United States raw milk debate prior to symptom onset." Milk collected or stored in unsanitary conditions may harbor a host of disease-causing organisms (pathogens), such as "tuberculosis" (Mycobacterium bovis), the bacteria "Campylobacter" (Campylobacteriosis), "Escherichia" E. coli O157:H7), "Listeria" (Listeriosis), "Salmonella" (Salmonellosis), "Yersinia" (Yersinia enterocolitica), and "Brucella" (Brucellosis). Pasteurization consistently removes all of these pathogens, though they can be reintroduced if the product is handled carelessly. Thus dairy farms that pasteurize their milk can have unsanitary facilities without the attendant outbreaks of disease that would occur if a raw milk dairy kept its herds in similar unsanitary conditions. People with weakened immune systems, such as elderly,
Brucellosis is present. Currently, no effective vaccine is available for humans. Boiling milk before consumption, or before using it to produce other dairy products, is protective against transmission via ingestion. Changing traditional food habits of eating raw meat, liver, or bone marrow is necessary, but difficult to implement. Patients who have had brucellosis should probably be excluded indefinitely from donating blood or organs. Exposure of diagnostic laboratory personnel to "Brucella" organisms remains a problem in both endemic settings and when brucellosis is unknowingly imported by a patient. After appropriate risk assessment, staff with significant exposure should be offered postexposure prophylaxis and