Campylobacter Blog - Surveillance & analysis on Campylobacter news & outbreaks

20/07/2005 - UK-based food processors who use poultry in their products are likely to face more safety regulations after a government report singles out chicken meat as the largest contributor to Campylobacter infections in the country.

"Given the prevalence of Campylobacter in poultry, and knowing how easily pathogens can persist and spread in the domestic and catering environments, we believe that reducing the level of the organism in poultry meat is likely to make a significant contribution to the battle against human foodborne illness," the advisory committee stated in a report to the Food Standards Agency (FSA).

Article published Saturday, July 16, 2005

TOLEDO ZOO

By ROBIN ERB

The Toledo Zoo's petting zoo is scheduled to reopen today, less than a month after officials warned they might close it for the summer because a routine animal screening detected an infectious bacteria.

One Lucas County child became infected with campylobacteriosis, the illness caused by the bacteria campylobacter, after visiting the zoo in June, according to an epidemiologist at the Toledo-Lucas County Health Department.

But it was unclear whether the boy picked up the bacteria at the zoo or elsewhere.

Health officials say the organism is extremely common. Once passed to humans, it can cause a fever, diarrhea, and vomiting that typically lasts several days, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

July 2005

Arthritis, in children or adults, is called "reactive" when it is due to a delayed reaction to an infection. The arthritis usually occurs two to four weeks after the infection and lasts from eight to 16 weeks. It may recur or last longer in some people. Current research supports combining antibiotics with other treatments for this condition.

Signs and Symptoms:

-Joint problems in large joints, such as hips, knees and ankles, and sacroiliac joints
-Affects fingers and toes
-Joint problems on one side of the body only
-Swelling of entire fingers or toes, making them resemble sausages
-HLA-B27 genetic tissue type

Causes:
The most common infections causing juvenile reactive arthritis include:

-Bowel infections, such as dysentery and food poisoning
-Bacteria, such as shigella, campylobacter or salmonella
-Sexually transmitted diseases, such as chlalmydia

William D. Marler (www.williammarler.com), an attorney at Marler Clark LLP PS (http://www.marlerclark.com) has extensive experience representing victims of bacterial and viral food poisonings. Since 1993, Marler Clark has represented victims of most of the largest foodborne illness outbreaks in the United States, including the 1993 Jack in the Box E. coli, 1998 Odwalla E. coli, 1999 Sun Orchard Salmonella, 2002 ConAgra E. coli and Chili's Salmonella outbreaks, the 2003 Chi Chi's Hepatitis A outbreak, and the 2004 Sheetz Salmonella outbreak.
Bill feels that a lawyer should do more than just sue corporations. That is why he speaks frequently on issues of safe food and formed Outbreak, Inc. (http://www.outbreakinc.com), a not-for-profit business dedicated to explaining to companies why it is in their interest to avoid food illness litigation. Bill also has created (http://marlerblog.com) as a way of updating the Web on issues of interest to him.

Use a food thermometer to make sure food is safe

Most people think they can check the doneness of burgers, pork chops and chicken breasts just by "eyeballing it." They look at it and judge the doneness by its appearance. They trust their experience. Experience is good, but it might be misleading.

According to a recent USDA study, one out of every four hamburgers turns brown in the middle before it has reached a safe internal temperature.

Eating undercooked meats or poultry increases the risk of food-borne illness. Many pathogens live naturally in the intestinal tracts of food animals.

Surveys of meat sold in retail food stores indicate that between one-fourth and three-fourths of all meat and poultry cuts sold in 1999 might have been contaminated with food-borne pathogens.

Bacteria most commonly associated with undercooked meats are campylobacter, salmonella and escherichia coli O157:H7.

www.about-campylobacter.com

Campylobacter jejuni (Pronounced "camp-e-low-back-ter j-june-eye") was not recognized as a cause of human foodborne illness prior to 1975. Now, the bacterial organism is known to be the most common cause of bacterial foodborne illness in the U.S.1 (Salmonella is the second most common cause).

Most cases Campylobacter infection occur as isolated, sporadic events, not as a part of the large outbreaks. Even though surveillance is very limited, over 10,000 cases are reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) each year. Active surveillance for cases indicates that over 17 cases for each 100,000 persons in the population (or about 46,000 cases) are diagnosed yearly.1 Undoubtedly, many more cases go undiagnosed and unreported, and estimates are that Campylobacter causes 2-4 million cases per year in the United States.4