August 2005

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.”Continue Reading Got milk? Make sure it’s pasteurized

GARRY MITCHELL
Associated Press
MOBILE, Ala. – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is nearing its decision on banning basa catfish from Vietnam, which has already been taken off the shelves in three Southeastern states.
FDA spokesman Mike Herndon said Thursday a decision could come next week on how the agency will rule on the multimillion-dollar catfish imports. The agency is under pressure from an Arkansas congressman for a nationwide ban.
“Right now it’s a state issue,” Herndon said in a telephone interview from FDA’s office in Rockville, Md.
Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana banned Vietnam basa catfish after officials detected antibiotics given to prevent disease in Vietnamese fish.Continue Reading FDA near decision on Vietnam basa catfish ban

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.Continue Reading Louisiana Recalls and Stops Sale of Some 700,000 Pounds of Fish from Vietnam Pending Investigation Into Use of Antibiotic Banned by the FDA in July

By Ahmed ElAmin
12/08/2005 – With up to 76 per cent of UK chickens testing positive for Campylobacter, processors and their suppliers will soon be facing a food safety crackdown from the country’s regulator.
The process will mean greater costs for UK food processors as they implement new measures and increased screening and cleaning techniques to reach the target. The problem is prevalent throughout the EU.
In a consultation document published yesterday the UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) proposed reducing that level by 50 per cent in 2010, noting that it would be targeting the start of the supply chain first then moving through food processing and on to the retail level.Continue Reading UK regulator sets target for Campylobacter crackdown

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.Continue Reading Northern Va. Sees Spike in Food-Borne Illnesses

Review: reduction of Campylobacter spp. by commercial antimicrobials applied during the processing of broiler chickens: a review from the United States perspective
August, 2005
Journal of Food Protection: Volume 68, Number 8
Page 1752-1760
Omar A. Oyarzabal
Department of Poultry Science, Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama 36849-5416, USA
ABSTRACT
A reduction in Campylobacter spp. has been…

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…

ANIMAL ANTIBIOTICS
Why did the chicken take the antibiotic? Not because she was sick, necessarily, but because some other birds in her beak-by-giblet poultry barn were sick. Which isn’t surprising, considering their less-than-sanitary living conditions.
Whenever a few birds show symptoms of respiratory infections, which they often do, it has long been common practice to just medicate the lot of them by putting an antibiotic such as Bayer’s Baytril into their water.Continue Reading Chickening out: Medicating livestock only threatens humans

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.Continue Reading Go ahead and pet the animals

Wednesday, August 3, 2005BY LOIS MAHARG
Ann Arbor News Bureau
‘When in doubt, throw it out” is never better advice than during picnic season, when food sits out in the hot summer sun.
“Bacteria grow well between 70 and 120 degrees, but they grow most rapidly between 90 and 110 degrees,” said Joan Miller, extension educator at Michigan State University Extension. “And in a picnic setting generally there’s a lot of moisture in the air that allows bacteria to grow fast.”
These bacteria – E. coli 0157, Salmonella, Listeria, Campylobacter – can wreak havoc on the gastrointestinal tract and, in some cases, lead to serious illness and death.Continue Reading Cutting down onfood-borne illness Leave E. coli, Salmonella, Listeria and Campylobacter off the guest list