Campylobacter Watch

Subscribe to Campylobacter Watch via RSS

22 Dec 2004
A common cause of foodborne disease from poultry products can survive refrigeration and freezing say researchers from Pennsylvania. Their findings appear in the December 2004 issue of the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.
Campylobacter bacteria are estimated to be responsible for 2.5 million cases of infection in the United States each year and 50% of those cases are attributed to contaminated poultry. Campylobacters are believed to achieve optimal growth in extremely warm temperatures while failing to thrive in temperatures below 86 degrees. Campylobacter jejuni appears to be the exception. Previous studies have shown a small portion able to withstand refrigeration and freezing independently, but the combined effect of both has yet to be tested.
In the study samples of ground chicken and chicken skin infected with C. jejuni were refrigerated, frozen or exposed to a combination of both. A significant portion of the bacteria were able to survive refrigerated and frozen temperatures in both ground chicken and chicken skin.Continue Reading Harmful Poultry Bacterium May Survive Refrigeration and Frozen Storage Combined

On August 29, 1996, the Jackson County Health Department (JCHD) in southwestern Oklahoma notified the Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) of a cluster of Campylobacter jejuni infections that occurred during August 16-20 among persons who had eaten lunch at a local restaurant on August 15. This report summarizes the investigation of these cases and indicates that C. jejuni infection was most likely acquired from eating lettuce cross-contaminated with raw chicken. This report also emphasizes the need to keep certain foods and cooking utensils separate during food handling.
A case was defined as illness in a person who had eaten lunch at the restaurant on August 15, 1996, and had onset of diarrhea (i.e., three or more loose stools during a 24-hour period) or vomiting during August 16-20. Of 25 persons available for interview who had eaten lunch at the restaurant on August 15, a total of 14 (56%) had had an illness that met the case definition. The median age of patients was 33 years (range: 5-52 years); 10 (71%) were female. All patients reported diarrhea; 13 (93%), fever; 13 (93%), abdominal cramps; 11 (79%), nausea; five (36%), vomiting; and three (21%), visible blood in their stools. The median incubation period was 3 days (range: 1-5 days). Two (14%) patients were hospitalized. Stool specimens were collected from 10 patients; all yielded C. jejuni. No food items were available for testing.Continue Reading Outbreak of Campylobacter Enteritis Associated with Cross-Contamination of Food — Oklahoma, 1996

On September 3, 1999, the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) received reports of at least 10 children hospitalized with bloody diarrhea or Escherichia coli O157:H7 infection in counties near Albany, New York. All of the children had attended the Washington County Fair, which was held August 23-29, 1999; approximately 108,000 persons attended the fair during that week. Subsequently, fair attendees infected with Campylobacter jejuni also were identified. An ongoing investigation includes heightened case-finding efforts, epidemiologic and laboratory studies, and an environmental investigation of the Washington County fairgrounds. This report presents the preliminary findings implicating contaminated well water.
To identify additional fair attendees with diarrhea, the NYSDOH issued press releases, conducted daily press briefings, and contacted emergency departments, laboratories, and infection-control practitioners by fax and telephone. Laboratories were asked to culture all diarrheal stool specimens for E. coli O157:H7 and subsequently for Campylobacter spp.Continue Reading Public Health Dispatch: Outbreak of Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Campylobacter Among Attendees of the Washington County Fair — New York, 1999

Hazards of Healthy Living: Bottled Water and Salad Vegetables as Risk Factors for Campylobacter Infection
Meirion R. Evans, C. Donald Ribeiro, and Roland L. Salmon
University of Wales College of Medicine, Cardiff, United Kingdom; Cardiff Public Health Laboratory, Cardiff, United Kingdom; and Public Health Laboratory Service Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre (Wales), Cardiff, United Kingdom
Campylobacter is the most common cause of bacterial gastroenteritis worldwide, yet the etiology of this infection remains only partly explained. In a retrospective cohort study, we compared 213 sporadic campylobacter case-patients with 1,144 patients with negative fecal samples. Information was obtained on food history, animal contact, foreign travel, leisure activities, medical conditions, and medication use. Eating chicken, eating food from a fried chicken outlet, eating salad vegetables, drinking bottled water, and direct contact with cows or calves were all independently associated with infection. The population-attributable fractions for these risk factors explained nearly 70% of sporadic campylobacter infections. Eating chicken is a well-established risk factor, but consuming salad and bottled water are not. The association with salad may be explained by cross-contamination of food within the home, but the possibility that natural mineral water is a risk factor for campylobacter infection could have wide public health implications.Continue Reading Research: Campylobacter

By Peter Curson
October 14, 2004
Most of us have experienced a bout of food poisoning: an episode of stomach pain or upset often associated with diarrhoea and in some cases vomiting. Such encounters are usually inconsequential, of limited duration and rarely do we think to bother our general practitioner with them. Most of us assume it’s something we have eaten or drunk, shrug it off and get on with our lives. Minor bouts of upset stomachs have become so common as to be something we all expect to experience sooner or later, and we rarely question their origin.Continue Reading Who Ordered the Food Poisoning?

by Audrey Hingley
When it comes to food poisoning, big outbreaks make headlines. E. coli in apple juice and alfalfa sprouts. Listeria in cheese and hot dogs. Salmonella in eggs and on poultry. But the most frequently diagnosed food-borne bacterium rarely makes the news. The name of the unsung bug? Campylobacter.
“Most Campylobacter infections are sporadic and not associated with an outbreak, but we know it causes up to 4 million human infections a year,” says Frederick J. Angulo, D.V.M., an epidemiologist with the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Federal and state health experts have long recognized that Campylobacter causes disease in animals. Conclusive proof that the bacteria also causes human disease emerged in the 1970s, and by 1996, Campylobacter was sitting atop the bacterial heap as the number one cause of all domestic food-borne illness. (See “Tracking Down Trouble: Bacteria That Cause Food-Borne Illness.”)Continue Reading Campylobacter: Low-Profile Bug Is Food Poisoning Leader

Campylobacter is not the only thing that triggers Guillain-BarrÈ syndrome, but it is now recognized as one of the disorder’s major forerunners. Guillain-BarrÈ, which also may follow a viral illness, is an autoimmune attack on the peripheral nerves that can cause weakness and paralysis. Annually, about two people per 100,000 contract the syndrome.
“We also…