Tag Archives: salmonella strains

USA – Salmonella Outbreak Updates

Food Poisoning Bulletin

There are two Salmonella strains involved in the outbreak linked to contaminated bean sprouts that has sickened 87 people in 11 states. And both of them are rare, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

To solve and track this outbreak, public health investigators are using PulseNet, a national subtyping network of public health agencies that is coordinated by CDC.

Food Poisoning Bulletin

A bean sprout Salmonella outbreak has sickened 87 people in 11 states, according to the latest update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Twenty seven percent of those sickened have been hospitalized.

The outbreak has been linked to Wonton Foods Inc. of Brooklyn, which suspended production briefly to clean its facility and resumed production on November 29. Health officials says it’s likely that the contaminated sprouts are no longer in circulation as the maximum shelf life of mung bean sprouts is 12 days.

USA – Salmonella From Bearded Dragons

Food Poisoning Bulletin BeardedDragonEatting

At least 132 people in 31 states have contracted Salmonella infections from contact with pet bearded dragons since February 2012, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Most of them are children five and under.

The outbreak strain, Salmonella Cotham, is extremely rare. Less than one one hundredth of one percent of Salmonella strains cultured from Americans since 1963 have been been Salmonella Cotham.

Research – Salmonella Antibiotic Resistance

Food Safety NewsSalm

The number of antimicrobial-resistant Salmonella serotypes hasn’t increased drastically in recent years, but drug-resistant Salmonella continues to pose a public health threat in the United States, particularly as resistance spreads across classes of drugs, necessitates the use of more expensive drugs, makes treatment less effective, and, in worse-case scenarios, leaves infections untreatable.

A recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study identified increasing resistance to a class of drugs called Cephalosporins, which are commonly used to treat severe Salmonella infections in adults and are the main drug of choice when treating children, for whom the fluoroquinolone class of drugs is not recommended. Currently, about five percent of Salmonella strains are resistant to Cephalosporins, mostly in cases of Salmonella Heidelberg and Salmonella Newport.

Research Copper Kills Salmonella

Food Safety News

Preparing food on copper surfaces may significantly reduce the risk of spreading foodborne pathogens, according to a study by researchers at the University of Arizona.
 
The study, funded in part by the International Copper Association and published in the May issue of Food Microbiology, compared the ability of various Salmonella strains to survive on both copper and stainless steel surfaces. It comes on the heels of research by co-author Christopher Rensing demonstrating the antimicrobial properties of copper.