness reported consumption of poultry or unpasteurized dairy products, which are common sources of exposure to C. jejuni. The patients resided in separate houses and did not share food or water; none of their contacts became ill.

Both patients provided stool specimens for laboratory testing; C. jejuni was isolated from each. The pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) patterns of the isolates were indistinguishable when restricted separately by two enzymes, SmaI and KpnI. This PFGE pattern had never been reported among 667 specimens from which C. jejuni was isolated in Wyoming and is rare in CDC's PulseNet*database, with a frequency of 0.09% (8 of 8,817). The low frequency of this PFGE pattern suggests that both patients were infected from a common source.

Animals at the ranch included sheep, cattle, horses, cats, and dogs; none were ill during the site visit on October 19 when investigators obtained fecal samples from five lambs. C. jejuni was isolated from two lambs; one isolate had a PFGE pattern indistinguishable from the two human isolates. C. jejuni is transmitted via the fecal-oral route; this is the first reported association of C. jejuni infection with exposure during castration of lambs. The PFGE pattern identified in these cases had not been associated with animal exposure. Ranch owners and employees were advised to use standardized, age-specific techniques for lamb castration (e.g., Burdizzo, rubber rings, or surgery) and to wash their hands thoroughly after contact with animals.

 Who knew Manchester, U.K., had such fancy hotels?

Diners at Salford's luxury Lowry Hotel reported fever, dizziness and vomiting after attending a fundraiser at what has been dubbed Manchester's most fashionable hotel.

The outbreak is being linked to chicken pate served at a charity dinner and is now being investigated by the Health Protection Agency (HPA) and officers from Salford council.

The five-star facility gets zero stars for its new addition to the things-not-to-say-after-an-outbreak category: It is the first incident of its kind at the hotel since it opened 10 years ago.

And be careful when lawyers get sick.

Solicitor Alex Speed, 44, from Stockport, told how he fell ill after attending the event. “Based on what our table ate, I know that the people who had the tomato soup as a starter didn't get ill. It's reasonable to assume the pate was responsible.”

He has now launched a compensation claim on behalf of seven clients.

Dr Rosemary McCann, a consultant with the HPA, said 80 guests had so far reported symptoms - and a number of cases of campylobacter had now been confirmed by laboratory tests.

Hotel bosses confirmed that the pate dish had been prepared by hotel staff for the dinner on October 8. General manager Peter Kienast said, “We are determined to get to the cause of the issue and the detailed investigation is reviewing every stage of the process from the food source itself to its delivery.”

'The Lowry Hotel has very stringent procedures and training methods to ensure the highest quality of hygiene in our kitchens.

GM Kienast, you may want to check out those kitchen procedures.