Four Austrians suffer tick-borne encephalitis from cheese: report

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

VIENNA (AFP) — Four people recently fell ill with tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) in western Austria after eating homemade goats' cheese, medical experts reported Thursday.

A shepherd in western Vorarlberg province, who had checked into hospital in July with flu-like symptoms, was found to have the illness following a blood test.

But the man said he had noticed no tick bites, the usual method of transmission, two experts from the Institute of Virology at Vienna Medical University wrote in an article published Thursday.

Doctors finally traced the cause of the illness to the cheese, which the shepherd had made from unpasteurised goat's and cow's milk on an isolated pasture at over 1,560-metre (5,120-feet) altitude.

Three other members of his family, who...