A norovirus outbreak sickened 173 people at D. C. Cobb’s restaurant in McHenry, Illinois in August 2022, according to an investigation by the McHenry County Department of Health (MCDH). Two of those patients were hospitalized. The last time this investigation was updated was on September 16, 2022, when it was reported that 16 people were sick after eating at that restaurant. The restaurant is located at 1204 North Green Street in McHenry.
Posted in Decontamination Microbial, food bourne outbreak, Food Illness, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Microbiology Blog, Food Microbiology Research, Food Microbiology Testing, Food Virus, Foodborne Illness, foodborne outbreak, foodbourne outbreak, Illness, microbial contamination, Microbial growth, Microbiological Risk Assessment, Microbiology, Microbiology Investigations, Microbiology Risk, Norovirus, outbreak, Virus
Posted in Aflatoxin, Aflatoxin B1, Animal Feed Mould Toxin, Aspergillus Toxin, Decontamination Microbial, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Microbiology Blog, Food Microbiology Research, Food Microbiology Testing, Food Toxin, Fusarium Toxin, microbial contamination, Microbial growth, Microbiological Risk Assessment, Microbiology, Microbiology Investigations, Microbiology Risk, Mold Toxin, Mould Toxin, Mycotoxin, Ochratoxin, Ochratoxin A, Pet Food Aflatoxin, Research, Toxin
Between 18 August and 13 October 2022, five cases of Listeria monocytogenes have been registered at the Statens Serum Institut . The Statens Serum Institut, the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration and the Norwegian Food Institute DTU are investigating the disease outbreak.
Between 18 August and 13 October 2022, the Statens Serum Institut registered five people who are infected with the same type of Listeria monocytogenes (figure 1). Among the sick are 2 men and 3 women. The patients are between 6-83 years old (median age is 75 years). The patients are infected throughout the country (table 1).
Table 1. Patients with the same type of Listeria monocytogenes in Denmark, August to October 2022, per region (n=5)
Region |
Number of patients |
| The capital | 1 |
| Central Jutland | 1 |
| Northern Jutland | 0 |
| Zealand | 1 |
| Southern Denmark | 2 |
| Total | 5 |
The outbreak is handled by the Central Outbreak Group, which consists of SSI, the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration and the DTU Food Institute. SSI stands for whole-genome sequencing of listeria isolates from the patients and interviews with patients or relatives with a view to identifying a possible source of infection.
The bacteria is of the type Listeria monocytogenes . By whole-genome sequencing of the Listeria monocytogenes bacteria isolated from the patients, it can be seen that they are very closely related and belong to sequence type 7.
Posted in 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, Listeria, Listeria monocytogenes, microbial contamination, Microbial growth, Microbiological Risk Assessment, Microbiology, Microbiology Investigations, Microbiology Risk, outbreak
In winter, an increase in norovirus cases can be expected, as the infection is called the winter plague in some languages (eg vinterkräksjuka in Swedish). The main symptoms of norovirus infection are malaise, vomiting, diarrhea, fever and abdominal pain.
The virus is highly contagious and only a few viruses are needed to cause infection. Noroviruses can be transmitted through food from people who are ill or have recently been ill with norovirus. There are examples of norovirus being transmitted through food in Iceland and abroad, such as frozen raspberries, oysters and food from restaurants. Such infections can cause group infections.
For example, the consumption of frozen raspberries caused a widespread norovirus infection in Denmark a few years ago. Subsequently, the Danes established rules that frozen raspberries should be heated before consumption, and such instructions can often be seen on packaging.
But how can the virus be prevented from spreading to food at home, in canteens, restaurants and other food businesses?
The risk of norovirus being transmitted through food can be reduced if these guidelines are followed.
Posted in Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Microbiology Blog, Food Microbiology Research, Food Microbiology Testing, Food Virus, microbial contamination, Microbial growth, Microbiological Risk Assessment, Microbiology, Microbiology Investigations, Microbiology Risk, Norovirus, Research, Virus
Posted in Decontamination Microbial, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Microbiology Blog, Food Microbiology Testing, microbial contamination, Microbial growth, Microbiological Risk Assessment, Microbiology, Microbiology Investigations, Microbiology Risk, Raw Milk, raw milk cheese, STEC, STEC E.coli
The role of vegetables usually consumed without prior culinary treatment is known to contribute to the prevalence of foodborne diseases. Cysts and oocysts can contaminate food, which can then be the source of infection in humans. The aim of the study was to assess the occurrence of Giardia duodenalis and Cryptosporidium spp. (oo)cysts in green leafy vegetables marketed in the city of Valencia (Spain) combining parasitological methods, two real-time qPCRs and light microscopy. An experimental field study was conducted on 129 vegetable samples, 64 from conventional farms and 65 from ecological (organic) farms. The samples were washed with water, and the resulting solution after removing the vegetables, was subjected to 24-hour sedimentation. The concentrated sediment was used for the search for protozoa. A positive result by both real-time PCRs, or a positive result by one qPCR and confirmation by microscopy was established as a positivity criterion. Giardia duodenalis was detected in 23.0 % of the samples, and Cryptosporidium spp. in 7.8 %. G. duodenalis (41.5 %) and Cryptosporidium spp. (20.0 %) were more frequent in ecological crops. The high level of contamination detected in organic vegetables may be due to the type of fertilizers and the quality of the water used for their irrigation and reinforces the need to take extreme hygiene measures in vegetables that are consumed raw.
Posted in Contaminated water, Cryptosporidiosis, Cryptosporidium, Decontamination Microbial, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Microbiology Blog, Food Microbiology Research, Food Microbiology Testing, Giardia, microbial contamination, Microbial growth, Microbiological Risk Assessment, Microbiology, Microbiology Investigations, Microbiology Risk, Water, water microbiology, Water Safety
When a foodborne illness outbreak is detected, public health and regulatory officials work together to determine what caused the outbreak and then take actions to avert additional illnesses from happening.1,2 During outbreak investigations, public health and regulatory authorities collect three types of data to determine a common food consumed by ill people: epidemiologic, traceback, and laboratory.
State and local partners, in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), identify outbreaks and the foods that may be causing the illnesses through public health surveillance and epidemiologic evidence. State and local partners work with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to conduct traceback investigations and examine the food supply chain to determine the origin of the foods identified by the epidemiologic investigations.3 State and local authorities, in partnership with FDA, may use product and environmental sampling, followed by laboratory analyses, to further confirm the identified food as the outbreak source.
The data analyses and subsequent decision-making require extensive input from all investigation partners. Through a combination of the data gathered during an investigation, a food may be implicated as the source of an outbreak. FDA, CDC, and state and local partners work together to inform the public of outbreaks and provide information on how the public can protect themselves from foodborne illness. Based on investigational data, FDA, for example, may ask a firm to recall the product from the market or, in the case of imported products, may issue an import alert to provide additional information to the field to help stop outbreaks and protect public health.
Posted in Decontamination Microbial, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Microbiology Blog, Food Microbiology Research, Food Microbiology Testing, microbial contamination, Microbial growth, Microbiological Risk Assessment, Microbiology, Microbiology Investigations, Microbiology Risk, Research, Salmonella, Salmonella in Chicken
Invasive listeriosis is a potentially fatal foodborne disease that according to this study may affect up to 32.9 % of the US population considered as increased risk and including people with underlying conditions and co-morbidities. Listeria monocytogenes has been scrutinized in research and surveillance programs worldwide in Ready-to-Eat (RTE) food commodities (RTE salads, deli meats, soft/semi-soft cheese, seafood) and frozen vegetables in the last 30 years with an estimated overall prevalence of 1.4–9.9 % worldwide (WD) and 0.5–3.8 % in the United States (US). Current L. monocytogenes control efforts have led to a prevalence reduction in the last 5 years of 4.9–62.9 % (WD) and 12.4–92.7 % (US). A quantitative risk assessment model was developed, estimating the probability of infection in the US susceptible population to be 10–10,000× higher than general population and the total number of estimated cases in the US was 1044 and 2089 cases by using the FAO/WHO and Pouillot dose-response models. Most cases were attributed to deli meats (>90 % of cases) followed by RTE salads (3.9–4.5 %), soft and semi-soft cheese and RTE seafood (0.5–1.0 %) and frozen vegetables (0.2–0.3 %). Cases attributed to the increased risk population corresponded to 96.6–98.0 % of the total cases with the highly susceptible population responsible for 46.9–80.1 % of the cases. Removing product lots with a concentration higher than 1 CFU/g reduced the prevalence of contamination by 15.7–88.3 % and number of cases by 55.9–100 %. Introducing lot-by-lot testing and defining allowable quantitative regulatory limits for low-risk RTE commodities may reduce the public health impact of L. monocytogenes and improve the availability of enumeration data.
Posted in food contamination, food handler, Food Hazard, Food Hygiene, Food Inspections, Food Microbiology, Food Microbiology Research, Food Microbiology Testing, Listeria, Listeria monocytogenes, microbial contamination, Microbial growth, Microbiological Risk Assessment, Microbiology, Microbiology Investigations, Microbiology Risk, Research
On 5 August 2019, local primary care epidemiologists at the Aljarafe Health District in the province of Seville, Andalusia, notified to the SVEA three cases of food poisoning that had occurred in the previous week. One case was hospitalised; this patient’s blood culture later revealed L. monocytogenes growth. In the following days, five additional clusters comprising a total of 32 cases were notified in Seville and one adjacent Andalusian province, and the same pathogen was identified in two of those clusters. These events prompted the local health authorities’ response on 7 August, with instructions to intensify the epidemiological surveillance and environmental sampling in certain food establishments.
By 9 August, the aggregate patient count had reached 22, which included four other cases requiring hospitalisation. In the following days, given the information from epidemiological interviews, in conjunction with microbiological results from non-human samples, the regional government constituted a multidisciplinary committee to investigate the outbreak, comprised of professionals from epidemiological surveillance, healthcare (including urgent care and infectious diseases), microbiology, food safety, and health authorities.
The aim of the outbreak investigation was twofold: (i) to identify the causative agent and the source of infection in order to prevent any further cases and (ii) to discover the reasons behind such a rapid progression of the outbreak. Here, we describe the outbreak and the epidemiological, microbiological and environmental investigations that were carried out to answer these questions.
Posted in 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, Listeria, Listeria monocytogenes, listeriosis, microbial contamination, Microbial growth, Microbiological Risk Assessment, Microbiology, Microbiology Investigations, Microbiology Risk, outbreak
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