Bird Milk Turns Specially Sour for Hungarian Team

What was to be the last supper for the Hungarian national team before leaving for the World Championships, turned to tragedy when the local delicacy turned sour.

Last Monday the team was enjoying a celebratory dinner, complete with traditional Hungarian cake, madardej, or ‘bird milk’. The cake, made of milk and cream, was handed around as part of the festivities and set off a spate of food poisoning that denied the majority of the national team a chance to compete at the World Championships.

First it was coach, Laszlo Ficsor, who complained of abdominal pain and became ill with a high fever and vomiting. Then the deluge of illness began. Chief coach Mr. Melis became sick followed by one case after another through the course of the next day. Every athlete that ate the dish was struck by sickness.

The madardej was to blame.

The women’s double, the men’s quad, the women's lightweight single and medal hopeful in the men's lightweight single, Tamas Varga, have been deprived of a chance to compete at the event they have been working towards.

The National Institute of Sport Medicine began to infuse and treat the athletes and coaches on the spot, but the next day they were sent to the infection hospital in Budapest for complete treatment.

Luckily for team doctor, Peter Kokas, by the time he came to eat all of the madardej was gone. “I would have eaten it if there was some left. I really like it,” said Kokas. “Everyone who ate it got sick to varying degrees with varying symptoms.” The women’s lightweight pair contracted only a mild fever after eating only a small amount. They will arrive in time to race the final on Sunday.

All team members were released from hospital the day before the World Championships began, but the severity of the illness does not leave them in elite racing condition and as their subsidies to row depends on results from the World Championships, the consequences of the madardej will have long term effects.