Campylobacter Blog - Surveillance & analysis on Campylobacter news & outbreaks

Linda Bren
August 26, 2005

Pasteurization, since its adoption in the early 1900s, has been credited with dramatically reducing illness and death caused by contaminated milk. But today, some people are passing up pasteurized milk for what they claim is tastier and healthier "raw milk."

Public health officials couldn't disagree more.

Drinking raw (untreated) milk or eating raw milk products is "like playing Russian roulette with your health," says John Sheehan, director of the Food and Drug Administration's Division of Dairy and Egg Safety. "We see a number of cases of foodborne illness every year related to the consumption of raw milk."

Date Published: August 17, 2005
Source: Newsinferno.com News Staff

Commissioner of Agriculture and Forestry Robert Odom announced on Monday that nearly 350 tons (700,000 pounds) of Vietnamese seafood has been taken off the market since Friday and remain must remain frozen until it can be analyzed for an antibiotic that is not allowed in food.

Inspectors are checking cold storage facilities, seafood markets, restaurants, grocery stores, and other retail establishments, looking for any basa catfish, crab meat, and any other seafood products from Vietnam.

Updated: Thursday, Aug. 11, 2005 - 12:34 PM
Hank Silverberg, WTOP Radio

FAIRFAX, Va. -- Watch what you eat. Virginia health officials say this summer more people in Northern Virginia are getting sick from food-borne illnesses.

"In the past couple of weeks, we've seen or suspected 50 additional cases of food-borne illness, primarily caused by the Salmonella bacteria," says Virginia Department of Health spokeswoman Lucy Caldwell.

Those 50 cases in Northern Virginia are in addition to another 150 cases previously reported.

"We are seeing an increase, and it is of concern," Caldwell says.

August, 2005
Journal of Food Protection: Volume 68, Number 8
Page 1600-1605

Marianne Sandberg,a Merete Hofshagen,b ÿyvin ÿstensvik,a Eystein Skjerve,a and Giles Innocent c

aNorwegian School of Veterinary Science, P.O. Box 8146 Dep., N-0033 Oslo, Norway

bThe Norwegian Zoonosis Centre, P.O. Box 8156 Dep., N-0033 Oslo, Norway
cComparative Epidemiology and Informatics, Division of Animal Production and Public Health, University of Glasgow Veterinary School, Bearsden Road, Glasgow G61 IQH UK, Scotland

ABSTRACT

In the Norwegian Action Plan against Campylobacter in broilers, carcasses from flocks identified as positive before slaughter are either heat treated or frozen for 5 weeks to reduce the number of Campylobacter. The objective of this study was to estimate the effect of freezing time and predict the number of Campylobacter on naturally infected or contaminated broiler carcasses following freezing for 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 13, 21, 35, and 120 days by nonparametric and parametric linear statistical models. From each of the five flocks, 27 carcasses were sampled. Each carcass was cut in two pieces along the chest bone. Half was put into the freezer (-20 degrees C), whereas the other was deskinned and quantitative culturing was conducted from a 10-g sample of the skin. Fifteen frozen halves were selected at random at each time point following freezing from 2 to 120 days, and skin samples from these were cultured quantitatively and qualitatively. In regard to the log reduction of Campylobacter, almost similar results were obtained using three statistical methods; median regression on the change in Campylobacter counts, zero-inflated negative binomial regression, and a Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo (decay) model on original counts. Overall, a 2-log reduction of Campylobacter was obtained after 3 weeks of freezing. Only a marginal extra effect was oBSErved when extending the freezing to 5 weeks. Although freezing appears to be an efficient way to reduce the level of Campylobacter on broiler carcasses, in 80% of the carcasses Campylobacter could still be detected using quantitative culturing following 120 days of freezing. Based on the high number of zeros, these data should be modeled by a zero-inflated model. The best statistical fit in regard to goodness-of-fit measures was the zero-inflated negative binomial log link model, closely followed by the Poisson model. Thus, in our continued search for a better way to describe the data, we used the Poisson distribution in the mixed Bayesian decay models.

Wednesday, August 03, 2005
By Carrina Stanton, cstanton@chronline.com

Thousands of visitors will soon flock to the Twin Cities for the Southwest Washington Fair.

And more than likely, more than a few of them will come by the barns to see the Erven family's sheep they raise through the 4-H program.

"That's part of the fair experience, and part of the reason for the exhibit, so kids can see where milk comes from and where produce comes from," said mother Peggy Erven, Salkum.

Interacting with farm animals is as much a part of most people's fair experience as elephant ears and cotton candy. But each year, health organizations warn the public to take steps to make sure the only memento they bring home from animal exhibits is a memory.

Wednesday, August 3, 2005 12:29 PM CDT

DES MOINES (AP) --- Food service giant Compass Group, which cooks for schools, museums, hospitals and corporations nationwide, unveiled a first-of-its kind purchasing policy aimed at reducing the use of antibiotics in pork production.

Released Tuesday, it comes just days after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned the use of Baytril in poultry because of concerns the drug could lead to antibiotic-resistant infections in people.