FSNET MAY 20, 2003
Government of Canada / Government of Alberta news release;
BSE disease
investigation in Alberta
Canadian Food Inspection Agency backgrounder: investigation
into a case of
bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in Alberta
Mad cow in Canada
A statement from the Canadian Cattlemen's Association
USDA to resume Canada beef trade if no new cases
U.S. study finding no risk in hormone-treated beef
Brave face hides bitterness; three years after at least seven
died from
tainted water, promised research centre still not a reality
Lack of oversight for meat-inspection system will put consumers
at risk
Food-safety experts recommend more power for inspectors, better
recalls
system
Unsafe meat ends or tragically changes victims' lives
Colorado budget crunch, popularity of eating out challenges
health
inspectors
Lebanon County, Pa., plant offers glimpse into world of
poultry processing
Farm lifestyle linked to fewer allergies
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GOVERNMENT OF CANADA / GOVERNMENT OF ALBERTA NEWS
RELEASE
BSE DISEASE INVESTIGATION IN ALBERTA
May 20, 2003
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency
http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/corpaffr/newcom/2003/20030520e.shtml
Edmonton AB. -The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has quarantined an
Alberta farm in an investigation of a single case of bovine spongiform
encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease.
This case of one cow was detected as part of Canada¹s ongoing BSE
surveillance program. Alberta Agriculture officials tested a cow that had
been condemned at slaughter. No meat from the cow entered the food chain.
Preliminary tests performed at a provincial laboratory and at the CFIA¹s
National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease were unable to rule out BSE. The
CFIA sent specimens to the World Reference Laboratory at Weybridge, United
Kingdom, which has verified the presence of BSE.
The CFIA and the Province of Alberta are investigating the animal¹s origin
and how its remains were processed. Information suggests that the risk to
human health and the possibility of transmission to other Canadian cattle
from this case are low.
"Immediate action has been taken to safeguard Canadian consumers and the
Canadian livestock population," said Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister
Lyle
Vanclief. "Federal officials, in cooperation with provincial and industry
partners, are conducting a comprehensive investigation and taking all
necessary steps to control the situation."
"We remain confident in our beef and cattle industry and we will support
both the CFIA and our cattle industry in eliminating this disease from
Canada," said Shirley McClellan, Deputy Premier and Minister of
Agriculture,
Food and Rural Development.
The affected herd will be depopulated once the necessary samples are
obtained for the purposes of the ongoing investigation. Any additional herds
that are found to be at risk as a result of the investigation will also be
depopulated.
This is a comprehensive investigation to trace the origin of the cow and
determine how it was processed, which will provide information to control
any potential spread of disease.
The investigation involves thorough scrutiny of records at the farm level,
abattoir, rendering plant and feed mills.
CANADIAN FOOD INSPECTION AGENCY BACKGROUNDER:
INVESTIGATION INTO A CASE OF
BOVINE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHY (BSE) IN ALBERTA
May 20, 2003
Canadian Food Inspection Agency
http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/corpaffr/newcom/2003/20030520bge.shtml
An eight-year old cow showing signs of illness was sent for slaughter to a
provincially licensed meat facility and was condemned by Alberta
Agriculture, Food and Rural Development (AAFRD). It was declared unfit for
human consumption and no meat from the animal entered the food chain. Its
remains were sent for rendering. The cow was not showing symptoms of BSE.
On May 16, AAFRD tested the cow¹s brain as part of its routine surveillance
program for BSE and notified the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) of
preliminary test results indicating possible BSE. The brain tissue was sent
to the CFIA¹s Center for Animal Health in Winnipeg for further testing. On
May 18, the CFIA¹s results also detected the presence of BSE. The CFIA sent
samples to the World Reference Laboratory at Weybridge, United Kingdom for
further assessment.
On May 18, the CFIA quarantined the farm under the provisions of the Health
of Animals Act. The CFIA and provincial officials are conducting a
comprehensive investigation to determine where the cow came from, its
movement between herds and how its remains were processed. Authorities are
also tracking the movement of other livestock from the same farm.
Results received from the World Reference Laboratory in the U.K. on May 20
confirmed a positive for BSE.
The CFIA has contacted its trading partners, the international animal health
standard-setting body (Office International des Epizooties - OIE), industry
associations, and other provincial partners. A toll-free public information
line has been set up for public enquiries and information on the CFIA¹s
website will be updated as new information becomes available.
This cow was part of a herd of 150 head. After all testing on the herd is
completed, it and other herds determined to be at risk of BSE contamination
will be destroyed to mitigate any risk of transmission. Following the
investigation, all BSE prevention policies and measures will be reviewed.
MAD COW IN CANADA
May 20, 2003
MeatNews.com
http://www.meatnews.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=article&artNum=5437
A cow in Alberta tested positive for the deadly brain-destroying disease.
Canadian agriculture officials confirmed a positive test for bovine
spongiform encephalopathy in an eight-year old cow in northern Alberta.
According to news reports, the cow was slaughtered in early January.
However, the carcass was condemned because the animal had pneumonia. Tissue
samples were collected and sent to the United Kingdom for further testing.
Test results were obtained a few days ago. The herd from which the cow
originated has been quarantined and will be destroyed in accordance with
established BSE protocols.
USDA immediately banned beef imports from Canada. USDA Secretary Ann Veneman
said the United States would not accept any "ruminant products" from
Canada
until further notice. According to an article in Meat Processing magazine
(March 2003, Page 50), Canada shipped more than 350,000 metric tons of fresh
and frozen beef to the United States in 2002. Canadian beef exports to the
United States have been increasing.
Alberta accounts for nearly 60 percent of Canada's beef production. There
are 5.5 million head of cattle in the western province. Beef cattle
production is Alberta's largest agricultural sector providing $2.8 billion
in annual farm cash receipts, Alberta Agriculture data show. Some 511,656
head of live cattle were shipped from Alberta to the United States in 2002,
Alberta Agriculture said. Speculation about the case sent restaurant stocks
that specialize in beef lower.
A STATEMENT FROM THE CANADIAN CATTLEMEN'S ASSOCIATION
May 20, 2003
>From a press release
CALGARY- The Canadian Food Inspection Agency today announced a confirmed
case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE, or "mad cow disease")
in an
Alberta cow.
The animal was not processed into beef. This is an isolated case and poses
no risk to the health of consumers of Canadian beef. BSE does not spread
from animal to animal. All the precautions are in place to prevent other
cattle from being affected. The focus must be on determining how this one
cow became infected. Canadian animal health standards are among the
highest
in the world and Canada has an excellent record of disease eradication. We
will take every step necessary to meet this challenge and to regain our
excellent reputation for herd health.
The Canadian Cattlemen's Association and the Canada Beef Export Federation
will be contacting our trading partners to explain the situation and will do
our utmost to maintain access to our export markets.
USDA TO RESUME CANADA BEEF TRADE IF NO NEW CASES
May 20, 2003
Reuters
WASHINGTON, May 20 (Reuters) - The United States would reopen its borders to
Canadian beef imports "fairly soon" if no other cattle test positive
for mad
cow disease, a U.S. Agriculture Department official said on Tuesday.
The USDA earlier on Tuesday temporarily banned imports of Canadian cattle,
sheep, goats and other ruminant products after Ottawa reported a case of mad
cow disease in an Alberta cow.
USDA Undersecretary J.B. Penn said the department was awaiting test results
for the rest of the affected herd.
"When we get some notion about the results from those tests, then we will
evaluate where we are," Penn told reporters. "If all of those are
negative,
I think we would open the border fairly soon."
U.S. STUDY FINDING NO RISK IN HORMONE-TREATED BEEF
May 19
Reuters
Randy Fabi
WASHINGTON - Young Lin of Ohio State University and the lead scientist of a
three-year National Cancer Institute study to look at whether the
consumption of meat treated with zeranol, a growth hormone used by the U.S.
beef and veal industries, increases the risk of breast cancer in humans, was
cited as saying Monday that U.S. scientists have yet to find any evidence
linking beef products derived from hormone-treated livestock and cancer in
humans, adding, "We have not reached any conclusion about the consumer.
Zeranol levels in beef are at 30 to 40 times lower levels than FDA
regulations."
A CBS spokeswoman was cited as saying that the CBS Evening News on Tuesday
will air an investigative story on the issue and that the National Cancer
Institute study will be one of several studies mentioned, adding, "We do
not
draw any conclusions. We present both sides of the issue."
The Food and Drug Administration, the agency responsible for approving
steroid hormones in beef cattle, was cited as saying on its Web site that,
"Consumers are not at risk from eating food from animals treated with these
compounds because the amount of added hormone is negligible."
BRAVE FACE HIDES BITTERNESS; THREE YEARS AFTER AT LEAST
SEVEN DIED FROM
TAINTED WATER, PROMISED RESEARCH CENTRE STILL NOT A REALITY WHY WERE 'LOCAL
BOYS' THE KOEBEL BROTHERS THE ONLY ONES CHARGED OVER THE TRAGIC EVENTS?
May 20, 2003
The Toronto Star
A7
Kate Harries
According to this story, there's a sign for the Centre for Water Quality in
downtown Walkerton, Ontario, one of the yet-to-be-fulfilled government
promises, that aims to use the notoriety of Canada's best-known public
health failure to launch a training and research centre.
The story says that Premier Ernie Eves announced the establishment of a $50
million trust fund for the centre last August. A former Owen Sound municipal
administrator was hired to do a feasibility study. Council set aside 19
acres of serviced land. Since then, nothing has been heard
Local Tory MPP Bill Murdoch was cited as saying that a board has been
selected for the centre, another board to run the trust fund, it's all to be
announced within two weeks, aadding, "I can't tell you. It still has to be
approved by cabinet ... We're almost there."
But, the story says, in Walkerton, you don't need to scratch very hard to
undercover bitterness, at the memory of how sick people were turned away
from the hospital and sent home with instructions to drink the water, at the
way residents were shunned outside the town, at the fact that the only
people charged were local, the two "Koebel boys."
The story asks, what about the premier in May, 2000, Mike Harris, who in the
famous words of the province's former medical officer of health, turned his
back on public health?
What about the cabinet ministers who were warned by top civil servants about
the risks of dismantling fail-safe provisions in health and environmental
protection?
What about former environment minister Norm Sterling, who was warned in a
letter from his health counterpart of the dangers of lax regulation when
testing municipal water had been privatized?
What about the top local environment ministry manager, who rejected an
inspector's recommendation that legal requirements be imposed to address
continued irregularities in the operation of the Walkerton waterworks?
What about the elected commissioners who did not read reports and did not
question the utility's senior management?
One man was quoted as saying, "Breach of trust. If you can charge the
Koebels, why could you not charge other people who were far more educated,
who should have known better?"
Then there's the issue of the Walkerton compensation fund, which the Tory
government promised would be a simpler and more straightforward way to
handle claims for damages and suffering than the courts.
Every resident got $6,000, just for the inconvenience. Then locals say the
process bogged down over further payments for those who were or are still
sick or suffered business losses.
LACK OF OVERSIGHT FOR MEAT-INSPECTION SYSTEM WILL PUT
CONSUMERS AT RISK
May 18, 2003
Knight-Ridder Tribune
Oliver Prichard, The Philadelphia Inquirer
An Inquirer investigation has, according to this story, found the United
States' flawed meat-inspection system, which relies heavily on self-policing
by the industry, discourages aggressive enforcement by government inspectors
and often fails to protect consumers until it is too late,.
The story says that an examination of outbreaks of disease linked to
unsanitary meat plants reveals a pattern of unheeded warnings and lax
response by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. For example:
the agency's top food-safety official was cited as acknowledging that
inspectors knew that deadly E. coli bacteria had been found 34 times at a
former ConAgra Foods beef plant in Greeley, Colo., but failed to "connect
the dots" leading to last summer's outbreak that caused 47 illnesses and
one
death;;
In the months before an Excel Corp. beef plant in Fort Morgan, Colo.,
triggered an E. coli outbreak that sickened hundreds and killed a 3-year-old
girl in 2000, inspectors had issued dozens of reports for fecal
contamination on carcasses and sought permission to discipline the plant.
But the agency allowed production to continue;
Before a Wampler Foods poultry plant in Montgomery County was linked to last
year's listeria outbreak that caused eight deaths and three miscarriages,
USDA supervisors ignored an inspector's repeated pleas to correct
"horrendous" food-safety conditions at the plant, the inspector says.
The nation's food-safety officials were cited as saying the inspection
system is better than ever.
In defense of its meat-inspection policies, USDA officials point to
significant reductions since 1996 in illnesses from listeria, campylobacter,
and the strain of salmonella associated with meat. There has been no major
change over that period in the incidence of E. coli poisoning, and in 2002,
the last year for which data are available, health officials saw an increase
from 2001 in overall cases of salmonella and E. coli.
The spate of recalls has prompted the agency to reexamine microbial testing
policies, improve training for its inspection staff, and urge meat packers
to improve. In a tough speech last year to industry executives, Garry McKee,
the government's administrator of food inspection, was quoted as blaming
some plant operators for "not even recognizing that pathogens exist."
Arthur Hughes, an inspector in Maine for 35 years and regional president of
the inspectors' unio, was quoted as saying that the new inspection system
has diminished the intensity of government oversight, making the USDA a
"reactionary agency that only responds to disasters." The story notes
that
Hughes and other inspectors worry that the inspection force, which has been
downsized from 12,000 field personnel in 1978 to 7,600 today, is dangerously
understaffed.
Further, critics were cited as saying the agency lacks the legal muscle to
keep the $120 billion-a-year meatpacking industry in line.
The USDA does not have the authority to order recalls, issue civil fines
against plant operators, close plants that repeatedly exceed allowable
limits for certain bacterial contamination, or tell the public which
retailers received recalled products.
Dan Glickman, agriculture secretary from 1995 to 2001, was quoted as saying,
"The laws, frankly, are not sufficiently clear to give the USDA the power
it
needs to properly regulate meat and poultry safety. The government should
have the same kind of power vis-a-vis the meat industry that the FAA has
with respect to the airline industry. That is, they ought to be able to levy
civil fines and shut down a meat plant like they can shut down an airline.
But, for years, the meat and poultry industry has successfully fought to
keep the agency from expanding those authorities."
The story goes on to say that since HACCP was implemented, the number of
annual recalls has nearly tripled, from 44 in 1998 to 118 in 2002. Last
year, 59 million pounds of meat were recalled -- more than three times the
2001 total.
Karen Taylor Mitchell of Safe Tables Our Priority, an advocacy group for
food-borne disease victims, was quoted as saying, "The record extent of the
recalls is evidence of what we've been saying for years -- there is an
under-recognized public-health emergency in food safety."
William Marler, a Seattle lawyer who sued Jack in the Box for millions of
dollars and has represented hundreds of other victims of food-borne disease,
was cited as saying that by the time a company issues a recall, tainted meat
usually has been on shelves for weeks or months, and that in recent years,
the vast majority of recalled meat has not been returned, which critics say
is emblematic of a flawed recall process, adding,, "The only time you ever
see a recall is when people start getting sick, or USDA finds pathogens
through random sampling at the retail level. By then, the vast majority of
it has already been consumed, or it's sitting in people's freezers. How can
you recall meat that somebody already ate?"
USDA and industry representatives, however, say that HACCP, though a work in
progress, has improved the safety of the nation's meat supply. Increased
recalls are evidence of that, they say, thanks to better detection through
expanded microbial testing in plants and retail sites.
Elsa Murano, the USDA's undersecretary for food safety, was cited as saying
that last year's recalls by ConAgra and Wampler "could have happened at any
time, because they are completely unrelated episodes and completely
unrelated products and sources."
Janet Riley of the American Meat Institute, a lobbying and trade
organization, was quoted as saying, "We have to look at the empirical
evidence, which shows that food-borne illness and bacterial contamination is
down. The fact is, we have an amazing food supply. It is so inexpensive and
so safe. I'm not trying to justify the presence of these pathogens in the
food supply, but they are naturally occurring bacteria found in raw
agricultural products. That's why meat and poultry comes with safe-handling
instructions."
The new chief of the nation's food-safety agency defends the HACCP system
but acknowledges that inspectors need better training.
FOOD-SAFETY EXPERTS RECOMMEND MORE POWER FOR INSPECTORS,
BETTER RECALLS
SYSTEM
May 19, 2003
Knight-Ridder Tribune
Aparna Surendran, The Philadelphia Inquirer
The nation's food-safety problems, from flawed inspections to limited
enforcement to management conflicts, are not, according to this story,
insurmountable and that even the harshest critics of the current system say
that new techniques and new authority could provide greater public safety.
The story outlines a blueprint for change, suggested by inspectors,
academics, food-safety activists, and lawmakers:
Give inspectors more power. The U.S. Department of Agriculture lacks
sufficient authority to close plants that exceed limits for bacterial
contamination, to issue mandatory recalls, or to impose civil fines.
Make the food-inspection agency independent of the meat-promotion
department. Consolidate food-safety enforcement into a single agency.
Train inspectors better.
Make recalls more effective.
Identify retail outlets that received meat that is later recalled.
The story says that the challenges by the industry have eroded the already
limited authority of the USDA.
In 2000, a federal judge in Texas ruled that the USDA did not have the
authority to shut down Supreme Beef Processors Inc., a meat-processing
company, even though it had exceeded the performance standard, or limit, of
contamination for salmonella three times. According to the self-policing
rule, plants have to have a lower salmonella contamination rate than an
established national average. In 2001, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
Fifth Circuit upheld that ruling.
The story also notes that in August, the USDA said hamburger contaminated
with E. coli was found at a subsidiary of Nebraska Beef. The USDA tried to
shut down Nebraska Beef, but the company took the USDA to court, saying that
it would lose $2.7 million a day and be driven out of business. A federal
judge issued a restraining order to prevent the shutdown, and the company
and USDA reached a settlement in late January.
UNSAFE MEAT ENDS OR TRAGICALLY CHANGES VICTIMS' LIVES
May 18, 2003
Knight-Ridder Tribune
Aparna Surendran, The Philadelphia Inquirer
According to this story, a picture of Kevin Kowalcyk taken in July 2001
shows a cheerful blond boy, not yet 3 years old, kneeling on a sandy beach.
Less than a month later, he was dead, killed by Escherichia coli O157:H7.
His mother, Barbara Kowalcyk of Mount Horeb, Wis., was quoted as saying,
"My
son went from being perfectly healthy to dead in about 10 days. We felt as
if an invisible truck had run over him."
The story says that Kevin's family believes that he was killed by a
hamburger contaminated with E. coli.
The story says that according to estimated figures from the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, E. coli accounts for 73,000 illnesses and 60
deaths in the United States each year. There are 2,500 illnesses and 500
deaths due to listeria annually. Salmonella causes 1.4 million illnesses and
more than 500 deaths, and campylobacter causes 2.4 million illnesses and 124
deaths each year.
Often, the victims remain faceless, nameless casualties of a war that is
largely ignored.
Another is 5-year-old Julia Capriotti, who has cerebral palsy because her
mother contracted Listeria monocytogenes, when she was pregnant; Melanie
Moul, whose baby died because she contracted listeria during pregnancy;
Raymond Drayton, who was killed by a strain of listeria blamed in several
other deaths; and seven-year-old Katelyn Koesterer, who needs a new pancreas
because of an E. coli infection.
These are their stories.
Kevin Kowalcyk
On Tuesday, July 31, 2001, when Kevin woke up with a fever and diarrhea, his
mother thought it was a 24-hour bug. By Wednesday, the diarrhea contained
blood, so Barbara Kowalcyk and her husband, Michael, rushed their son to a
Madison, Wis., hospital, where doctors ordered a stool sample and sent Kevin
home. On Thursday, he was admitted to the hospital, and doctors told the
family that the stool sample had tested positive for E. coli. On Friday,
Kevin's kidneys started to fail.
The story says that Kevin was transferred to the University of Wisconsin
Children's Hospital. By Saturday morning, his heart was racing at more than
200 beats a minute, and his blood pressure was very high. He was put on
dialysis and given blood and plasma transfusions.
On Saturday, Aug. 11, Kevin's overworked heart stopped beating. Doctors
twice revived him. But before they could put him on a heart and lung
machine, his heart stopped beating for the third, and last, time.
Kevin died of gangrene to his small and large intestines. E. coli had eaten
thousands of holes in his intestines and had clogged the arteries carrying
blood to the intestines.
Kevin's grandmother, Patricia Buck, of Grove City, Pa., who was in Wisconsin
when he died, was quoted as saying, "It was the most horrific thing I had
to
live through. This is a horrible death for a 2-year-old. I [thought] about
how much pain he must have had and how scared he must have been. I couldn't
do anything about it."
Kevin's death has transformed his parents into outspoken advocates for
tougher food-safety laws. The U.S. Department of Agriculture lacks authority
to close plants that exceed limits for bacterial contamination, to issue
mandatory recalls, or to impose civil fines. A bill introduced last year by
Sen. Tom Harkin (D., Iowa) and set to be reintroduced Thursday would allow
the USDA to set limits for contamination by pathogens such as E. coli. This
proposed legislation has become known as Kevin's Law.
Julia Capriotti's mother was, the story says, 26 1/2 weeks pregnant when she
began experiencing flulike symptoms on Sept. 2, 1997. She had body aches,
chills, a 102-degree fever, and a terrible headache. By midnight, she could
no longer feel the baby move.
The next day, an ultrasound revealed that the baby had a high heartbeat but
was not moving. Her doctor said the baby most likely had an infection, and
they would have to deliver immediately.
Doctors took out Julia by cesarean section early the following morning. She
weighed 2 pounds, 2 ounces. She hovered near death; a priest was called to
give the baby last rites.
Julia survived, but her esophagus was torn; she had bleeding in her brain,
which obstructed the flow of cerebrospinal fluid; and she had heart
problems. All of this, the doctors said, was due to something the Capriotti
family had never heard of -- Listeria monocytogenes.
Dan Murphy, vice president of public affairs at the American Meat Institute,
was cited as saying that because the threat of listeria is in the plant
environment, it is more important to clean equipment and drains, and that a
four-step process involves removing visible debris, cleaning with detergent,
rinsing with hot water, and spraying a sanitizer.
Julia came home for good on New Year's Day 1998, but she could not sit up by
herself. When Julia was about a year old, her neurologist said she had
cerebral palsy.
To this day, Nowak does not know how listeria got into her system and then
into Julia's. The summer she was pregnant, she was careful to eat well-done
hamburgers, because of the threat of E. coli contamination. But she had
never heard of listeria, which can infect uncooked meat and vegetables and
is also found in soft cheeses and processed foods such as ready-to-eat cold
cuts. Nowak says now that she frequently ate cold cuts without special
precautions.
Nowak and her husband have since become vocal critics of the food-safety
system.
Hope Moul
Melanie Moul's first pregnancy was normal until the 24th week. At the end of
December 1998, she woke up with a fever of 103. The fever rose to 105, and
she went to the hospital. After that, a lot of what happened is a blank for
Moul., who was quoted as saying, "I delivered Hope on Dec. 29. She lived
for
10 minutes."
An autopsy showed that Listeria monocytogenes had infected the baby.
The story says that Mouls later sued Sara Lee Corp., the maker of Ballpark
hot dogs, on behalf of Hope; they reached a settlement in 2000.
A Sara Lee representative was quoted as saying the company did not "comment
on any litigation during or after. We have a good-faith agreement with
parties involved that we will not comment. I just had to fight, because it
was the best thing that could get me out of depression. They [Sara Lee]
needed to be held responsible."
Meat-processing companies too often think about the financial aspects of
testing, Moul said.
Raymond Drayton
When Renee Drayton rushed to a Philadelphia hospital from her Silver Spring,
Md., home in August, she had never heard of listeria.
Her father, Raymond, 75, had been taken to the hospital after her mother,
Lawese, found him doubled over in his bed on Aug. 28. In late August,
Raymond Drayton had felt sick, but dismissed his symptoms as those of
Crohn's disease, an inflammatory disease of the gastrointestinal tract from
which he suffered.
The doctors ran tests on her father and said he had listeriosis. They gave
him antibiotics, Renee Drayton said, but he died Sept. 1.
The strain of bacteria that killed Drayton was the same "outbreak"
strain
blamed for 53 illnesses and eight deaths in the Northeast last year.
Last month, Lawese Drayton filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Montgomery
County meat-processing plant Wampler Foods Inc. and J.L. Foods Co. Inc. of
Camden.
Katelyn Koesterer
Katelyn's life changed dramatically last May. The story says it was barbecue
season, and the Koesterer family, of Orangeburg, N.Y., had been eating
hamburgers frequently. Katelyn, then 6, developed bloody diarrhea on May 23;
her parents took her to Nyack Hospital on May 25, but the doctors diagnosed
it as a virus. By May 27, she was taken to Westchester Medical Center, and
by May 29, doctors told Katelyn's mother, Ann, that her child had E. coli in
her system.
The story says that over the next several days, Katelyn's kidneys failed.
She continued to have bloody diarrhea and was vomiting, and she also
developed pancreatitis, an inflammation of the pancreas. She had one major
seizure; her left vocal cord was left paralyzed. She required blood and
plasma transfusions.
She was released from the hospital June 25 but was back in the emergency
room four days later. A CT scan showed that she had a pseudocyst, a
collection of tissue, fluid, enzymes and blood, on her pancreas, her mother
said.
Dennis and Ann Koesterer have sued BJ's Wholesale Club Inc., where they
bought the hamburger meat that Katelyn ate. They are seeking $30 million.
The story says that the ground beef they bought at BJ's West Nyack store
tested positive for E. coli. So did the ground beef purchased by another
customer at BJ's about the same time. On July 16, more than two months after
Dennis Koesterer bought hamburger there, BJ's contacted 131 people who had
bought meat at the same time as the Koesterers and asked them to return the
meat for a refund.
The company has declined to pay for Katelyn's medical bills, Koesterer said.
BJ's spokeswoman Julie Somers said the company would not comment on pending
litigation.
COLORADO BUDGET CRUNCH, POPULARITY OF EATING OUT
CHALLENGES HEALTH
INSPECTORS
May 18, 2003
Knight-Ridder Tribune
Cary Leider Vogrin, The Gazette, Colorado Springs, Colo.
Eating out is, according to this story, one of America's favorite pastimes,
supporting 870,000 restaurants in the United States.
The Colorado Restaurant Association was cited as saying that restaurants in
Colorado expect to ring up $6.3 billion in sales this year, says.
Partly to put pressure on restaurants, the story says that the El Paso
County Health Department last month started putting restaurant inspections
online.
The county inspects about 2,000 food establishments ranging from kitchens
and kiosks to Schwan's trucks and 7-Elevens.
But the story says, with budget cuts statewide, the "kitchen
watchdogs" in
some counties have a tough time keeping up. Throw in restaurants opening
monthly, and the job gets harder.
Jim Devore, the county environmental health supervisor, was cited as saying
that Larimer County felt a bigger pinch, recently slicing its food-safety
program in half, and that some food operations won't be inspected.
State lawmakers recently passed a bill to increase the annual license fee
for food establishments -- a fee that helps pay for food-safety and
inspection programs.
The legislation, if signed by Gov. Bill Owens in the coming weeks, will
provide critical dollars for the state and local health departments.
To get an idea of how food-safety programs protect people, one only need
review what happened to people who attended a company picnic in June thrown
by a local manufacturing firm.
Of 110 people at the catered picnic, about 50 got sick.
The El Paso County Health Department sent questionnaires to company
employees to determine what they ate and whether they got sick. An analysis
showed the likely culprit was roast beef.
Health workers also visited the catering firm to find out how workers
prepared the meal. They learned thermometers weren't used to check cooking
temperatures, and the caterer didn't follow other rules.
Tests confirmed bacteria multiplied on the roast beef.
A key part of the inspectors' jobs is teaching chefs and other kitchen
workers about food safety -- how to prevent illnesses caused by bacteria
such as E. coli or salmonella.
Debbie Polelli, director of the El Paso County food safety program,, was
quoted as saying, "We're there to help them," and that she often
educates
people about the need to put soap and paper towels at sinks, one of the more
common violations she sees.
She rated most El Paso County kitchens' inspections "average to good."
Several experts on the cleanliness and safety of El Paso County kitchens,
including a respected retired chef and a wholesale food dealer, refused
interview requests because it's a touchy issue that could put someone out of
business.
The state restaurant association and the county Health Department also will
not comment on particular restaurants.
LEBANON COUNTY, PA., PLANT OFFERS GLIMPSE INTO WORLD OF
POULTRY PROCESSING
May 19, 2003
Knight-Ridder Tribune
Oliver Prichard, The Philadelphia Inquirer
FREDERICKSBURG, Pa.--Each day, Bell & Evans' rambling slaughterhouse,
according to this story, turns 150,000 chickens into truckloads of
shrink-wrapped food packages, leaving behind heaps of animal scraps, rivers
of waste, and swirling lagoons of blood and feathers.
The story says that salmonella and E. coli could be lurking anywhere, and
with 400,000 pounds of poultry shipped out daily, a single contamination
point is all it would take to unleash a major food poisoning outbreak.
So throughout the Lebanon County plant, government inspectors and employees
use a range of tactics -- from modern laboratory science to century-old spot
checks -- in an effort to eliminate the pathogens that cause 325,000
hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths each year.
In the evisceration room, thousands of freshly slaughtered, defeathered and
decapitated chickens hang by their drumsticks, zipping along a production
line at 91 birds per minute. Beneath the roar of machinery, six
U.S.Department of Agriculture inspectors work side by side with
$8.50-an-hour employees in, the story says, a filthy fight against
food-borne disease.
With helmets over hair nets, and blue work smocks buttoned to the neck, the
inspectors work the production line at a harried pace, checking the innards
that dangle from each glistening cavity for lesions, tumors and organ
ruptures.
Their workday is a repetitive blur of guts and carcasses; their uniform a
smeared canvas of blood and grease. In just two seconds, the inspectors must
make a crucial determination:
Is the bird fit for human consumption, or possibly contaminated?
When a diseased, feces-stained carcass rolls down the line, an inspector
throws it in a trash bin, rinses his hands, and quickly turns back to his
station.
If respiratory infection renders certain parts inedible, the inspectors move
the chicken to a reprocessing line, where workers trim away mucus-covered
flesh, vacuum the cavity, and salvage the remaining meat.
The story goes on to say that from receiving, the line moves onto the kill
floor, a brightly lit arena of splattered blood, flying feathers and
staggering smells. There, the chickens are pulled through an electric
stunning chamber (the Humane Slaughter Act requires that livestock "be
rendered insensible to pain") before two fixed blades run across their
necks.
After the blades, still-writhing birds are run through a series of washes
designed to eliminate pathogens: a high-pressure rinse that dislodges flecks
of dirt, debris and fecal matter from the feathers; a scalding, 132-degree
bath that loosens follicles for feather removal; and a chlorine rinse that
washes residue from their skin.
Machines do the bulk of the work on the kill floor. For the occasional,
oddly positioned chicken that gets past the blades unscathed, there is a
knife-wielding worker to dispatch it the old-fashioned way. In the corner, a
worker plucks pinfeathers from the wings as carcasses roll out of the
defeathering station.
After rinsing, the chickens move to the evisceration room, where they are
gutted and inspected. During the day shift, nine USDA inspectors are
assigned to the plant: the veterinarian, two roving inspectors who patrol
the entire facility, and six line inspectors who check the intestines.
Today, inspectors and plant operators have the added benefits of modern
science and microbial testing. After gutting, the carcasses are placed in a
chiller, which lowers their temperature to 36 degrees to stifle the growth
of bacteria.
>From the chiller, plant employees test fluids from one
in every 10,000 birds
for salmonella, a bacteria found in animals' intestines. Eating meat
contaminated with animal feces transmits salmonella to people, which
typically results in diarrhea or fever, and kills an estimated 500 Americans
each year.
Because salmonella is considered a naturally occurring organism, the
government's allowable limit for the bacteria in animal carcasses is 21.6
percent of recorded samples.
Ranck, the quality control manager at Bell & Evans, declined to say what
percentage of Bell & Evans' chickens tested positive for salmonella.
FARM LIFESTYLE LINKED TO FEWER ALLERGIES
May 20, 2003
The Globe and Mail
A11
Estanislao Oziewicz
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20030520/UFAR
M3E/TPHealth/
University of British Columbia researcher Helen Dimich-Ward and colleague C.
M. Trask were cited as telling the American Thoracic Society that, based on
a survey of 1,158 4-H Club members, aged 8 to 20, that growing up around
farm animals may protect children from allergies and asthma.
The story says that the members were asked about current and previous
residences and residential exposure to livestock, and about any problems
with allergies and asthma.
Allergic symptoms were lower among those who lived on farms when the survey
was taken or who had lived on farms. The findings were presented on the
weekend to the thoracic society's annual international conference in
Seattle.
The study confirms similar findings in Europe.
The study, funded by the B.C. Lung Association, says a "protective farm
factor" may be the reason. This means that children who grow up on farms
are
less likely to suffer from asthma and allergies because they have more
frequent, higher exposures to endotoxins. Endotoxins, poisonous substances
in bacteria, are found in livestock feces, barn and house dust and
mattresses.
The story says that scientists also call this the hygiene hypothesis: the
idea that a Western lifestyle with lower birthrates, better hygiene and
cleaner surroundings decreases childhood exposure to infections that may
protect against allergies or asthma. But exposure to endotoxins can
aggravate the condition in someone who already has asthma or allergies.
Dr. Dimich-Ward, an associate professor in UBC's department of medicine, was
cited as saying it is not yet absolutely clear that endotoxins are the
protective mechanism, and that contact with farm animals was not the only
factor in her study that appeared to have a protective effect, adding,
"Rather, lower risks for allergic symptoms were associated with living on a
farm or [in a] rural area and having livestock currently and at an early
age."
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