MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
The outbreak of Cyclospora continues to make headlines around the country, and it's not the only food bug that's caused a big outbreak. In Idaho, raw milk has sickened more than a hundred people, sending 11 to the hospital. As Lauren Paterson at Boise State Public Radio reports, the state has no plans to increase regulations.
LAUREN PATERSON, BYLINE: It's a busy summer's day at the Kooskia Farmers Market in north Idaho. Christopher Clugston is manning his stand, and customers are flocking in to buy his raw goat milk and cheese.
CHRISTOPHER CLUGSTON: It does seem that we've had quite a lot of interest, almost more than we can keep up with most of the time, especially when it comes to the cheese or - you know, down here at the market, we always sell out before the end of the market.
PATERSON: Clugston explains that raw milk is milk straight out of the udder that hasn't been pasteurized. That's the process of heating the milk to kill harmful bacteria. Raw milk, he says...
CLUGSTON: I think that it's healthier for you. I'm not a doctor or anything that can tell you for certain that you should drink it, but I have myself noticed many benefits, from better digestion to just more energy throughout the day.
PATERSON: It's been legal to sell raw milk in Idaho since 2010. The state does not require producers to test it for pathogens before selling it. In late April, people here started getting sick from it. By late June, it turned into the state's biggest outbreak of illness linked to raw milk in 10 years - 113 cases. Eleven people had to be hospitalized.
KRISTEN POGREBA-BROWN: Raw milk is always on our radar because it has so many different pathogens associated with it.
PATERSON: Kristen Pogreba-Brown is an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Arizona. She says raw milk can harbor dangerous disease-causing bacteria like Campylobacter, salmonella, E. coli and listeria. And campylobacteriosis can cause symptoms ranging from a stomachache to bloody diarrhea.
POGREBA-BROWN: So that's often what gets people to the hospital, is they - you know, diarrhea is one thing, bloody diarrhea is another thing, and especially in children.
PATERSON: Before pasteurization started in the late 1800s, people were constantly sick from drinking raw milk.
POGREBA-BROWN: They were getting GI illnesses. They were getting tuberculosis. They were getting other kinds of diseases. Guillain-Barre syndrome is a neurological outcome that can happen with some cases of Campylobacter. And so we pasteurized milk for a reason.
PATERSON: Pogreba-Brown says that's because the U.S. has pasteurized milk for more than a hundred years. People no longer see the bad outcomes it prevents. And so, like vaccines, they may not recognize its effectiveness.
It's been more than a month since the last reported case in Idaho of illness linked to raw milk. In Idaho, the Department of Agriculture issues permits for raw milk sellers and requires their animals to be tested for brucellosis and tuberculosis annually. Those diseases can be transmitted through raw milk. But the state has no plans to change its regulation in response to this outbreak, says Agriculture Director Chanel Tewalt.
CHANEL TEWALT: In Idaho, what we hear loud and clear, whether it's from our customers, from consumers or from the state House, is that Idahoans do like having choices that are made by themselves, not by government.
PATERSON: Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has endorsed raw milk, but the Federal Food and Drug Administration prohibits its sale across state lines.
For NPR News, I'm Lauren Paterson in Kooskia, Idaho.
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