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Tragic: Teenager dies after years in a coma; Cause: Raw milk cheese

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Aug 12, 2026 - Foods

Tragic: Teenager dies after years in a coma; Cause: Raw milk cheese

Tragic: Teenager dies after years in a coma; Cause: Raw milk cheese

The cheese specialties Appenzeller, Emmentaler, Parmesan, Allgäuer mountain cheese, and others are usually made from raw milk, which may have been filtered at most. After a long, 9-year suffering in a coma, the Trentino teenager Matthea Maestri has passed away, who was suffering from an EHEC infection with kidney complications. He had eaten the incriminated cheese when he was 4 years old! - An Italian court had convicted two managers of a dairy farm as well as those responsible for the cheese dairy for negligent bodily harm in this case. According to RAI, the cheese came from a dairy in the South Tyrolean Nonstal.

Our urgent advice to producers of raw milk cheeses: please have your specialties examined, e.g., for  Escherichia coli, STEC/VTEC  including rapid methods. Benefit from our expertise, our advice, and our broad range of methods (rapid methods, serotyping – including O45 see above -, enrichment methods, etc.)

Desire further information? Read our BAV fact sheets:

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