Infection rates of the foodborne pathogens Campylobacter and Vibrio parahaemolyticus rose in 2012, while other major pathogens generally maintained rates similar to recent years, according to the nation’s annual “food safety progress report” published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Thursday.
Posted in Bacteria, Campylobacter, CDC, Food Hygiene, Food Illness, Food Inspections, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Safety, Food Testing, Foodborne Illness, Hygiene, Illness, Microbiology, Pathogen, Research
Tagged food safety news, research, safety progress, science, vibrio parahaemolyticus
The European Food Safety Authority and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control analysed the information submitted by 27 European Union Member States on the occurrence of zoonoses and food-borne outbreaks in 2011. Campylobacteriosis was the most commonly reported zoonosis with 220,209 confirmed human cases. The occurrence of Campylobacter continued to be high in broiler meat at EU level.
The decreasing trend in confirmed salmonellosis cases in humans continued with a total of 95,548 cases in 2011. Most Member States met their Salmonella reduction targets for poultry, and Salmonella is declining in these populations. In foodstuffs, Salmonella was most often detected in meat and products thereof.
The number of confirmed human listeriosis cases decreased to 1,476. Listeria was seldom detected above the legal safety limit from ready-to-eat foods.
A total of 9,485 confirmed verotoxigenic Escherichia coli (VTEC) infections were reported. This represents an increase of 159.4 % compared with 2010 as a result of the large STEC/VTEC outbreak that occurred in 2011 in the EU, primarily in Germany. VTEC was also reported from food and animals.
The number of human yersiniosis cases increased to 7,017 cases. Yersinia enterocolitica was isolated also from pig meat and pigs; 132 cases of Mycobacterium bovis and 330 cases of brucellosis in humans were also reported. The prevalence of bovine tuberculosis in cattle increased, and the prevalence of brucellosis decreased in cattle and sheep and goat populations.
Trichinellosis and echinococcosis caused 268 and 781 human cases, respectively and these parasites were mainly detected in wildlife. The numbers of alveolar and of cystic echinococcosis respectively increased and decreased in the last five years. One imported human case of rabies was reported. The number of rabies cases in animals continued to decrease.
Most of the 5,648 reported food-borne outbreaks were caused by Salmonella, bacterial toxins, Campylobacter and viruses, and the main food sources were eggs, mixed foods and fish and fishery products.
© European Food Safety Authority, 2013
Posted in Bacteria, Campylobacter, E.coli, E.coli O104, E.coli O157, ECDC, EFSA, EHEC, Eurofins Laboratories, Food Hygiene, Food Illness, Food Inspections, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Poisoning, Food Safety, Food Technology, Food Testing, Foodborne Illness, Hygiene, Listeria, Listeria monocytogenes, Microbiology, outbreak, Pathogen, Poisoning, Research
Tagged european food safety authority, food safety authority, mycobacterium bovis, science
THAILAND – To reduce Campylobacter prevalence on broiler skin, on-farm biosecurity measures need to be accompanied by controls at the slaughterhouse, according to new research from Thailand.
Even though most Campylobacter-positive broiler skin samples were contaminated with only up to 230 most probable number per gram, a substantial share (13.3 per cent) showed very high Campylobacter numbers on the broiler skin samples (most probable number = infinity; lower confidence limit T0 580 per gram).
The researchers report their data suggest that intense cross-contamination during the slaughter process led to a strong increase of Campylobacter prevalence on broiler skin compared with the prevalence in broiler caeca.
News reports that Alaska State health officials report a total of 24 people have fallen ill, two of whom were hospitalized, after drinking tainted raw milk from a Kenai Peninsula dairy. Among the ill is an infant who did not directly imbibe the raw milk, but got sick through a secondary transmission from an adult who had. State epidemiologists said the illnesses are the result of milk tainted with campylobacter, a bacterium commonly found in cow manure. After receiving multiple reports of sick people, state health officials traced the source of the outbreak to a cow share program at the Peninsula Dairy. State veterinarians visited the farm to take samples and said the farm owner is being cooperative with their investigation.
Campylobacter Outbreak Associated with Consumption of Raw Milk Kenai Peninsula, January – February 2013
The purpose of this Health Advisory is to inform you of a recent and potentially ongoing outbreak of Campylobacter infections that have been associated with consuming raw milk.
What is the outbreak?
Campylobacter infection is reportable by state regulations to the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services’ Section of Epidemiology (SOE). Since late January, 2013, four people with confirmed Campylobacterinfection and at least one person with probable infection reported consuming raw (unpasteurized) milk in the few days preceding illness. One infant with close contact to a confirmed case-patient is also suspected of having Campylobacter infection. All six reside on the Kenai Peninsula. The Campylobacter isolated from the four lab-confirmed cases are a match by molecular techniques (pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, or PFGE). This strain of Campylobacter has not been previously identified in Alaska.
What is Campylobacter and how do people become infected?
Campylobacter are bacteria that can cause diarrhea (sometimes bloody), abdominal cramping/pain, nausea, vomiting, and fever within 2 to 5 days after exposure. The illness typically lasts from several days to over a week, with variable severity. Some people, especially young children or individuals with compromised immune systems, can develop severe or even life-threatening illness. Infrequently, Campylobacter infection leads to long-term consequences. Some people with Campylobacter infection develop arthritis, and rarely, some develop a life-threatening disease called Guillain-Barré syndrome that inflames the nerves of the body beginning several weeks after the onset of diarrhea.
Outbreaks of Campylobacter are often associated with consumption of unpasteurized milk —one such outbreak, traced to a Mat-Su Valley farm, resulted in 18 illnesses in Alaska in 2011. Other sources ofCampylobacter infection include consumption of undercooked meat, consumption of food or water cross-contaminated by raw meat, or contact with feces from infected animals. Human to human transmission can also occur.
The State Department of Health is investigating an outbreak of a food borne illness linked to raw milk. Officials have confirmed four cases of Campylobacter infection in people who drank raw milk on the Kenai Peninsula. The illness causes diarrhea, vomiting and fever.
Dr. Brian Yablon is a medical epidemiologist with the state. He says the cases have all been identified by the state lab in the last three weeks:
“When they looked at these strains, they found that the four specimens were all exactly the same type, so that is consistent with a cluster of illnesses and when we found out additional information it seemed that all of the people who developed the infection had consumed raw milk or unpasteurized milk in the proceeding several days before they got sick,” Yablon said.
The state is still working to identify the source of the raw milk. A farmer named Kevin Byers in Kasilof distributes raw milk to families around the state. He did not agree to a recorded interview, but said he doesn’t know if his milk is responsible for the outbreak. He says his customers drink his milk for the perceived health benefits. According to a recent newspaper article, Byers has 150 customers as far away as Sitka.
Selling raw milk is illegal in Alaska. But farmers have found ways to do it legally.
Campylobacter is a bacteria that is commonly found in the intestines of poultry and shed in their feces. During slaughter, these bacteria sometimes make their way onto cuts of meat, posing a health threat to consumers.
Sometimes these bacteria are spread from infected birds to healthy ones during transport. For example, a healthy bird may be placed in a poultry cage whose previous occupant was infected, or the healthy bird’s poultry cage may be placed beneath an infected bird’s cage on a truck. Despite the risk to consumers, there hasn’t been much progress in reducing the presence of the pathogen in poultry, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
A few years ago, researchers discovered that drying the cages for 24-48 hours after washing them, cut down and even eliminated Campylobacter levels in poultry cages. But these drying times were found to be overly long and impractical by the industry. So microbiologists Mark Berrang and Richard Meinersmann at the US Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service and their colleague Charles Hofacre at the University of Georgia in Athens researched a shorter drying time with a blast of hot air.
They found that flowing hot air for 15 minutes on cages that had been spray washed with water “lowered the numbers of Campylobacter to an undetectable level,” according to a report of their study published in the January 2013 edition of Agricultural Research, a USDA publication. No word yet on how the poultry industry views the breakthrough.
FOOD safety experts plan to “superfreeze” chickens to halt the rise of campylobacter food poisoning. The Food Standards Agency is currently looking into a procedure which involves exposing the surface of slaughtered chickens to extreme cold, known as rapid surface chilling.
The radical process is currently being considered to help curb the rampant levels of the food poisoning bacteria commonly found in uncooked poultry products.
Around two-thirds of fresh, raw chicken sold by retailers is believed to be contaminated with campylobacter, which can cause sever stomach upsets.
The FSA aims to reduce the proportion of birds in the highest category of contamination at UK poultry houses from 27 per cent to 10 per cent by 2015.
Dr Jacqui McElhiney, policy adviser on food-borne disease at the FSA in Scotland, said: “This process acts to temporarily cool only the very outer surface of the chicken carcass without freezing the meat itself. It involves exposing the surface of poultry carcasses to very low temperatures for a very short time, which reduces the numbers of campylobacter bacteria on the surface, as they are sensitive to an extreme cold shock treatment of this type.”
Researchers at the Institute of Food Research on the Norwich Research Park have uncovered how the food-borne bacterial pathogen Campylobacter jejuni can change its swimming behaviour to find a location with more food.
Using a newly developed assay, the researchers found that Campylobacter balances the directions given by two different systems to either seek out more nutritious locations, or to find places where respiration is most efficient. Genetic tools were used to show that the system controlling swimming towards food overrides the other system, suggesting that the “need to feed” is the foremost concern for Campylobacter.
Poultry producers can reduce bacterial cross-contamination in poultry cages by treating the cages with forced air that’s been heated to 50 degrees Celsius.
While being transported in coops on trucks, poultry that have bacteria such as Campylobacter can contaminate, through their feces, other poultry that are free of pathogens. Those disease-causing bacteria can then be passed on to the next group of birds during the next trip, and so forth, unless the cycle is broken.
Campylobacter is a food-borne pathogen that can be present in raw or undercooked poultry. Since the bacteria are commonly found in the digestive tracts of poultry, they’re readily deposited onto coops and trucks when contaminated animals are transported to processing plants.
The researchers tested the use of hot flowing air to speed the process of drying soiled or washed cages to lower or eliminate detectable Campylobacter on cage flooring.
When the hot flowing air was applied to fecally soiled transport cage flooring samples for 15 minutes after a water-spray wash treatment, Campylobacter levels declined to an undetectable level. Static heat at similar temperatures was not nearly as effective, and unheated flowing air was moderately effective, but less so than hot flowing air.
Posted in Bacteria, Campylobacter, Food Safety, Food Technology, Food Testing, Microbiology, Pathogen, Research
Tagged nature, poultry producers, water
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