Category Archives: E.coli

Staffordshire School Closed for Another Week – E.coli O157

Posted on March 12, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Staffordshire

 A school at the centre of an E.coli outbreakis unlikely to open until the middle of next week at the earliest.

Officers from the Health Protection Agency (HPA) were at Friarswood Primary School, in Newcastle, today to collect samples from pupils and staff.

All students and workers are being tested for the potentially deadly bacteria after three cases of E.coli were confirmed this week.

A further 10 possible cases have already been identified, although no new cases of the infection, which causes sickness and diarrhoea – and in extreme cases can lead to serious, or even fatal, kidney and blood complications – have been discovered in the last 24 hours.

The HPA, which is overseeing a deep-clean of the 153-pupil school, said there is no date set for when youngsters can return to classes.

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Posted in Bacteria, E.coli, E.coli O157, Food Illness, Food Inspections, Food Poisoning, Food Safety, Food Safety Alert, Food Testing, Foodborne Illness, Microbiology, outbreak, Pathogen

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Australian Dairy Product Recall – E.coli and Listeria

Posted on March 9, 2012 by | Leave a comment

NSW Alerts

The NSW Food Authority advises:
Almarae Dairy Products is recalling batches of their soft cheese sold in NSW through their retail store and a convience store in Punchbowl.

The batches are being recalled because of the presence of E.coli and Listeria which can cause illness if consumed. Listeria can cause illness especially in pregnant women, children under 5 years, people over 70 years and people with weakened immune systems.

The recalled product is:

  • Almarae Dairy Products Country Cheese Soft Cheese in brine in 500g and 1.25kg glass jars with white lid and ‘use-by’ date 20 MAY 2012.

The recall applies only to the above batches of the product and date.

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Posted in Bacteria, E.coli, EHEC, Food Hygiene, Food Illness, Food Poisoning, Food Safety, Food Safety Alert, Food Testing, Listeria, Listeria monocytogenes, Microbiology, Pathogen

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UK- Staffordshire School Closed – E.coli O157

Posted on March 9, 2012 by | Leave a comment

BBC News

A Staffordshire primary school has been closed due to an outbreak of E. coli. Three cases have been confirmed and all pupils at Friarswood Primary School in Newcastle-under-Lyme are being tested, the Health Protection Agency (HPA) said. The E. coli O157 bacteria usually causes diarrhoea, it added.

Staffordshire County Council said it is believed the infection was brought into the school from an outside source. A thorough clean is now under way.

The school will reopen when it safe to do so, the council added.

 

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Posted in Bacteria, E.coli, E.coli O157, EHEC, Eurofins Laboratories, Food Hygiene, Food Illness, Food Poisoning, Food Safety, Food Safety Alert, Food Testing, Foodborne Illness, HPA, Microbiology, Pathogen

ECDC and EFSA – Food-borne Outbreaks in EU Report 2010

Posted on March 8, 2012 by | Leave a comment

ECDC

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) launched their annual report on zoonoses and food-borne outbreaks.

The report,  providing data on 15 zoonotic diseases in the European Union for 2010, supports the European Commission and EU Member States in their consideration of possible measures to protect citizens from risks related to zoonoses.

The report highlights a positive progress in the reduction of reported human cases of salmonellosis by almost 9% in 2010, as well as decreases in other zoonoses such as infections caused by Yersinia enterocolitica, Trichinella and Listeria monocytogenes. “Decreases in human cases of salmonellosis and other zoonotic diseases show that EU level control measures, resulting from surveillance of disease in humans with information from food and animals, are effective”, states Johan Giesecke, Chief Scientist at ECDC.

On the other hand, the number of cases of  campylobacteriosis has been increasing over the last five years, and human cases of Shiga toxin/verotoxin -producing Escherichia coli (STEC/VTEC) are also increasing. These trends “highlight the need of further joint efforts”, continues Prof. Gieseke. “For this, ECDC will continue to strengthen its links with all important partners and foster collaboration in order to decrease the occurrence of these diseases in the EU”.

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Posted in Bacillus, Campylobacter, E.coli, E.coli O157, EFSA, EHEC, Eurofins Laboratories, Food Illness, Food Inspections, Food Poisoning, Food Safety, Food Technology, Listeria, Listeria monocytogenes, Microbiology, Pathogen, Salmonella, STEC

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Ingenta Studies – High Pressure E.coli/Campylobacter – Essential Oils E.coli/Salmonella

Posted on March 8, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Ingenta High Pressure

This study evaluated the high pressure inactivation of Campylobacter jejuni, Escherichia coli, and poultry meat spoilage organisms. All treatments were performed in aseptically prepared minced poultry meat. Treatment of 19 strains of C. jejuni at 300 MPa and 30°C revealed a large variation of pressure resistance.

Ingenta Essential Oils

The efficacy of cinnamaldehyde and Sporan for reducing Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella on spinach leaves was investigated. Spinach leaves were inoculated with a five-strain cocktail of Salmonella or E. coli O157:H7, air dried for ca. 30 min, and then immersed in a treatment solution containing 5 ppm of free chlorine, cinnamaldehyde, or Sporan (800 and 1,000 ppm) alone or in combination with 200 ppm of acetic acid (20%) for 1 min or with water (control).

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Posted in Bacteria, Campylobacter, E.coli, E.coli O157, EHEC, Eurofins Laboratories, Food Hygiene, Food Safety, Food Technology, Food Testing, Microbiology, Pathogen, Salmonella

Lettuce Coring Knives – E.coli O157:H7

Posted on March 8, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Ingenta

This study was undertaken to examine the effect of ultrasound in combination with chlorine on the reduction of Escherichia coli O157:H7 populations on lettuce coring knives. Two new coring devices designed to mitigate pathogen attachment were fabricated and evaluated.

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Posted in E.coli, E.coli O157, Eurofins Laboratories, Food Hygiene, Food Safety, Food Technology, Food Testing, Microbiology, Pathogen

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French Cattle Not a Reservoir For E.coli O104

Posted on March 7, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Science Direct

After the 2011 outbreak of E.coli O104 :H4 in Europe this study investigated the theory that cattle could be the reservoir for the organism but non of the cattle tested showed positive for the markers they searched for.

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Posted in Bacteria, E.coli, E.coli O104, EHEC, Eurofins Laboratories, Food Illness, Food Inspections, Food Safety, Food Testing, Foodborne Illness, Microbiology, outbreak, Pathogen, STEC

Resistant Bacteria Remains Problem for Meat

Posted on March 6, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Food Safety News

Antibiotic resistance remains common among meat-borne pathogens, according to the annual National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System report released late last week.
From January to December 2010, samples of retail chicken breast, ground turkey, ground beef, and pork chops were collected and tested for Salmonella. Poultry samples were also cultured for Campylobacter. Some labs also pulled samples of meat and poultry to test for E. coli and Enterococcus.
The report highlighted a number of findings that may reinforce what many public health advocates have been arguing for years: that antibiotic use in agriculture is contributing to drug resistance in bacteria.  The NARMS report pointed out that third-generation cephalosporin resistance rose in chicken breasts (10 to 34.5 percent) and ground turkey (8.1 to 16.3 percent) isolates from 2002 to 2010.

NARMS Report
 

 

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Posted in Antibiotic Resistance, Campylobacter, E.coli, Enterobacteriaceae, Food Hygiene, Food Inspections, Food Poisoning, Food Safety, Food Testing, Microbiology, Pathogen, Salmonella

Laboratory Detection of ‘Toxic’ E.coli Increases

Posted on March 3, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Food Poisoning Bulletin

Enhanced laboratory detection of non-O157:H7 types of E. coli from stool samples of the sick is causing a surge in positive findings for toxic E. coli that is exponentially larger than the number of labs adopting the enhanced methods, a study by a Washington State Department of Health has found.

Washington State disease trackers looked at laboratories in Washington and examined the rate of non-O157 E. coli detection as more and more labs developed the tools to test for varied STECs. According to a summary of the research published this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the number of laboratories in Washington State that tested for varied STECs increased from 2 (4 percent) in 2005 to 19 (33 percent) in 2010.

Four serogroups accounted for more than 80 percent of non-O157 STEC case findings. They were E. coli O26, E. coli O103, E. coli O121 and E. coli O111.

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Posted in E.coli, E.coli O104, E.coli O157, E.coli O26, Eurofins Laboratories, Food Poisoning, Food Safety, Food Testing, Microbiology, Pathogen

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Hamburg EHEC E.coli O157 – Four More Cases

Posted on March 1, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Four new EHEC illnesses have occurred in Hamburg. Enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) had been found in an 11 boy and a 3-year old kindergarten child. Also two women aged  68 and 88  in the borough Altona were diagnosed early last week with the same organism.

The two infected children are from Blankenese and were taken ill last week. The boy may have visited also the same school as a six-year girl who had died about two weeks ago.

EHEC serotype O157 was isolated from the girl that had died.

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Posted in E.coli, E.coli O157, EHEC, Eurofins Laboratories, Food Illness, Food Poisoning, Food Testing, Microbiology, Pathogen

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