Monday, February 19, 2018

Calves sicken children, farmers

The Centres for Disease Control (CDC) reports that at least 56 people became sick after contact with calves, most of them dairy calves from Wisconsin.

It means farming families should be cautious about very young children coming in contact with calves, especially ones that are sick.

CDC, several states, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA-APHIS) investigated a 15-states outbreak of multidrug-resistant Salmonella Heidelberg infections.

Thirty five per cent of the infected people were hospitalized. No deaths were reported.
Thirty-five per cent were children younger than five.

Some of the ill people interviewed reported that they became sick after their calves became sick or died.


Surveillance in veterinary diagnostic laboratories showed that calves in several states were infected with the outbreak strains of multidrug-resistant Salmonella Heidelberg.