Health officials: Raw milk may have sickened 3 in Montco

Three Montgomery County residents have been stricken with a bacterial infection that may be linked to raw milk produced and sold at a Bucks County farm, according county and state health officials.

But the owner of the farm denies that any milk product it produced was the source of contamination.

Acting on the recommendation of the state Department of Agriculture, the Hendricks Farm and Dairy of Telford has voluntarily suspended the sale of raw milk until laboratory results of milk samples gathered last week are complete, state Agriculture Department press secretary Chris Ryder told reporter Margaret Gibbons.

The completed test results should be available today, Ryder said.

From Gibbons' story:

The farm issued a statement on its Web site that said, "HF & D is very concerned by the health issues some families have suffered from recently."

"We are willingly complying with the commonwealth's recommended temporary discontinuation of fluid raw milk sales. We continue to comply with all regulations and guidelines and we remain optimistic that we will be exonerated when the test results become available Tuesday. At this time, there is no conclusive evidence. Our track record and history consist of stellar test results and we have never had a positive pathogen test in our 7-year history."

Tests performed last week by the company's normal laboratory did not indicate any problems, according to the Web site.

The farm sells some 600 gallons of raw, unpasteurized milk a week to more than 300 families, according to the Web site.

Read the full story at The Mercury's Web site.