Category Archives: Uncategorized

FSA

Spar (UK) Ltd is recalling its Tikka Chicken Chunks with a ‘use by’ date of 24 February 2016 because Listeria monocytogenes has been found in the product. Listeria monocytogenes is a bacterium that can cause foodborne illness. This means the product should not be eaten.

Cambridge Journals

A case-control study was conducted to investigate an outbreak of 46 cases of cryptosporidiosis in visitors to a petting farm in England. Details of exposures on the farm were collected for 38 cases and 39 controls, recruited through snowball sampling. Multivariable logistic regression identified that cases were 5·5 times more likely than controls to have eaten without washing their hands [95% confidence interval (CI) 1·51–19·9, P = 0·01] and 10 times less likely to report being informed of risk of infection on arrival (odds ratio 0·10, 95% CI 0·01–0·71, P = 0·02). An uncommon Cryptosporidium parvum gp60 subtype (IIaA19G1R1) was identified in a lamb faecal sample and all subtyped cases (n = 22). We conclude that lack of verbal advice and non-compliance with hand washing are significantly associated with a risk of cryptosporidiosis on open farms. These findings highlight the public health importance of effectively communicating risk to petting farm visitors in order to prevent future outbreaks of zoonotic infections.

The Irish Times

Boil water notices issued to 15,000 people and businesses in Connemara and east Cork

Irish Water has identified cryptosporidium contamination in Carraroe’s public supply in Connemara.

The discovery came as ten thousand homes and businesses in Cork were issued with boil water notices over fears of contaminated drinking water.

The State utility has advised some 4,700 people dependent on the public supply in Carraroe to boil their water until further notice.

This follows a similar notice issued for Leitir Móir/Tír an Fhia in south and west Connemara in January.

Epidemiology and Infection

Cholera is an important public health problem in Bangladesh. Interventions to prevent cholera depend on their cost-effectiveness which in turn depends on cholera incidence. Hospital-based diarrhoeal disease surveillance has been ongoing in six Bangladeshi hospitals where a systematic proportion of patients admitted with diarrhoea were enrolled and tested for Vibrio cholerae. However, incidence calculation using only hospital data underestimates the real disease burden because many ill persons seek treatment elsewhere. We conducted a healthcare utilization survey in the catchment areas of surveillance hospitals to estimate the proportion of severe diarrhoeal cases that were admitted to surveillance hospitals and estimated the population-based incidence of severe diarrhoea due to V. cholerae by combining both hospital surveillance and catchment area survey data. The estimated incidence of severe diarrhoea due to cholera ranged from 0·3 to 4·9/1000 population in the catchment area of surveillance hospitals. In children aged <5 years, incidence ranged from 1·0 to 11·0/1000 children. Diarrhoeal deaths were most common in the Chhatak Hospital’s catchment area (18·5/100 000 population). This study provides a credible estimate of the incidence of severe diarrhoea due to cholera in Bangladesh, which can be used to assess the cost-effectiveness of cholera prevention activities.

Kirkintilloch Herald

Parents are angry that a primary school hit by the highly infectious norovirus re-opened THE NEXT DAY.

Some 56 pupils at Clober Primary in Kirk Street, Milngavie, started showing symptoms of the virus, also known as the ‘winter vomiting bug’ on Wednesday this week.

Hammersmith and Fulham

The owner of a filthy restaurant who put the public at risk was fined £30,000 after an investigation by Hammersmith & Fulham Council.

The owners of Woody Grill restaurant and takeaway in 1 Uxbridge Road, Shepherds Bush, pleaded guilty in court to a total of eight offences.

H&F Council’s environmental health team stepped in after complaints from residents who fell ill after eating at the restaurant.

Officers found the restaurant in a filthy condition, including dirty food preparation surfaces, chopping boards and fridge door handles.

Medical Press

Since it first emerged more than half a century ago, a particular strain of multidrug-resistant Salmonella has spread all over the world. Now researchers have figured out why this strain, Salmonella Typhimuriam DT104, has been so successful. This new knowledge could prove valuable in combating other successful pathogens, according to the authors. The study is published ahead of print March 4th in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

Business Wire 

LONDON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–According to the latest market research report by Technavio, the E. coli testing market is expected to surpass USD 222 million in revenue by 2020.

The Poultry Site

GLOBAL – Poultry companies have made great progress in meeting food safety objectives, yet poultry meat remains a major source of the Salmonella and Campylobacter that cause foodborne illness.

“In order to lower the risk of human illness,” says Doug Smith, PhD, Director of Food Safety at Diamond V, “companies producing foods of animal origin must implement effective pre-harvest food safety programs.”

Don McIntyre, PhD, Diamond V Director of North American Poultry Research and Technical Service, points to new research presented at the recent 2016 International Poultry Scientific Forum in Atlanta, US.

In Europe, the Campybro Project’s first peer-reviewed articles on commercially available products to fight Campylobacter in live birds appear in the journal Poultry Science (Part A and Part B).

The Straits Times – Singapore 

Salmonella bacteria can cause vomiting, diarrhoea and even typhoid fever very soon after it enters the body. But it can also stay dormant – for about a decade- without showing any symptoms.

What has got scientists interested recently is that cancer-causing tumours shrinks when dormant salmonella stick to their surfaces.

Now, researchers at the Mechanobiology Institute at the National University of Singapore have found a molecular switch which determines whether the bacteria remains dormant or infectious in the body. The findings were published last month in scientific journal eLife.