Monthly Archives: May 2015

RASFF-aflatoxins (B1 = 17.1; Tot. = 21.5 µg/kg – ppb) in peanuts with shell from China in the UK

RASFF-aflatoxins (Tot. = 33.8 µg/kg – ppb) in raw pistachios from the United States in Italy

RASFF-aflatoxins (B1 = 30; Tot. = 35 / B1 = 55; Tot. = 64 µg/kg – ppb) in groundnut kernels from India in France

RASFF-Listeria monocytogenes (<10 CFU/g) in cooked shrimps from Spain in France

RASFF-Listeria monocytogenes (1300 CFU/g) in cow’s milk cheese from France in France

RASFF-Listeria monocytogenes (110 CFU/g) in raw cow’s milk cheese from France in France

RASFF-Listeria monocytogenes (<10 CFU/g) in pasteurized cheese from Italy in France

RASFF -Salmonella infantis (presence /50g) in soya meal from Brazil, via Slovenia in Croatia

RASFF-Salmonella anatum (presence /25g), Salmonella Rissen (presence /25g), Salmonella spp. (presence /25g) and Salmonella typhimurium (presence /25g) and too high count of Enterobacteriaceae (390; 600; 1400; 300 CFU/g) in horse meal from Italy in Belgium

ASM

Investigators found that nearly half of  the 50 chicken meat samples purchased from supermarkets, street markets, and butchers in Austria contained viruses that are capable of transferring antibiotic resistance genes from one bacterium to another—or from one species to another. “Our work suggests that such transfer could spread antibiotic resistance in environments such as food production units and hospitals and clinics,” said corresponding author Friederike Hilbert, DVM. The research is published ahead of print May 1, in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

This was the first demonstration that a high proportion of phage randomly isolated from meat were able to transfer antimicrobial resistance among different bacteria, said Hilbert, who is a professor at the Institute for Meat Hygiene, Meat Technology and Food Science, at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria. Phage are viruses that infect bacteria.

“One quarter of all phages isolated were able to transduce [transfer] one or more of the five antimicrobial resistances under study,” said Hilbert. These included resistances to tetracycline, ampicillin, kanamycin, and chloramphenicol, as well as resistance to extended spectrum betalactam antibiotics. The results suggest that the number of phages that can transduce antibiotic resistance genes must be far higher, since the experiments were restricted to resistance to only five antibiotics via five randomly chosen phages per sample of chicken, said Hilbert.

“Strategies to combat antimicrobial resistance have enjoyed only limited success, and there are still many questions relating to how and when resistance transfer occurs,” Hilbert writes. “The presence of phages that transfer antimicrobial resistance could explain the failures to combat antimicrobial resistance.”

Until recently, transduction of antibiotic resistance via phage was assumed to be a very minor source of the spread of resistance, said Hilbert. “New information from the sequencing of bacterial DNA has shown that transduction must be a driving force in bacterial evolution, and thus, quite common.”

In the study, the investigators rinsed the chicken they had purchased, and then isolated coliphage, using the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) method for isolating such viruses from water, said Hilbert.

Unlike bacteria, which are true living creatures, viruses, including phages, can be thought of more as complex molecular machinery. As such, the latter are much more resistant to disinfectants, including those used in the food industry. Alcohol, in particular, is harmless to most viruses. “It is thus highly likely that phages survive under routine conditions of disinfection, not only in the food industry,” Hilbert writes.

The research, Hilbert concludes, demonstrates that transduction is an efficient way to transfer antimicrobial resistance to E. coli in different environments. That, she says, needs to be addressed for concerns related to hygiene, sanitation, and public health.

The full study is available at http://aem.asm.org/content/early/2015/04/27/AEM.00872-15.full.pdf+html?ijkey=jc9f/z0mCNXHc&keytype=ref&siteid=asmjournals.

Food Poisoning Bulletin

Pork carnitas from Los Corrales grocery store in Kenosha, Wis. are suspected in Salmonella outbreak that has sickened at least 20 people, according to a report by WISN news.  Small children were among those who became so ill they were hospitalized.

Food Poisoning Bulletin

According to WISN 12 News, the Salmonella outbreak in Kenosha, Wisconsin may be associated with meat from a local grocery store called Los Corrales. At least 20 people have been sickened in this outbreak so far.

All of the patients said they ate meat products from that store and then got sick. Officials are investigating this outbreak, interviewing patients, and conducting inspections and collecting samples.

Food Poisoning Bulletin

According to WISN 12 News in Wisconsin, the Kenosha County Division of Health is investigating a Salmonella outbreak in that area. One case was reported to officials by a doctor last week.

USDA 

Each year, approximately 48 million people become ill from foodborne illnesses in the United States. In only 20 percent of these cases (9.4 million illnesses) can a specific pathogen cause be identified; over 90 percent of these cases are caused by only 15 patho-gens. This report summarizes recent estimates showing that these 9.4 million illnesses impose over $15.5 billion in economic burden annually. The report also provides “pamphlets” for each of these 15 foodborne pathogens that include: (1) a summary of infor-mation about the pathogen’s foodborne illness incidence and economic burden relative to other foodborne pathogens; (2) a disease-outcome tree showing the number of people expe-riencing different outcomes caused by foodborne exposure to the pathogen in the United States each year; and (3) a pie chart showing the economic burden associated with different health outcomes resulting from infection with the pathogen. This report complements the ERS data product, Cost-of-Illness Estimates for Major Foodborne Illnesses in the U.S.

CFIA 

Ottawa, May 19, 2015 – Industry is recalling Vasco Da Gama brand canned seafood products from the marketplace because they may be contaminated with dangerous bacteria. Consumers should not consume the recalled products described below.

This recall was triggered by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s (CFIA) inspection activities. The CFIA is conducting a food safety investigation, which may lead to the recall of other products. If other high-risk products are recalled, the CFIA will notify the public through updated Food Recall Warnings.

The CFIA is verifying that industry is removing recalled product from the marketplace.

FSA 

Science Direct

Antimicrobial resistance is considered to be a major public health concern in the framework of Horizon 2020. The risk to human health from foodborne antimicrobial resistant microorganisms can be determined and assessed using risk analysis tools in accordance with Codex principles. Therefore, the objective of this work was to determine the qualitative risk characterization of the presence of Salmonella resistant strains in meat products. Consequently, a total of 2050 whole and minced samples of poultry, pork and beef, were assessed. Samples were obtained by the Official Food Control Services of the Valencian administration (Spain), in the province of Valencia between January 2006 and June 2012. Salmonella was not found in any samples of beef. Salmonella strains isolated in poultry and pork samples were not resistant to amikacin, amoxicillin, cephalothin ciprofloxacin levofloxacin and ofloxacin. However, Salmonella isolates found in poultry had a high level of resistance to nalidixic acid, while those found in pork were more resistant to tetracycline and ampicillin. Furthermore, 41% of Salmonella isolates were resistant to three or more antibiotics. Finally, considering these results as exposure and taking into account the severity of the potential adverse health effects related to the different antimicrobials, risk characterization was estimated. As a result, three cases were classified as “Very high additional risk” all of them in minced meat, two cases in poultry (gentamicin and nalidixic acid) and one in pork (ampicillin). In the rest of the cases of resistance, the risk was classified as “high additional risk”. This highlights the importance of continued surveillance and the need to take measures in the primary sector in order to minimize the risk for the consumer.

Science Direct

From 26 October 2013 to 23 April 2014, 32 cases of listeriosis infected with an Listeria monocytogenes strain serovar 4b, sequence type 4 and belonging to a single distinct PFGE pulsotype were registered in patients from several cantons of Switzerland. L. monocytogenes was detected in blood (75%), CSF (16%), ascites (6%) and in joint fluid (3%) samples. By the end of March 2014, a food producing company reported an L. monocytogenes contamination of ready-to-eat salads to the authorities after detecting the pathogen through its in-house routine quality control. Product and environmental samples collected during subsequent investigations yielded isolates, matching the outbreak strain, thus confirming that ready-to-eat salad from this company was most likely the outbreak source. The cause for the product contamination was related to a design-inherent hygienic problem of one specific product-feeding belt. Complementary patient interviews also identified ready-to-eat green salads bought at one retailer as the likely outbreak source.

BBC News 

About 70 people have been struck down by an outbreak of the vomiting bug norovirus at a Royal Navy training centre in Cornwall.

The Navy said people had started falling ill at HMS Raleigh in Torpoint about 10 days ago.

Those affected were placed in quarantine in an attempt to stem the spread of the contagious virus.

A Royal Navy spokesman said control measures included “intense cleaning and isolating those with symptoms”.