January 2006

January 28, 2006
The Tribune (Arizona)
Emily Gersema
Violations included handling food with bare hands, improperly storing food, reusing dirty slicers and choppers, no paper towels at the sink, workers eating in the food service area, dirty aprons, dirty work areas.
Warned on three occasions to fix problems or face penalties.
In the last three years, one of the Valley’s most popular restaurant chains has been cited for more than three dozen major health violations at its four locations, and a lawsuit alleges that undercooked chicken at one franchise sickened a customer so severely he was temporarily paralyzed.Continue Reading Sickened customer sues E.V. Restaurant: Popular chain has a history of health citations

January 25, 2006
Daily Times-Call
Kate Martin
FORT COLLINS — Lugene Sas, owner of Taft Hill Dairy, said Tuesday that his dairy is the one that the state pinpointed as allegedly sickening 27 people.
Tuesday, a dozen raw-milk supporters gathered in the parking lot of Taft Hill Dairy, located four miles north of County Road 54G on Taft Hill Road near Fort Collins.
Ray Norden, 74, said he’s been drinking raw milk for more than 70 years. He said health officials think he had the bacteria in his system, but he said he doubts it.
Rebecca Woodbury of Fort Collins also doubted the test results.Continue Reading Dairyman draws on support after sickness that struck 27

Jan 25, 2006
North Texas E-news
Martha Filipic, The Ohio State University
Where can I find a listing of fats (saturated, unsaturated, etc.) in raw cow’s milk?
Unfortunately, you can’t be certain what type of fat is in raw cow’s milk — it all depends on the cow and its diet. And since, by definition, raw cow’s milk undergoes no processing, it wouldn’t be standardized in any way.
However, the issue of the type of fat in raw cow’s milk is overshadowed by the safety risks of drinking it. In fact, in December 2005 in southwestern Washington state, at least 18 people, including 15 children under age 13, became ill from raw milk contaminated by E. coli O157:H7. Several children were hospitalized in critical condition, and may suffer from long-term kidney problems.Continue Reading Chow Line: Raw milk can give you a raw deal

Larimer dairy implicated
By Kate Martin
The Daily Reporter-Herald
FORT COLLINS — At least five people got sick after drinking raw milk from a Larimer County dairy in late December or early January.
Larimer County Health and Environment officials are investigating the cases, said Dr. Adrienne LeBailly, director of the department.
Kim Meyer-Lee, a regional epidemiologist, said five people reported laboratory-confirmed cases of campylobacteriosis from Jan. 4 through Jan. 9. The county also found other suspected cases, said LeBailly.
Campylobacteriosis is an infection caused by ingesting the Campylobacter bacterium, said Meyer-Lee. Symptoms are diarrhea, cramping, fevers, vomiting, headaches, body aches and chills.Continue Reading Raw milk sickens 5

By CURT WOODWARD
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
OLYMPIA, Wash. — On the Kozak farm, it only takes a few minutes for milk to get from Iris the cow’s udder to the bottles that will be picked up by her co-owners.
For the farmers and the milk drinkers, the arrangement is perfectly simple – everyone knows where the milk comes from, and gets it with a minimum of human meddling.
“It’s not the anonymous milk on the shelf and the anonymous buyer,” said Linda Kozak of Vashon Island, whose family distributes the dairy products. “It’s really more of a closed system, and it’s more natural.”
That simple system, however, is turning into a big problem for the raw milk producers targeted by bills being considered at the 2006 Legislature.Continue Reading Small raw milk dairies fear cost of licensing

Press Release by: Suffolk First
Published on openPR 01-09-2006
What Is Reactive Arthritis?
Reactive arthritis is a form of arthritis, or joint inflammation, that occurs as a “reaction” to an infection elsewhere in the body. Inflammation is a characteristic reaction of tissues to injury or disease and is marked by swelling, redness, heat, and pain. Besides this joint inflammation, reactive arthritis is associated with two other symptoms: redness and inflammation of the eyes (conjunctivitis) and inflammation of the urinary tract (urethritis). These symptoms may occur alone, together, or not at all.
Reactive arthritis is also known as Reiter’s syndrome, and your doctor may refer to it by yet another term, as a seronegative spondyloarthropathy. The seronegative spondyloarthropathies are a group of disorders that can cause inflammation throughout the body, especially in the spine. (Examples of other disorders in this group include psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, and the kind of arthritis that sometimes accompanies inflammatory bowel disease.)Continue Reading What Causes Reactive Arthritis

January 2006
Journal of Food Protection, vol. 69, no. 1, pp. 22-26(5)
Larkin, C. et al
Abstract:
Campylobacter jejuni is one of the most common causes of bacterial foodborne infection in the United States, and there are reports of resistance of Campylobacter spp. to antimicrobial agents used for the treatment of gastroenteritis. The purpose of…

January 3, 2006
FoodProductionDaily.com
Ahmed ElAmin
A general increase in reported cases of Campylobacteriosis over the last few years in the EU’s fifteen original member states indicates that food companies need to step up their safety procedures against the disease.
The statistics are in the European Commission’s first report on the persistence in the EU of a range of zoonoses, foodborne diseases that are transmissible from animals to humans.
The report takes the pulse on the state of food safety in the EU, even as the bloc begins implementing tougher hygiene laws aimed at reducing outbreaks of diseases caused by contaminated products.Continue Reading Foodborne Campylobacter infections increase

Saturday, December 31, 2005
By DEAN BAKER, Columbian staff writer
FERN PRAIRIE – Lorrie Conway tugged on the udder of 3-year-old Vashon, one of her 18 Nubian goats, and squirted her milk into a stainless steel bucket at Conway Family Farm near Livingston Mountain.
Conway, 40, runs one of only seven Washington dairies licensed to sell raw milk. As she worked, she reflected on how Washington Department of Agriculture inspectors have helped her since she got her license four months ago to sell milk raw, or milk without pasteurization.Continue Reading Camas Raw Dairy Has State Blessing