January 2008

milk listeria outbreakPublic health officials in Massachusetts have confirmed that a listeriosis outbreak was caused by the consumption of milk purchased from Whittier Farms.  They used Pulsed Field Gel Electrophoresis (PFGE) to obtain the "genetic fingerprint" of the strain of Listeria that was isolated from case-patients and milk provided by the dairy for testing. 

PFGE is a