Public Health Agency adds case in Quebec to Salmon Arm E.coli cheese outbreak investigation

OTTAWA – The Public Health Agency of Canada has confirmed one more illness linked to E.coli contaminated cheese from British Columbia.

It brings the total number of cases under investigation to 14.

An outbreak of bacteria at Gort's Gouda Cheese Farm in Salmon Arm, B.C., has been blamed for an elderly woman's death and a rash of illnesses.

The health agency has now added a case in Quebec to its national tally of four in British Columbia, eight in Alberta and one in Saskatchewan.

It says those people became ill between mid-July and early September.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has recalled 15 raw-milk cheese products sold online, at the Gort's farm and elsewhere in British Columbia and Alberta between May 27 to Sept. 14.

E. coli is a bacteria that can cause severe stomach cramps, diarrhoea, kidney failure and death.

On Thursday, one of the Gort's farm's co-owners offered a tearful apology.

"We are so sorry and we are trying to get to the source of the E. coli, but we don't know the source and we don't know what happened," said a sobbing Kathy Wikkerink.