Category Archives: Campylobacter

UK Research – UK retailers reveal Campylobacter results for early 2022

Posted on July 13, 2022 by KSW | Leave a comment

Supermarkets in the United Kingdom have reported their Campylobacter in chicken results for the the first quarter of 2022.

The data covers January to March 2022 for nine retailers on high levels of Campylobacter in fresh, shop-bought, UK-produced chickens.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) maximum level is 7 percent of birds with more than 1,000 colony forming units per gram (CFU/g) of Campylobacter.

Results at Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Aldi and Morrisons went up while Lidl and Asda recorded lower levels of contamination compared to the previous quarter. Figures for Waitrose and Co-op stayed the same.

For Marks and Spencer, 4 percent were in the maximum category in January, 3 percent in February but 10 percent in March from 376 chickens sampled.

In October 2021, 5 percent of chickens were above 1,000 CFU/g, 8 percent in November 2021 and 5 percent in December 2021 from the same amount of poultry tested.

See the link for more data.

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Posted in Campylobacter, campylobacter coli, Campylobacter jejuni, food contamination, food handler, Food Hazard, Food Hygiene, Food Inspections, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Microbiology Blog, Food Microbiology Research, Food Microbiology Testing, Food Pathogen, Food Safety Management, Food Testing, Retailer Campylobacter Survey

Research – Risk factors for campylobacteriosis in Australia: outcomes of a 2018–2019 case–control study

Posted on July 10, 2022 by KSW | Leave a comment

BMC

Background

We aimed to identify risk factors for sporadic campylobacteriosis in Australia, and to compare these for Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli infections.

Methods

In a multi-jurisdictional case–control study, we recruited culture-confirmed cases of campylobacteriosis reported to state and territory health departments from February 2018 through October 2019. We recruited controls from notified influenza cases in the previous 12 months that were frequency matched to cases by age group, sex, and location. Campylobacter isolates were confirmed to species level by public health laboratories using molecular methods. We conducted backward stepwise multivariable logistic regression to identify significant risk factors.

Results

We recruited 571 cases of campylobacteriosis (422 C. jejuni and 84 C. coli) and 586 controls. Important risk factors for campylobacteriosis included eating undercooked chicken (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 70, 95% CI 13–1296) or cooked chicken (aOR 1.7, 95% CI 1.1–2.8), owning a pet dog aged < 6 months (aOR 6.4, 95% CI 3.4–12), and the regular use of proton-pump inhibitors in the 4 weeks prior to illness (aOR 2.8, 95% CI 1.9–4.3). Risk factors remained similar when analysed specifically for C. jejuni infection. Unique risks for C. coli infection included eating chicken pâté (aOR 6.1, 95% CI 1.5–25) and delicatessen meats (aOR 1.8, 95% CI 1.0–3.3). Eating any chicken carried a high population attributable fraction for campylobacteriosis of 42% (95% CI 13–68), while the attributable fraction for proton-pump inhibitors was 13% (95% CI 8.3–18) and owning a pet dog aged < 6 months was 9.6% (95% CI 6.5–13). The population attributable fractions for these variables were similar when analysed by campylobacter species. Eating delicatessen meats was attributed to 31% (95% CI 0.0–54) of cases for C. coli and eating chicken pâté was attributed to 6.0% (95% CI 0.0–11).

Conclusions

The main risk factor for campylobacteriosis in Australia is consumption of chicken meat. However, contact with young pet dogs may also be an important source of infection. Proton-pump inhibitors are likely to increase vulnerability to infection.

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Posted in Campylobacter, campylobacter coli, Campylobacter jejuni, Decontamination Microbial, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Microbiology Blog, Food Microbiology Research, Food Microbiology Testing, microbial contamination, Microbiological Risk Assessment, Microbiology, Microbiology Investigations, Microbiology Risk, Research

Sweden – Foodborne illness figures rise in Sweden in 2021

Posted on July 8, 2022 by KSW | Leave a comment

Food Safety News

The number of foodborne infections climbed in Sweden in 2021 compared to the year before but most are still below pre-Coronavirus pandemic levels.

The report by the National Veterinary Institute (SVA), Folkhälsomyndigheten (the Public Health Agency of Sweden), Livsmedelsverket (the Swedish Food Agency) and Jordbruksverket (Swedish Board of Agriculture) showed a rise for Campylobacter, Salmonella, Listeria, E. coli and Yersinia infections.

Disease surveillance relies on patients seeking care and fewer people have done this during the pandemic. This is believed to be related to patients with symptoms choosing to not seek care and a true reduction in disease incidence because of changes in general hygiene such as increased handwashing, physical distancing and reduced travel because of COVID-19-related recommendations, according to the agencies.

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Posted in Campylobacter, campylobacter coli, Campylobacter jejuni, E.coli, Food Illness, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Microbiology Blog, Food Microbiology Research, Food Microbiology Testing, Foodborne Illness, Foodborne Illness Death, Illness, Listeria, Listeria monocytogenes, microbial contamination, Microbiological Risk Assessment, Microbiology, Microbiology Investigations, Microbiology Risk, Research, Salmonella, Yersinia, yersinia enterocolitica

Research – New NARMS report shows rising resistance in Salmonella, Campylobacter

Posted on June 26, 2022 by KSW | Leave a comment

CIDRAP

The latest data from a national surveillance system that monitors foodborne bacterial pathogens for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) shows some concerning changes in resistance patterns among serotypes of Salmonella.

The findings come from the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring Systems (NARMS) 2019 Integrated Summary, which combines data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). The report provides a snapshot of resistance patterns found in bacteria isolated from humans, animals, raw meats from retail outlets (chicken, ground turkey, ground beef, and pork chops), and meat and poultry product samples collected at slaughtering facilities.

In addition to Salmonella, which causes an estimated 1.35 million illnesses and 26,500 hospitalizations each year, the NARMS report also includes resistance data on Campylobacter (1.5 million illnesses and 19,500 hospitalizations), Escherichia coli, and Enterococcus. NARMS monitors these bacteria to detect emerging resistance patterns to the antibiotics that are most important to human medicine, multidrug resistance, and specific resistance genes.

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Posted in Antibiotic Resistance, antimicrobial resistance, Antimicrobials, Campylobacter, campylobacter coli, Campylobacter jejuni, Decontamination Microbial, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Microbiology Blog, Food Microbiology Research, Food Microbiology Testing, microbial contamination, Microbiological Risk Assessment, Microbiology, Microbiology Investigations, Microbiology Risk, Salmonella

Research – A restatement of the natural science evidence base regarding the source, spread and control of Campylobacter species causing human disease

Posted on June 25, 2022 by KSW | Leave a comment

Royal Society Publishing

CDC Campy

Abstract

Food poisoning caused by Campylobacter (campylobacteriosis) is the most prevalent bacterial disease associated with the consumption of poultry, beef, lamb and pork meat and unpasteurized dairy products. A variety of livestock industry, food chain and public health interventions have been implemented or proposed to reduce disease prevalence, some of which entail costs for producers and retailers. This paper describes a project that set out to summarize the natural science evidence base relevant to campylobacteriosis control in as policy-neutral terms as possible. A series of evidence statements are listed and categorized according to the nature of the underlying information. The evidence summary forms the appendix to this paper and an annotated bibliography is provided in the electronic supplementary material.

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Research – Occurrence and Multidrug Resistance of Campylobacter in Chicken Meat from Different Production Systems

Posted on June 25, 2022 by KSW | Leave a comment

MDPI

Campylobacter is the leading bacterial cause of diarrheal disease worldwide and poultry remains the primary vehicle of its transmission to humans. Due to the rapid increase in antibiotic resistance among Campylobacter strains, the World Health Organization (WHO) added Campylobacter fluoroquinolone resistance to the WHO list of antibiotic-resistant “priority pathogens”. This study aimed to investigate the occurrence and antibiotic resistance of Campylobacter spp. in meat samples from chickens reared in different production systems: (a) conventional, (b) free-range and (c) backyard farming. Campylobacter spp. was detected in all samples from conventionally reared and free-range broilers and in 72.7% of backyard chicken samples. Levels of contamination were on average 2.7 × 10³ colony forming units (CFU)/g, 4.4 × 10² CFU/g and 4.2 × 10⁴ CFU/g in conventionally reared, free-range and backyard chickens, respectively. Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli were the only species isolated. Distribution of these species does not seem to be affected by the production system. The overall prevalence of Campylobacter isolates exhibiting resistance to at least one antimicrobial was 98.4%. All the C. coli isolates showed resistance to ciprofloxacin and to nalidixic acid, and 79.5 and 97.4% to ampicillin and tetracycline, respectively. In total, 96.2% of C. jejuni isolates displayed a resistant phenotype to ciprofloxacin and to nalidixic acid, and 92.3% to ampicillin and tetracycline. Of the 130 Campylobacter isolates tested, 97.7% were classified as multidrug resistant (MDR).

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Posted in Antibacterial, Antibiotic Resistance, antimicrobial resistance, Antimicrobials, Campylobacter, campylobacter coli, Campylobacter jejuni, Decontamination Microbial, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Microbiology Blog, Food Microbiology Research, Food Microbiology Testing, microbial contamination, Microbiological Risk Assessment, Microbiology, Microbiology Investigations, Microbiology Risk, Research

USA – Several people sickened by bacterial outbreak in Sanders County – Campylobacter

Posted on June 24, 2022 by KSW | Leave a comment

KPAX

The source of a bacterial outbreak in Sanders County that caused several people to become ill has been confirmed.

State and county officials recently notified the Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) that the Kennedy Creek water box has been associated with a Campylobacter outbreak.

The Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has labelled this untreated water as a health concern and advised MDT to close off public access to the water.

After Sanders County Public Health officials confirmed several cases of infection from Campylobacter bacteria, the water from the untreated creek was tested and the presence of this bacteria was confirmed, according to MDT.

Over 20 people have tested positive for the bacterial infection and have reported diarrhea, abdominal pain, nausea, and fever after drinking water from the location.

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Posted in Campylobacter, campylobacter coli, Campylobacter jejuni, Contaminated water, Decontamination Microbial, food bourne outbreak, Food Illness, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Microbiology Blog, Food Microbiology Research, Food Microbiology Testing, Foodborne Illness, foodborne outbreak, foodbourne outbreak, Illness, microbial contamination, Microbiological Risk Assessment, Microbiology, Microbiology Investigations, Microbiology Risk, outbreak, Water, water microbiology, Water Safety

Research – A restatement of the natural science evidence base regarding the source, spread and control of Campylobacter species causing human disease

Posted on June 24, 2022 by KSW | Leave a comment

Royal Society Publishing

Abstract

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Posted in Campylobacter, campylobacter coli, Campylobacter jejuni, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Microbiology Blog, Food Microbiology Research, Food Microbiology Testing, microbial contamination, Microbiological Risk Assessment, Microbiology, Microbiology Investigations, Microbiology Risk, Research, Retailer Campylobacter Survey

Research – June is peak time for Campylobacter food poisoning; chlorinated chicken will not help

Posted on June 24, 2022 by KSW | Leave a comment

Oxford Martin

Around 3,500 Brits are hospitalised every year with campylobacteriosis – food poisoning caused by Campylobacter contamination. It causes the greatest number of hospitalisations of any food-borne disease in the UK and is the number one cause of bacterial food poisoning. Yet, despite falling Campylobacter levels on chicken over the past five years, levels of illness have not changed. An expert review of the sources, spread and control of Campylobacter from the Oxford Martin School at the University of Oxford concludes today that further interventions are needed – but no one solution will provide perfect control.

Led by Professor Matthew Goddard from the University of Lincoln and published earlier this month in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the restatement clarifies the scientific evidence available from a variety of sources in order to better inform policy decisions and provide clarity on the broad scientific consensus. This is vital as the prevalence of antibiotic resistant Campylobacter is increasing in the UK and has been designated a ‘high priority’ pathogen by the WHO.

Key conclusions of the restatement include that there was no clear evidence that long-term use of chlorine rinses, as practised in the USA, lowered levels of the bacteria or food poisoning caused, and that a broader series of control measures had strong evidence for its overall effectiveness as a package.

The UK’s poultry industry has successfully reduced the quantity of retail chicken testing positive for Campylobacter from 73% in 2014 to 40% in 2018. However, cases of illness have not reduced over the same period. In addition to wider control measures, beef, lamb and pork need to be more widely understood to be carriers of the bacteria and potential causes of food poisoning.

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Posted in Campylobacter, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Microbiology Blog, Food Microbiology Research, Food Microbiology Testing, Food Poisoning, microbial contamination, Microbiological Risk Assessment, Microbiology, Microbiology Investigations, Microbiology Risk, Poisoning, Research

Research – Research Note Survival of Campylobacter jejuni, Salmonella, and Listeria monocytogenes and Temperature Change in Low-temperature–Long-time-cooked Chicken Meat

Posted on June 19, 2022 by KSW | Leave a comment

Journal of Food Protection

Low-temperature–long-time (LT–LT) cooking, also known as sous vide cooking, in which meat is sealed in a bag and cooked in hot water at a relatively low-temperature of around 60°C, increased in popularity; indeed, home-use low-temperature cookers are now commercially available. However, after LT–LT cooking, if even a small number of foodborne bacteria remain, they could cause infection and foodborne illnesses. Therefore, in the present study, the aim was to determine the appropriate LT–LT cooking methods for chicken by assessing temperature changes and studying the bacteria in LT–LT-cooked chicken meat. At set cooking temperatures of 60°C and 65°C, the temperatures were measured at the surface and in the centers of single- and double-layer samples of 300-g chicken breast meat. The time required to reach 50°C were 5–14 min at the surface, 25 min in the center of the single-layer sample, and 33–35 min in the center of the double-layer sample. The time taken to reach 50°C was fastest in SF followed by SG and DB (P < 0.05). When the meat was LT–LT cooked at 60°C and 65°C for 60 min, color changes in the meat and heating of the meat were observed all the way to the interior. Campylobacter jejuni, Salmonella O7 and Listeria monocytogenes were inoculated into chicken breasts, which were then cooked at set temperatures of 60°C and 65°C for 15, 30, 60, 90, and 120 min. Campylobacter jejuni survived for up to 30 min of cooking, Salmonella O7 survived for up to 60 min of cooking at 60°C and 30 min at 65°C, and L. monocytogenes survived for up to 90 min of cooking at 60°C and 60 min at 65°C. Thus, to prevent infection and illness caused by the three tested bacteria species, LT–LT cooking for 120 min at 60°C and 90 min at 65°C is recommended.

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Category Archives: Campylobacter

UK Research – UK retailers reveal Campylobacter results for early 2022