WASHINGTON, April 18, 2015 – B & R Meat Processing, a Winslow, Ark. establishment, is recalling approximately 2,129 pounds of pork products due to a possible processing deviation that may have led to staphylococcal enterotoxin contamination, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today.
The cured and uncured pork items were produced on various dates between August 7, 2014 and April 1, 2015.
NSW Health is urging members of the public to thoroughly cook pork products, particularly pork livers, after three recent notifications of Hepatitis E in NSW in people who have not travelled outside Australia.
NSW Health – in collaboration with the NSW Food Authority and the Department of Primary Industries – is investigating the cases which were recorded over the past few days.
Dr Jeremy McAnulty, the Director of Health Protection with NSW Health, said three individuals have likely contracted the illness after consuming either pork liver or pork liver sausages that may not have been properly cooked at home.
“Hepatitis E virus has previously been identified in Australian pig herds but until recently there has been no evidence that humans have acquired the virus from pork products in Australia,” Dr McAnulty said.
“Hepatitis E is common in developing countries where there is poor sanitation and little access to clean drinking water. Although infections have been linked to the consumption of pork products in other developed countries, this has not been seen in Australia before.
“In 2010 there were 14 notifications of Hepatitis E in NSW, in 2011 there were 21 notifications and in 2012 there were 10 notifications – all of which were thought to have been acquired overseas.
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Tagged Hepatitis E virus, NSW, nsw food authority, NSW Health, pork products
Indigenously acquired hepatitis E infections have increased substantially in England and Wales since 2010. Epidemiological investigations were undertaken to determine risk factors for the acquisition of infection. A case-control study (25 cases, 75 controls) was used to test the hypothesis that hepatitis E infection was related to consumption of pork products. In a multivariable model, consumption of pork pie [odds ratio (OR) 6·33, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1·41–28·48, P = 0·009] and consumption of ham and sausages purchased from a major UK supermarket chain (OR 10·12, 95% CI 1·68–60·81, P = 0·023) were significantly associated with indigenous infection. The consumption of sausages and ham purchased from the supermarket was highly correlated; however. separate models showed that each variable was significantly associated with infection (OR 7·59, 95% CI 1·81–31·84, P = 0·004 and OR 10·98, 95% CI 1·84–65·35, P = 0·003, respectively). Although contamination of sausages with HEV has previously been shown this study also raises concerns about other processed pork products and whether current practice in preparing these products is sufficient to prevent transmission of HEV.
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Tagged Epidemiological investigations, hepatitis E infection, pork products
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