Pa. agency suspends raw milk sales permit for Lawrence Co. creamery

HARRISBURG — The Department of Agriculture today announced that the permit for Pasture Maid Creamery in New Castle, Pa., to sell raw milk for human consumption was suspended April 5 after testing found Campylobacter in its raw-milk samples. Raw milk is milk that has not been pasteurized.

Campylobacter is a bacterial infection that affects the intestinal tract and can sometimes enter the bloodstream and other organs.

The Department of Health recently received new reports of consumers who became ill after drinking raw milk from Pasture Maid Creamery, owned and operated by Adam Dean. Anyone who bought raw milk from that farm is urged to discard it immediately and contact their health-care provider if they become sick.

Additional samples of milk collected from the farm on March 26 were confirmed by the Department of Agriculture laboratory to contain Campylobacter. These are the latest samples from the farm found to contain this organism, which can cause severe diarrhea and vomiting.

Pasture Maid Creamery sells raw milk directly to consumers who sometimes provide their own bottles. The business is not related to Dean's Dairy in Sharpsville, Pa., in Mercer County, which produces pasteurized milk for sale in supermarkets.