Campylobacter Watch

Subscribe to Campylobacter Watch via RSS

21/03/2005 – The US government is investing a further $2 million to enhance research on bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and $5 million to establish a Food Safety Research and Response Network.
“In a rapidly changing world marketplace, science is the universal language that must guide our rules and policies, rather than subjectivity or politics,” said agriculture secretary Mike Johanns.
“Expanding our research efforts to improve the understanding of BSE and other food-related illness pathogens will strengthen the security of our nation’s food supply. These projects will help improve food safety by enhancing our research partnerships with the academic community and establish another tool to aid our response to food-related disease outbreaks.”Continue Reading US ups BSE funding in battle to open markets

Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
Sunday, March 20, 2005 – WASHINGTON – Two California universities will be part of a project to study food safety.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said it had awarded $5million to 18 colleges and universities to set up a Food Safety Research and Response Network. Headed by North Carolina State University,…

March 16, 2005
LOS ANGELES (AP) – County health officials said a study shows food-borne diseases have been reduced 13.1 percent because of the restaurant inspection and letter grading system imposed in 1998.
Dr. Jonathan Fielding, the county’s public health director and an author of the study, said it was the first scientific proof that…

Washington: State Penitentiary campylobacter litigation
More than 100 inmates at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla, Washington, were infected with campylobacter jejuni blamed on poor food-handling in the prison kitchen. Health officials traced the infection to a leaky drain pipe contaminated with pigeon feces and leaking into the salad preparation area.

L.A. County’s restaurant rating system, which includes letter scores, has cut hospitalizations for food-borne diseases by 13%, study finds.
By Jia-Rui Chong and Hector Becerra, Times Staff Writers
March 11, 2005
Fewer people have been hospitalized with food-borne diseases in the last few years, in large part because of the restaurant-grading system in Los Angeles County, according to a new study in the Journal of Environmental Health.
The study, published in the March issue, associated a 13.1% decrease in hospitalizations for the most common food-borne illnesses with the county’s revamping of its restaurant inspection system in 1998.
Dr. Jonathan Fielding, the county’s public health director and an author of the study, said it was the first scientific proof that the grading system resulted in a “demonstrable public health benefit.”Continue Reading Eatery Grades Said to Reduce Illness

March 02, 2005
Bug of the Month for March: CAMPYLOBACTER
The Bacteria
Q: What is Campylobacter?
A: Campylobacter [pronounced “kamp-e-lo-back-ter”] bacteria are commonly found in the intestinal tracts of cats, dogs, poultry, cattle, swine, rodents, monkeys, wild birds, and some humans. The bacteria pass through feces to cycle through the environment and are also in untreated water. Campylobacter jejuni, the strain associated with most reported human infections, may be present in the body without causing illness.
Q: Why are we hearing more about Campylobacter?
A: During the 1980’s, public health authorities began to learn more about the prevalence of the bacteria in the environment, the illness it can cause, and laboratory techniques for identifying the bacteria. As individual states within the United States increase their reporting of illnesses to CDC, research continues on the organism and the disease.Continue Reading What is Campylobacter?

By DAN DEARTH
Staff reporter
PUT-IN-BAY — The Ohio Department of Health has scheduled a Tuesday press conference to release the “preliminary-investigational report” disclosing what caused about 1,500 people to contract gastrointestinal illness last summer on South Bass Island.
Officials from the ODH, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, Ottawa County Health Department and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will be on hand to release their findings and answer questions from noon to 2 p.m. at Put-in-Bay Village Hall.
Ottawa County Commissioner Carl Koebel said it is about time the state decided to inform the public.
“I thought they would have come up with a report sooner than they did,” Koebel said. “They had to wait for all their samples to come back.”Continue Reading State to report on P-I-B illness

1.15.2005
Raw and undercooked poultry and meat, raw milk and untreated water are sources for Campylobacter, the most common bacterial cause of diarrhea in the United States, according the U.S. Public Health Service.
But finding how these bacteria that happily co-exist with chickens and turkeys burrow their way into intestinal cells to eat and make people sick in the process should provide direction on how to stop them, say Drs. Stuart A. Thompson and Christopher M. Burns. “The basic problem with Campylobacter is that we don’t know how it causes disease,” says Dr. Thompson, who recently received his third National Institutes of Health grant to answer this question and develop a vaccine. “To understand how to treat a bacterium, you have to understand how it causes disease.”Continue Reading Finding how the fowl-borne bacteria Campylobacter jejuni makes at least a million Americans miserable for a week each year is on the plates of two Medical College of Georgia microbiologists.

14 Jan 2005
Finding how the fowl-borne bacteria Campylobacter jejuni makes at least a million Americans miserable for a week each year is on the plates of two Medical College of Georgia microbiologists.
Raw and undercooked poultry and meat, raw milk and untreated water are sources for Campylobacter, the most common bacterial cause of diarrhea in the United States, according the U.S. Public Health Service.
But finding how these bacteria that happily co-exist with chickens and turkeys burrow their way into intestinal cells to eat and make people sick in the process should provide direction on how to stop them, say Drs. Stuart A. Thompson and Christopher M. Burns.Continue Reading Research turning up the heat on fowl bacteria, Campylobacter jejuni

Bacteria affects 18 people in December at the Sturgeon Bay restaurant
By Deb Fitzgerald
For The News-Chronicle
The well water at the Mill Supper Club in Sturgeon Bay is suspected to have caused the illnesses of eight people who tested positive for campylobacter, a common bacterial cause of diarrheal sickness.
As a result of the illnesses and subsequent state and county investigations, Don and Shelly Petersilka, owners of the restaurant at the northern intersection of States 42 and 57, have opted to replace their pre-1950s well with a new one.
“I’m extremely sorry people got sick,” Don said. “Nobody feels worse about it than Shelly and I do.” The events leading to the decision to drill a new well began on four different nights in December, when 18 people at four separate dining parties became ill. Only 13 of those people had stool samples examined by a doctor. Of those who were tested, eight were positive for campylobacter, according to Rhonda Kolberg, director of the Door County Public Health Department.Continue Reading Supper club to drill new well after illnesses