Category Archives: E.coli O103

USA – E.coli Outbreaks Updates

Food Poisoning BulletinEcoli Istock

Salads and sandwich wraps linked to a multistate E. coli outbreak were sold at Walgreens stores in Northern California and Trader Joe’s stores in California, Washington, Oregon and Arizona, according to a retail distribution list compiled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA FSIS).  At least 26 people who ate the salads or sandwich wraps containing the salads, have become ill. Six of them have been hospitalized

Food Poisoning Bulletin

More salads have been recalled in the wake of an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak in western states. The FDA and Whole Foods Market are recalling ready-to-eat Artichoke Wheatberry Salad and Southwest SooFoo Salads as a preventive measure after the large Glass Onion Catering recall because they may be contaminated with the pathogenic bacteria.

The salads have expiration dates between November 9 and November 13, 2013. They were sold in California Whole Foods Stores. The PLU numbers for the Artichoke Wheatberry Salad are 28563300000 and 28563400000. The PLU numbers for the Southwest SooFoo Salad are 28563700000 and 28563800000. The salads were sold during an unspecified time period.

Food Poisoning Bulletin

Two strains of E. coli that have never been seen before are the source of two separate, ongoing  food poisoning outbreaks in California, health officials told Food Poisoning Bulletin today. One of these new strains is the source of the multistate outbreak linked to ready-to-eat salads produced by Glass Onion Catering of Richmond, CA and sold at Trader Joe’s and other grocery stores in several states. The other new strain has sickened four people in Humboldt County, in Northern California

USDA – STEC E.coli Testing in Raw Meats Data 2013

USDAEurofins Food Testing UK

Microbiological Testing Program for E. coli O157:H7 and non-O157 Shiga Toxin-Producing E. coli: Individual Positive Results for Raw Ground Beef (RGB) and RGB Components

RASFF Alerts – Shiga Toxin E.coli – Beef

RASFF – Shigatoxin-producing Escherichia coli (presence /25g) in bovine meat (Bos taurus) from Argentina in the Netherlands

RASFF -Shigatoxin-producing Escherichia coli in chilled boneless beef (Bos taurus) from Argentina in the Netherlands

RASFF – Shigatoxin-producing Escherichia coli in bovine meat from Belgium

Research – Study Pinpoints Pathogens Causing Biggest Diarrhea Burden in Kids

CIDRAP

While many pathogens cause serious diarrhea in children in developing countries, four stand out as culprits in most of the infections, a finding that could drive new prevention strategies, an international research team reported today.

The group spent 3 years in seven developing countries, collecting health information, lab samples, and outcome data on 3,439 youngsters who had moderate-to-severe diarrhea. They published their findings today in an early online release from The Lancet.

On a global scale each year, diarrheal diseases kill about 800,000 children under age 5, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia, according to the report.

Though interventions such as rotavirus vaccines are starting to have an impact on deaths and disease incidence, scientific data to guide other strategies to curb the diseases are scarce, especially in regions where child deaths are the highest, the group wrote.

To fill the gap, the team focused their analysis on kids under age 5 who did and didn’t have moderate-to-severe diarrhea in selected cities in Bangladesh, Gambia, India, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, and Pakistan. The study included 13,129 matched controls.

The researchers collected clinical and epidemiologic information, took anthropometric measurements, and took fecal samples to identify pathogens. For each child they made a follow-up home visit 60 days later to assess health status, clinical outcome, and growth measures.

Four pathogens were the most common causes of diarrhea across all sites: rotavirus, Cryptosporidium, enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) producing heat-stable toxin (ST), and Shigella, according to the study.

 

 

EFSA – VTEC E.coli Strains

EFSAefsa

EFSA’s scientific experts say that it is currently not possible to identify which VTEC bacteria strains have the potential to cause human diseases. In order to help risk managers to identify human health risks, EFSA has proposed a scheme to categorise VTEC strains according to their potential to cause disease. This work has been carried out in response to a request of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Health.

VTEC (verocytotoxin-producing Escherichia coli) is a group of pathogenic E. coli bacteria that can cause bloody diarrhoea and haemolytic uremic syndrome in humans, a serious condition that can lead to kidney failure and be fatal [1].

EFSA’s Panel on Biological Hazards (BIOHAZ) has evaluated data from the EU on different VTEC strains with respect to their reported frequency, severity of human disease caused by the strains, and association with outbreaks. The Panel concluded that it is currently not possible to fully predict the potential of a VTEC strain found in food to cause human disease.

However the Panel has provided guidance to assist public health authorities in assessing risks related to VTEC strains. They proposed a scheme that considers the detection of specific genes in VTEC strains from humans, food and animals. EFSA will regularly review this scheme to improve future risk assessments.

Due to under-reporting of human cases and the unavailability of complete information, EFSA’s scientific experts also recommended that all Member States collect comprehensive data on VTEC strains when these are detected. Accurate reporting will help in predicting the factors responsible for the severity of human infections and outbreaks.

To carry out this evaluation, the Panel used data from the European Surveillance System (TESSy data) provided by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and from the EU Summary Report on Trends and Sources of Zoonoses, Zoonotic Agents and Food-borne Outbreaks in 2011published today as well as data from relevant scientific literature.

RASFF Alert – STec E.coli – Deer Meat

RASFF – Shigatoxin-producing Escherichia coli (VT1 positive) in frozen deer meat from Austria in Italy

USA – Article – How do Pathogens get into Produce

This is a very interesting article in Food Safety News which I think would be of interest to Food Microbiologists and the Produce industry alike. the link will take you to the full article

Food Safety News

Leafy greens, lettuce, cantaloupes, mangoes and strawberries. These are just some of the foods that have sickened or even killed people when they were contaminated with foodborne pathogens such as E. coli, Listeria and Salmonella.

Amidst the confusing swirl of information about these and other produce outbreaks, the question arises: Were some of these pathogens inside the produce? Could it be — in some cases, anyway — that the plant’s roots sucked the pathogens up out of the soil and transferred them through the plant into its edible parts?

Research New Bacterial Identification Technology

Food Poisoning Bulletin

xTAG Gastrointestinal Pathogen Panel (GPP), which recently received approval from US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), is one lab test that can do the job of many,  expertly scanning a solitary stool sample for 11 different illness-inducing organisms.

To many, that sounds an impressive feat in an of itself. But considering that 179 million Americans are stricken with gastroenteritis every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), it’s also one that can come in handy. Infectious gastroenteritis is caused by certain viruses, bacteria, or parasites and can be spread easily through person-to-person contact or from contaminated food, water, and surfaces. Symptoms include vomiting and diarrhea.

The  xTAG can scan for  bacteria including Campylobacter, Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) toxin A/B, Escherichia coli (E. coli) O157, Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) LT/ST, Salmonella, Shigella and Shiga‐like Toxin producing E. coli (STEC) stx 1/stx 2. It can scan for viruses including Norovirus and Rotavirus A. And it can scan for parasites such as Cryptosporidium and Giardia.

USA – Raw Milk STEC Outbreak

 Food Poisoning Journal

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) has become aware of several cases of diarrheal illness from northwest Missouri, possibly caused by Shiga-toxin producing Escherichia coli (STEC), including one confirmed as E. coli O103. These may be related to the consumption of locally-produced, raw (unpasteurized) dairy products.

DHSS recommends that any person who has signs or symptoms of STEC infection seek medical care. Health care providers should evaluate patients adequately to determine if testing for STEC infection is warranted.

Symptoms of STEC infection include severe stomach cramps, diarrhea (which is often bloody), and vomiting. If there is fever, it usually is not very high. Most patients’ symptoms improve within 5–7 days, but some patients go on to develop hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), usually about a week after the diarrhea starts. The classic triad of findings in HUS are acute renal damage, microangiopathic hemolytic anemia, and thrombocytopenia.