Dairies thank consumers for their trust

Dear consumers,

Lazine, Srna and Nika dairies buy milk from Montenegrin farms, produce quality dairy products and enjoy your trust for more than two and a half decades. Current media coverage related to Q fever often contains incompetent, incomplete and ill-intentioned information and comments, which can cause serious damage to domestic livestock and dairy farming, and for this reason we feel the duty and need to address you, present our arguments and publicly thank you for your support and trust.

First of all, we wanted to present you with the following facts:

• In the last 20 years, this is the 4th more intense presence of Q fever on Montenegrin farms (2007, 2013, 2018 and 2024). The difference between this year's and the previous three epidemics lies in the fact that they did not experience media "promotion" like this year's.
• The causative agent of Q fever is the bacterium Coxiella burnetii, which is widespread on dairy farms in Europe and around the world.
• In the 19th century, French microbiologist Louis Pasteur found a method for food protection known as pasteurization.
• Scientific research proves that the mentioned bacteria is destroyed milk pasteurization at a temperature of 63⁰C (30 minutes), or at a temperature of 72⁰C for 15 minutes.

In our dairies, milk is thermally treated (pasteurizes) at a temperature over 95⁰C, so there is no theoretical possibility of transmitting Q fever or any other disease to humans through the consumption of dairy products. Pasteurization at very high temperatures, a systemically established procedure ensures the production of health-safe dairy products, the quality of which you can enjoy for almost three decades, which is also our mission.

Since the importation of Q fever and its more intensive spread in Montenegro, domestic dairies have bought millions of liters of milk, pasteurized and produced millions of liters of dairy products that found their way to millions of consumers and foreign tourists, and so far not a single case of transmission of Q fever through consumption has been recorded pasteurized dairy products.

The purpose of our address is to once again express our gratitude for your trust and we believe that our products will continue to be a favorite on your tables. We hope that, by presenting the above arguments, we have additionally informed you that your favorite dairy products are produced in compliance with strict safety procedures as a condition for the creation of quality and health-safe products.

We will continue to work in compliance with strict procedures and thus show our care and commitment to your health, the professional and responsible relationship we cultivate. Finally, once again, thank you for your trust in us.

(Lazine, Srna and Nika dairies)