Evidence of udder excretion of Campylobacter jejuni as the cause of milk-borne campylobacter outbreak.

We describe a community outbreak of campylobacter enteritis associated with the consumption of untreated milk, apparently contaminated by two cows with campylobacter mastitis. The outbreak occurred in two phases. Strains of Campylobacter jejuni of the Penner serogroup complex 4, 13, 16, 50 and Preston biotype code 6100 were isolated from patients in both episodes and from the faeces of the cattle, milk filters, bulk milk and retail milk. Milk samples from two of 40 milking cows were found to contain C. jejuni, and the wheys from these two cows had high titres of antibody to C. jejuni detected by ELISA techniques.