Botulism is a rare, life-threatening paralytic illness caused by neurotoxins produced by an anaerobic, gram-positive, spore-forming bacterium, Clostridium botulinum. Unlike Clostridium perfringens, which requires the ingestion of large numbers of viable cells to cause symptoms, the symptoms of botulism are caused by the ingestion of highly toxic, soluble exotoxins produced by C. botulinum while growing in foods.
The Food Standards Agency is inviting tenders to carry out research on the effectiveness of surface treatment in reducing microbiological contamination of meat. This project only applies to meat intended for the production of raw or lightly cooked food.
It has long been said that, in 1885, pioneering American veterinary scientist, Daniel E. Salmon, discovered the first strain of Salmonella. Actually, Theobald Smith, research-assistant to Dr. Salmon, discovered the first strain of Salmonella–Salmonella cholerae suis. But, being the one in charge, Dr. Salmon got all the credit. In any case, today the number of known strains of the bacteria totals over two thousand. In recent years, concerns have been raised, as particular strains of the bacteria have become resistant to traditional antibiotics, in both animals and humans.
E. coli O157:H7 is one of hundreds of strains of the bacterium Escherichia coli.[1] Most strains of E. coli are harmless and live as normal flora in the intestines of healthy humans and animals.[2] The E. coli bacterium is among the most extensively studied microorganism.[3] The combination of letters and numbers in the name of the E. coli O157:H7 refers to the specific markers found on its surface and distinguishes it from other types of E. coli.[4] The testing done to distinguish E. coli O157:H7 from its other E. coli counterparts is called serotyping.[5] Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (“PFGE”),[6]sometimes also referred to as genetic fingerprinting, is used to compare E. coli O157:H7 isolates to determine if the strains are distinguishable.[7]
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) today released its Salmonella Action Plan that outlines the steps it will take to address the most pressing problem it faces–Salmonella in meat and poultry products. An estimated 1.3 million illnesses can be attributed to Salmonella every year.
“Far too many Americans are sickened by Salmonella every year. The aggressive and comprehensive steps detailed in the Salmonella Action Plan will protect consumers by making meat and poultry products safer.” said Under Secretary for Food Safety Elisabeth Hagen.
The Salmonella Action Plan is the agency’s strategy to best address the threat of Salmonella in meat and poultry products. The plan identifies modernizing the outdated poultry slaughter inspection system as a top priority. By focusing inspectors’ duties solely on food safety, at least 5,000 illnesses can be prevented each year.
Posted in Bacteria, FSIS, Microbiology, Pathogen, Research, Salmonella, USDA
Almost half of all foodborne illness outbreaks that occur every year in the U.S. are associated with restaurants and delis. The CDC has released new findings and prevention tools to improve food safety in restaurants. Public health officials say that increased awareness and implementation of proper food safety in restaurants and delis may prevent many of the foodborne illness outbreaks reported every year in the U.S.
Education of restaurant workers and public health surveillance are two critical tools necessary in preventing these illnesses. Food preparation and handling practices, worker health policies, and hand-washing practices are some of the factors that are not reported during outbreaks. Carol Selman, head of the CDC’s Environmental Health Specialists Network team said, “inspectors have not had a formal system to capture and report the underlying factors that likely contribute to foodborne outbreaks or a way to inform prevention strategies and implement routine corrective measures to prevent future outbreaks.”
Micro-organisms react to a rapid temperature downshift by triggering a physiological response to ensure survival in unfavourable conditions. Adaptation includes changes in membrane composition and in the translation and transcription machineries. The cold shock response leads to a growth block and overall repression of translation; however, there is the induction of a set of specific proteins that help to tune cell metabolism and readjust it to the new conditions. For a mesophile like E. coli, the adaptation process takes about 4 h. Although the bacterial cold shock response was discovered over two decades ago we are still far from understanding this process. In this review, we aim to describe current knowledge, focusing on the functions of RNA-interacting proteins and RNases involved in cold shock adaptation.
New research from the Institute of Food Research has mapped chromosomes of Campylobacter. Scientists are trying to understand how this pathogenic bacteria controls its genes to develop new strategies to fight it. In the UK, Campylobacter is the most common cause of foodborne diarrheal illness.
The chromosome map shows where all of the bacteria turns on its genes. Those are called transcriptional start sites (TSS). The bacteria turns on different genes in response to changes in its environment. TSS are also how the bacteria evolved to adapt to new situations. All organisms have these control mechanisms.
In a prior APHLTech blog post (NGS in Action: FDA’s Genome TRAKR Network), Victor Waddell of the Arizona State Public Health Laboratory described the newly formed network of laboratories formed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Known collectively as Genome TRAKR, the member laboratories perform whole genome sequencing (WGS) on bacterial foodborne pathogens isolated primarily from food and environmental sources.
On September 1, 2013, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began a partnership with the FDA GenomeTRAKR network to utilize the network to conduct WGS of all Listeria monocytogenes collected from reported human illness cases in the United States. This effort leverages public health resources to evaluate and potentially move this promising new technology forward for more routine use in public health laboratories nationwide.
FoodWorld 