a good letter to the Editor of the Chilliwack Progress, upholding our position in the debate about raw milk. The writer is responding to a letter published the previous week, which said that drinking raw milk is dangerous because it exposes consumers to TB and brucellosis.

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A matter of choice
In reply to letter by Celia Rogers in your Feb. 5 paper, I would like to bring her up to speed on a couple of things. The diseases of Brucellosis and Tuberculosis were eliminated in Canadian Cattle years ago. As a former Supervising Inspector in Contagious Diseases for many years, I can assure her that Brucellosis was totally eradicated by 1985. Tuberculosis was declared eliminated in the 1970s. So these diseases are no longer a factor in the safety of raw milk.

There is now a vaccine for E Coli 0157-H7, developed at the UBC, that prevents cows from shedding it in their milk, It is approved in Canada , so that problem is eliminated. The spread of other types of E.Coli, present in almost everything that we eat, is as always, good sanitation will keep it under control.

I might add that most people over 50 years of age drank raw milk regularly, and we are still here.

In conclusion, it should be up to people what they feel it is safe to drink what they wish, and not up to some “the world is coming to an end type”.

It is called freedom.

Bruce Davis

Chilliwack