DROUGHT and heat are being blamed for a doubling in food poisoning cases in 2007.

Posted by Campylobacter Attorney on February 28, 2007
Alarming health department statistics show more than 800 South Australians have suffered food poisoning in the first seven weeks of this year.

This is more than double the year-to-date average of 379 for the past three years.

The usual health authority reckoning is that the confirmed cases represent about 10 per cent of the number of people affected, which would mean more than 8000 victims.

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UVM Leads Effort to Combat Food-Borne Disease

Posted by Campylobacter Attorney on February 28, 2007
The University of Vermont College of Medicine has been chosen as the single participating academic medical center in the nation to collaborate with the Navy Medical Research Center (NMRC) and Denmark-based ACE BioSciences in the development and evaluation of a new vaccine against one of the most common food-borne bacteria, Campylobacter. The first study in this multi-part collaboration is a new clinical trial designed to define the illness caused by this bacterium in healthy volunteers. Information from this work will be used to confirm the effectiveness of a new Campylobacter vaccine.


This Campylobacter research initiative is timely in the face of recent food-borne outbreaks due to similar bacteria, such as salmonella and E. coli. Campylobacter infections account for more than two million cases of food-borne illness and up to 100 deaths in the United States each year, as well as $1.5 to 1.8 billion in lost productivity. Infections from Campylobacter, usually occurring after consumption of inadequately cooked chicken, are frequently the most common cause of food-borne disease in the U.S. This species of bacteria also have a high degree of antibiotic resistance, which has increased the importance of vaccine development to prevent this infection. In the U.S., infections with Campylobacter are most common in young children, travelers, and military personnel, but infection is also extremely common in less developed nations.

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Consumers Union Calls for Single Agency to Ensure Safety of Nation's Food Supply

Posted by Campylobacter Attorney on February 08, 2007

WASHINGTON, Feb. 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Consumers Union is calling for the creation of a single food agency to ensure adequate, efficient and effective oversight of our nation's food supply. Consumers Union welcomes today's hearing in the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee to bring attention to the inadequacies in the government's system to monitor food's safety.

As highlighted in last week's GAO report, the nation's food supply is a "high-risk" area in need of immediate government attention to ensure the continued safety and integrity of our food.

"Having multiple agencies responsible for making certain the food on our table is safe to eat is a recipe for disaster," said Sally Greenberg, senior counsel at Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports magazine.

"We support the proposal for a single agency with authority, resources and leadership to oversee a safe and secure food supply in the 21st century food market."

Local meat, milk and raw salads carry high levels of Campylobacter

Posted by Campylobacter Lawyer on February 06, 2007
KARACHI: A surveillance study was carried out to determine the prevalence of Campylobacter in meat, milk and other food commodities in Pakistan. Over a period of 3 years (January 2002-December 2004), a total of 1,636 food samples of meat, milk and other food commodities were procured from three big cities of Pakistan (Faisalabad, Lahore and Islamabad) and were analysed.

The study appeared in the journal Food Microbiology and was conducted by experts at the University of Agriculture, Faislabad.

Among meat samples, the highest prevalence (48 percent) of Campylobacter was recorded in raw chicken meat followed by raw beef (10.9 percent) and raw mutton (5.1 percent). Among other food commodities, the highest prevalence was observed in vegetable/fruit salads (40.9 percent), sandwiches (32 percent), cheese (11 percent) and raw bulk milk samples (10.2 percent). The overall prevalence of Campylobacter was found to be 21.5 percent, out of which 70.6 percent were identi?ed as Campylobacter (C.) jejuni and 29.4 percent as C. coli. The study reported that the prevalence of Campylobacter spp. was signi?cantly higher in food commodities which included raw/undercooked ingredients.

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Leading cause of US food-borne illness makes its own pathway through cells

Posted by Campylobacter Lawyer on February 06, 2007
Yale researchers now have some answers about how the bacterium that is the leading cause of food-borne illness in the United States enters cells of the gut and avoids detection and destruction, according to a presentation at the annual meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology in San Diego in December.

While scientists are just beginning to answer basic questions about how Campylobacter jejuni (campylobacter) causes infection, Robert Watson, a graduate student in the Section of Microbial Pathogenesis at Yale University School of Medicine worked out a better way to study the bacteria and reported that it takes an uncommon path as it infects cells.

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