FSnet Aug. 30/08
CANADA fails
to track food illnesses, expert says
CANADA: Food
inspectors think daily meat inspections unnecessary: Agency
CANADA:
Worker says meat plant filthy
CANADA: Maple
Leaf criticized in 2007 audit
Recipe for
disaster
COLUMN: Maple
Leaf boss knows trust's value
Salmonella
kills one, leaves 87 ill in QUEBEC
CANADA:
Cheese sales suspended
Listeria
found in 2 brands of QUEBEC cheese
NEW ZEALAND:
Cheese recalled in listeria scare
OKLAHOMA
seeks source of deadly E. coli
INDIANA:
County plans shigella checks
MINNESOTA:
Second case of norovirus prompts Health Department caution
WALES: 'Boil
water' warning to thousands
how to
subscribe
CANADA fails
to track food illnesses, expert says
30.aug.08
Globe and Mail
Karen Howlett
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080829.wmeat30/BNStory/National/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20080829.wmeat30
Rick Holley, a food-safety expert at the University of
Manitoba, long suspected that the frozen chicken nuggets
sold at his local grocery store might be contaminated with
salmonella.
So he spent three years testing a variety of brands. His
findings: One in four nuggets was tainted. But consumers
could avoid salmonella poisoning, which causes diarrhea,
fever and abdominal cramps, by baking the nuggets at 80C.
Prof. Holley does not know at what point along the journey
from chicken coop to dinner plate the bacteria made their
way into the nuggets. But in the wake of the deadly outbreak
of listeria linked to ready-to-eat meats, he said Canada is
ill-equipped to track food-related illnesses. The country
lacks the surveillance systems that could lead to better
detection of food-borne illnesses, he said, raising
questions about whether health authorities are doing all
they can to prevent sickness and death.
ìWe are hamstrung in our inability to identify risk,î he
said in an interview. ìIf we can't identify the risk, we
can't manage it. And if we can't manage it, we have no
control over what's happening in terms of food-borne
illness.î
Food-borne bacteria are a fact of life, so it is unrealistic
for consumers to expect that everything they eat is safe.
But a dearth of warnings in Canada about what products are
likely to pose the greatest risk leaves consumers largely in
the dark.
Doug Powell, an associate professor of food safety at Kansas
State University, said pregnant women are 20 times more
susceptible to contracting listeriosis than members of the
general public. Yet they are not warned to avoid deli meats
and smoked salmon, two of the foods where the bacteria are
commonly found, he said.
Some foods are riskier than others. The dangers of
undercooked hamburger or poultry have long been recognized.
But the listeriosis crisis is the latest example of problems
with ready-to-eat products. Even fresh vegetables are not
immune, as the botulism from fresh carrot juice and E. coli
in spinach in recent years have shown. And it makes no
difference whether the food is locally grown, organic or is
shipped hundreds of kilometres from a large, multinational
company.
ìOrganic is a production standard that has nothing to do
with food safety,î Prof. Powell said in an interview.
ìPeople think it's safer and they think that local is safer,
but there is no evidence of that.î
Prof. Powell, a Canadian, questions why health officials
here did not do more to warn those who are most vulnerable
to listeriosis ñ the elderly, the sick, the pregnant ñ about
the risks. Among those who have fallen ill with listeriosis,
the fatality rate is high. So far, Canada has 29 confirmed
cases of listeriosis and 15 deaths. Ontario has been hit
hardest, with 22 confirmed cases and 12 deaths. The victims
in Ontario ranged in age from 42 to 94, said David Williams,
Ontario's chief medical officer of health. All lived in an
institution or were hospitalized before becoming ill.
Dr. Williams said in an interview that he expects those
tasked with ensuring the safety of the country's food supply
to look at whether Canada can do more to protect consumers
from tainted food.
ìIt's a pan-Canadian issue,î he said. ìWe have our
susceptible populations and how do we protect them.î Health
Canada published an advisory on listeriosis in 2005, warning
high-risk individuals to avoid several foods, including
uncooked hot dogs, deli meats, smoked seafood and soft
cheeses. But many nursing homes in Ontario and other
provinces did not follow the advisory.
Health officials in Ontario began probing the outbreak of
listeriosis in July when two residents of a Leisureworld
nursing home in Toronto became sick. Further investigation
revealed that residents had been served sandwiches made with
deli meat from Maple Leaf Foods, the company at the centre
of the crisis.
As health officials continue to investigate the outbreak,
they are releasing scant information, leaving it unclear
whether the worst of the problem is over. Until Friday, when
Dr. Williams revealed that most of the fatalities in Ontario
occurred in July, no details had been released on when
individuals died or when they first became sick.
Prof. Holley said Canadian officials will be just as
unprepared for the next food-borne illness because they are
not collecting information on what foods are most likely to
make consumers sick.
This is in stark contrast to the United States, which takes
a much more active approach to addressing food safety.
Through a federal program called FoodNet, the U.S. monitors
trends in specific food-borne illnesses, a process that
involves tracking the health of 15 per cent of the
population, or 45 million people. The program, sponsored by
the Centers for Disease Control and the Food and Drug
Administration, allows health officials to collect data on
what foods are making a certain percentage of the population
sick every year.
Inspectors at the FDA recently traced a salmonella outbreak
that left 1,437 people across the United States and five in
Canada sick to a pepper farm in Mexico. In a report released
this week, the CDC said jalapeno peppers were a major source
of contamination and that tomatoes were a possible source.
Prof. Holley said there is nothing comparable to the FoodNet
system in Canada.
ìWe really can't get the overall picture,î he said. ìWe
can't focus on where there is a need for attention.î
CANADA: Food
inspectors think daily meat inspections unnecessary: Agency
29.aug.08
The Vancouver Sun
Sarah Schmidt
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=9e2c085a-8e8d-496d-863e-611ba5d6902d
OTTAWA -- The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Friday it
doesn't think it's necessary for government inspectors to
visit meat plants daily or test finished products for
listeria, but does so to appease the U.S. government so it
can export products south of the border.
The agency made the statement as a ninth death was
attributed Friday to the food-borne outbreak of listeriosis
traced to a Toronto meat-processing plant. Public Health
Agency of Canada said the death of a 64-year-old patient in
Vancouver Island's Cowichan District Hospital had been
officially linked to meat originating at the Maple Leaf Food
processing plant. It's the first listeriosis death outside
of Ontario attributed to the plant.
Federally regulated plants, including Maple Leaf Foods, that
export to the United States must comply with regulations set
by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to maintain
access to the market. They include daily visits from
government inspectors and finished product testing for
listeria, the bacterium that can cause listeriosis.
Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz defended the CFIA's
position, saying less prescriptive protocols do not equal a
more lenient inspection system.
"Our systems are definitely different, but they are
equivalent. The bottom line is we want safe food for our
countries and for our consumers."
Paul Mayers, associate vice-president of the CFIA, said
daily visits from a government inspector, in particular, are
"not necessary" to deliver an effective control system for
listeria during production.
"That being said, we recognize that the approach the U.S.
pursued was slightly different. Both of our systems involve,
in essence, the same tasks undertaken in the inspection
process - the review of scientific documentation and the
on-site facilities. We have within those tasks, the same
range of activities."
Mayers also defended a recent decision to end, as of March
31, monthly reports and rankings of meat plants. The agency
said the program was "antiquated."
The CFIA is already facing criticism from its inspectors and
veterinarians charged with inspecting food-safety protocols
at meat plants and slaughterhouses across the country. It's
also facing new questions from USDA.
Recent changes to the way inspectors do their work at plants
such as the Maple Leaf establishment puts an emphasis on an
auditing role of company inspections instead of direct
visual inspections. The new compliance verification system
was brought in on March 31.
CANADA:
Worker says meat plant filthy
30.aug.08
The Toronto Sun
Amy Chung, Sun Media
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2008/08/30/6616136-sun.html
Workers at the Maple Leaf Foods plant linked to a fatal,
nationwide listeria outbreak cut corners when they cleaned
food processing machines, a longtime employee claims.
"They haven't cleaned some of the machines' (interiors) in
four, five years," said the worker, who asked to remain
anonymous.
Machines used to process meat at the plant on Bartor Rd. in
North York haven't received a thorough scrubbing until this
week, after the listeria outbreak, he told the Sun.
"When they opened the (machine) lid (this week), it smelled
like hell," he said.
Public health officials are reviewing 15 deaths - nine of
which have alredy been tied to the outbreak - and more than
40 cases of illness they suspect are linked to meat products
processed at the plant.
Maple Leaf issued a massive recall of its products following
the outbreak and shut down the North York plant.
This week, half the plant's 300 workers went back to
sanitize production lines, and media and TV crews were
invited in to watch.
While the machines were cleaned daily at the plant prior to
the outbreak, the whistleblower suggested daily cleaning
procedures were not consistently followed or thorough
enough.
The Maple Leaf worker also claimed a shoestring night staff
only manages to clean "what they see" and the production
line where the recalled corned and roast beef were handled
was not always cleaned thoroughly.
"They clean the surface, but not underneath. You can see the
dust and meat sitting on it," he said.
For thorough sanitization, the slicing machines should have
been occasionally disassembled and deep cleaned, the worker
insisted.
"They should get a flashlight and look inside. It was
terrible -- leftover meat -- the smell," he said, recalling
what happened when workers did completely disassemble the
machines this week.
What they found inside were the gritty, pasty remains of
leftover meat.
"We used so much chlorine to kill the bacteria, my eyes were
burning," he said.
Maple Leaf spokesman Linda Smith rejected the suggestion
workers cut corners while cleaning and said employees at the
plant in fact have "exceeded" the manufacturer's
sanitization processes for all the equipment.
The Sun repeatedly asked spokesmen at the Canadian Food
Inspection Agency (CFIA) yesterday what specific sanitation
procedures are mandatory, but the agency could not provide a
specific answer.
"In principle, the machines would not be at that facility if
they were not easy to clean," said media relations officer
Alain Charette.
Richard Arsenault, a CFIA manager, told the Sun earlier this
week that Maple Leaf conducts visual and sample tests daily
and a CFIA inspector would come in for an hour a day to
check the company's cleaning records. Maple Leaf, not the
CFIA, does the routine checks.
"[CFIA] conducts three or four random tests a year and does
one test per product every month," Arsenault said.
Dr. Elliot Ryser, a listeria expert from Michigan State
University, said meat slicing machines are one of the most
common places where the bacteria can be found.
CANADA: Maple
Leaf criticized in 2007 audit
30.aug.08
The Globe and Mail
Bill Curry
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080830.MEATUSDA30/TPStory/National
OTTAWA -- A mousetrap plugged with discarded pieces of meat
and animal fat turned up in a May, 2007, inspection of Maple
Leaf's meat plant in Brandon.
The observation wasn't made by Canadian officials, but by
Alam Khan, a senior auditor with the U.S. Department of
Agriculture. Mr. Khan said in a report that the Canadian
Food Inspection Agency inspector accompanying him on the
tour scooped the obstruction out of the trap.
Pest-control devices must be working properly to be approved
by U.S. auditors. The official who cited the clogged
mousetrap gave the facility a failing grade in pest control,
and told his U.S. colleagues it wasn't an isolated problem.
The auditor's report notes that Maple Leaf had been warned
multiple times about problems with the kind of trap it was
using "and yet no action was taken by the establishment to
correct the problem."
Although several Canadian plants have lost the approval of
the USDA to ship to the United States because of these
audits, Maple Leaf plants have not received that sanction.
Maple Leaf spokeswoman Linda Smith noted that all of the
company's plants remain in good standing with the USDA.
"They have passed their recent inspections," she said.
"Minor findings are part of the audit process and are not
uncommon."
The mousetrap incident is just one of a litany of failings
outlined in the latest USDA audit of Canada's meat, poultry
and egg inspection system.
All Canadian plants that are approved for exporting to the
United States must allow U.S. officials to audit their
facilities.
More than two dozen on-site audits done between May 1 and
June 6, 2007, were compiled into a final report on Canada's
meat, poultry and egg products inspection system.
The report says that 19 out of 20 audited plants were not
complying with sanitation standards, while Canadian
inspectors were not always aware of their duties, "and were
not well trained in the performance of their inspection
tasks."
With Canada's decision this year to stop making facility
reports and rankings by Canadian inspectors, the USDA
website may be the only place where consumers can read
detailed reports of what is happening in this country's
plants.
The Globe and Mail reported this week that Canada ended its
ranking system on March 31 after the industry complained the
reports were leading to negative media coverage.
The CFIA's response to the USDA's 2007 audit report - which
included the assessment of Maple Leaf's Brandon facility -
shows that Canada urged the Americans to soften their
critical language.
Dr. Bill Anderson, the CFIA's director of meat programs,
wrote last year to the head of the USDA's international
audit team. In the letter posted with the report, Dr.
Anderson noted that while none of the CFIA inspectors who
accompanied USDA officials on their audits challenged the
U.S. findings, Canada didn't like their tone.
"I would however like to voice my concern over the tone of
general statements made in the draft final report," wrote
Dr. Anderson, singling out the finding that: "Nineteen of 20
slaughter and/or processing establishments (including cold
storage) had deficiencies in [sanitation performance
standards]."
"We found that this statement is unnecessarily severe," Dr.
Anderson continued. He suggests that the line be changed to:
"In addition, some of the SPS requirements were not being
enforced adequately in 19 of 20 establishments."
Jim Laws, the executive director of the Canadian Meat
Council, confirmed this week that industry representatives
had asked for the Canadian rankings to be terminated because
they were "archaic" and causing council members grief when
they became public.
A review of the U.S. audit illustrates why such information
might be controversial.
While the Maple Leaf plant in Toronto identified as the
source of the current listeria outbreak was not audited in
2007, the report says that Maple Leaf plants in Brandon and
Moncton were in "non-compliance" regarding sanitary
operations. The Brandon plant also received a non-compliance
ranking for pest control.
The problems were not exclusive to large companies like
Maple Leaf. A Charlottetown company called Natural Organic
Food Group received a particularly damaging report. Among
the observations was a lack of floor drainage in an
employee's work area.
Recipe for
disaster
30.aug.08
The Star
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/487965
Susan Bourette, a Toronto journalist who spent a week
working undercover at Maple Leaf Pork's Brandon plant in
2004 and wrote about that experience in her book, Carnivore
Chic: From Pasture to Plate, a Search for the Perfect Meat,
published by Penguin Canada this past spring, writes that
the recent tainted meat scare could be just the beginning if
Canada follows the U.S. in turning over more inspection
duties to industry. Take it from someone who's seen the
inside of a Manitoba slaughterhouse
I gave up Maple Leaf cold cuts a few years ago. It was the
safe week I spent splattered in blood and guts while working
undercover at the company's largest hog slaughterhouse in
Brandon, Manitoba.
I had my meat epiphany one day over lunch. Actually, it was
at the moment I nearly lost my lunch. Just outside the
cafeteria doors, above the thrum of the butchery machinery
below, all I could hear was the collective squeal of
hundreds of pigs being herded to their death while I stared
at the plate of pork chops and mashed potatoes in front of
me.
Clearly, I hadn't gone to work at Maple Leaf for $9.45 an
hour cutting the cheeks out of hogs' heads as part of a
culinary tour. My newfound repulsion for pork and deli meats
was the unexpected outcome of a bigger story I was
researching about the business of Big Meat. I had gone to
Brandon to tell the story of an industrial underclass, an
army of more than 200,000 workers in North America's
meatpacking companies. Along the way, I learned a lot about
the economics of the meat industry and meat safety.
The illnesses and deaths that have resulted from the
listeriosis outbreak originating at a Maple Leaf plant in
Toronto are unprecedented here in Canada. They come at a
time when we are only just beginning to learn of proposed
changes and those that are already underway at the agency
that oversees meat safety. Critics charge that these changes
have stripped power away from inspectors and handed it over
to companies ñ that the meat industry is becoming
increasingly self-policing.
It's a remarkably similar story to one that has already
unfolded over the past two decades in the United States. And
while it may be true U.S. standards, in some ways, are more
stringent on listeriosis, the system in the United States is
far more deregulated than here in Canada. In fact, we should
be looking to what has happened in the U.S. as a cautionary
tale ñ what we don't want to see unfold here at home.
COLUMN: Maple
Leaf boss knows trust's value
30.aug.08
Winnipeg Free Press
Laura Rance
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/subscriber/columnists/top3/story/4220229p-4813416c.html
President and CEO Michael McCain's public acceptance of
accountability, along with his apologies to victims, their
families and the general public in the wake of the
listeriosis outbreak almost undoubtedly increases Maple
Leaf's exposure to class-action lawsuits.
But legal liabilities aside, contriteness may be this
company's only hope of regaining customer confidence
shattered by this unfolding debacle.
In the end, it won't be inspectors, swabs and laboratory
analysis that will bring customers back to the luncheon meat
counters; it will be whether consumers feel they can trust
the people behind the company brands.
As McCain said himself in a presentation to the 2004 World
Meat Congress, "it is not about science. Confidence is an
emotional need that consumers have."
At the time, he was explaining his company's decision to
offer poultry and pork products from animals that consumed
all-vegetable-protein diets -- even though there was no
scientific evidence to suggest feeding animal byproducts to
pigs and chickens would cause these species to develop a
brain-wasting disease similar to bovine spongiform
encephalopathy (BSE).
Consumers had indicated a hankering for meat that was
produced from vegetarian animals. "So we appeal to that and
allow them to have the choice," he said.
It's definitely uncool in this day and age to show sympathy
toward corporate moguls who find themselves in a pickle. But
aside from the fact that Maple Leaf is a big company engaged
in large-scale industrial meat processing, which critics say
makes it ripe for this kind of event, it is a company that
has tried to do the right things for the right reasons. Its
goals have been to serve shareholders by understanding and
then meeting the needs and wants of its customers.
The listeriosis outbreak is a huge blow to a company that in
2006 gambled on a massive restructuring designed to take it
out of the commodity meat business and into the realm of
value-added, processed meats and meal solutions for the
rushed, health-conscious and simultaneously indulgent
consumer.
The consumer trends were clear. "Really, it boils down to
two hot buttons -- 'save me time and make me live longer,'"
McCain told investors one year ago this week.
Salmonella
kills one, leaves 87 ill in QUEBEC
30.aug.08
Canwest News Service
Brett Bundale
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=756746
MONTREAL -- A salmonella outbreak in Quebec has left one
person dead and 87 others sick, prompting the Ministry of
Agriculture, Fisheries and Food to recall three cheeses
manufactured by Fromages La Chaudiere Inc.
Blocks of hard cheese, as well as cheese curds labelled La
Chaudiere, Polo and Tradition, manufactured between July 24
and Aug. 24, have been pulled off store shelves as they may
be contaminated with salmonella.
The outbreak has centred in three regions of Quebec --
Chaudiere Appalaches, Estrie and Mauricie Centre du Quebec
-- but the cheeses have a wide distribution throughout the
province, Horacio Arruda, Quebec's director of public
health, said in a news conference yesterday in Montreal.
Over the past week, a total of six cheeses have been pulled
from store shelves across the province. In addition to the
three cheeses recalled on Thursday, three other cheeses were
recalled earlier this week because they may contain
listeria.
However, the salmonella outbreak and the past week's cheese
recall is not related to listeriosis, nor the massive recall
by Maple Leaf Foods.
Quebec has an average of 1,000 cases of salmonella a year,
making 87 cases in one week alarming, Mr. Arruda said,
adding that many people were hospitalized for more than 24
hours.
"We've seen the number of cases in one week that we normally
see in one year and the outbreak is not over yet," Mr.
Arruda said. "We're still seeing new cases every day."
Nearly half the 87 salmonella cases in Quebec are in the
Estrie, with many people falling ill over the last few days.
On the heels of the listeria crisis, the salmonella outbreak
has left many people wondering if more stringent inspections
are necessary.
But Guy Auclair, the director of food inspections at
Quebec's Agriculture Department, insisted yesterday that the
level of food security and inspection is adequate.
CANADA:
Cheese sales suspended
29.aug.08
The Gazette
Jason Magder
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=6247dc3e-565f-4517-ac44-2f1f63cb71e0
As the number of cases of listeriosis in the province
climbed to 47, a Quebec cheese company told retailers to
suspend the sale of its products.
Although no traces of the dangerous bacterium was found at
the ‘le aux Grues cheese factory, the company said more test
results are still expected.
"We're checking everything, including the milk," said Gilles
Corriveau, a spokesperson for the company, located on ‘le
aux Grues, about 300 kilometres northeast of Montreal.
The contaminated cheese was found at the Quebec City deli
Aux Petits DÈlices this past Tuesday.
Yesterday, the ‘le aux Grues cheese company held a new
conference, where the plant's general manager said it was
probably a cross contamination that caused the bacteria to
form.
Corriveau explained listeriosis could have been transferred
to the cheese by using the same knife or deli slicer as
contaminated meat.
"That's what we think happened," Corriveau said. "So far,
our tests have all come up negative."
Corriveau said tests were done on all three varieties of
cheeses the company manufactures, but results came in for
only one variety.
Listeria
found in 2 brands of QUEBEC cheese
28.aug.08
Xinhuanet
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-08/28/content_9727307.htm
BEIJING (Xinhuanet) -- Quebec provincial health officials
found contamination from a strain of listeria in two brands
of Quebec-made cheese, Canadian media reported Wednesday.
Quebec's Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food ordered
the recall Tuesday of two soft cheeses ó Riopelle de l'lle
and Mont-Jacob.
But Guy Auclair, from the province's food and agricultural
department, said the strain found in the Quebec cheese is
different from the Listeria-tainted processed meat linking
to deaths of 15 people, which prompted a recall of more than
200 products made by a Maple Leaf Foods plant in Toronto.
At least nine cases of listeriosis were associated with the
recalled cheeses, said Horatio Arruda, Quebec's public
health director.
Provincial officials are awaiting test results from a man
who died Tuesday night to determine whether the death is
linked to contaminated cheese, Auclair said, adding there
have been 42 cases of listeriosis reported this year in
Quebec, where the annual average is around 50.
NEW ZEALAND:
Cheese recalled in listeria scare
30.aug.08
The Australian
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24267294-12377,00.html
New Zealand cheese brand Mainland is recalling its 200g Feta
Crumble from Coles and independent supermarkets and its 500g
Feta Crumble from cafes and restaurants.
Marnie Flanagan, cheese category marketing manager for
Mainland, which is part of diary giant Fonterra, says the
recall is a precautionary health measure.
She says the company's own testing procedures had detected
Listeria monocytogenes bacteria in a limited number of
samples of the cheese product.
The people most at risk are pregnant women, the elderly and
very young, and people with low immune systems.
OKLAHOMA
seeks source of deadly E. coli
29.aug.08
CNN News
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/08/29/oklahoma.ecoli/
Oklahoma health officials said Friday they are searching for
the source of a rare form of E. coli that has killed one
person and sickened 116 others in the northeastern part of
the state.
The subtype of bacteria -- called E. coli O111 -- is "not
normally found in this form of outbreak," said Leslea
Bennett-Webb, director of communication for the Oklahoma
State Department of Health.
More than 50 people have been hospitalized and nine people
-- six of them children -- have been placed on dialysis, she
said.
She said the federal Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, helped state officials
determine the subtype, but said the cause of the outbreak
remains unknown.
"The focus has been narrowed to the Country Cottage
Restaurant located in Locust Grove," she said, noting that
most of the people who became ill ate there between August
15 and August 23.
Tests carried out on water from a well on restaurant
property indicate the presence of bacteria, but "we have not
been able to confirm what kind of bacteria," said Skylar
McElhaney, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of
Environmental Quality.
The Oklahoma Department of Health will analyze them and
compare them with samples taken from victims, she said. "We
can't say for sure that it is tied to the water in any way,
but we also cannot rule it out," she said.
INDIANA:
County plans shigella checks
30.aug.08
IndyStar.com
Andy Gammill
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080830/LOCAL18/808300444/1195/LOCAL18
Ten months and 500 cases into a shigella outbreak, health
officials are visiting every licensed child-care center in
Indianapolis in a new effort to stop the spread of the
bacterial infection.
The Marion County Health Department hasn't had much success,
despite asking doctors to test for shigella even when they
don't suspect it and visiting schools and child-care centers
where infected children have been.
"We've tried so many things," said Shandy Dearth, an
epidemiologist with the department.
The visiting health workers will conduct on-site checks to
see if child-care centers are as clean as they should be,
Dearth said, and will teach staff and children about proper
hand-washing techniques.
At least 70 child-care centers and 84 schools have reported
at least one case of shigella since Sept. 23, 2007, when the
outbreak began. Shigella is a bacterial infection
transmitted by contact with feces, including small amounts
not visible to the naked eye.
MINNESOTA:
Second case of norovirus prompts Health Department caution
29.aug.08
Post-Bulletin
Jeff Hansel
http://news.postbulletin.com/newsmanager/templates/localnews_story.asp?z=2&a=358758
Just days after guests at a Rochester wedding this month
fell ill from norovirus the same thing happened to people
grieving the loss of a loved one at a Kenyon funeral.
"Weddings and funerals are not unusual for norovirus," said
Minnesota Department of Health spokesman Doug Schultz. "In
fact, quite often, they're the setting."
Minnesota has several hundred cases of norovirus yearly,
causing more than 60 percent of the state's foodborne
illness outbreaks, he said.
More than 20 people became ill Aug. 1 after eating at the
wedding reception. About 20 people at a funeral in Kenyon
got sick Aug. 4 after eating after the service. The two
incidents were not connected.
People typically get foodborne illness when they eat food
contaminated by fecal matter.
The food itself gets contaminated when people handle it
without washing their hands well enough after using the
bathroom. That allows norovirus-contaminated fecal matter to
rub off on the food they handle.
Couples about to get married can take an extra step, Schultz
said. Post signs that say "please protect the wedding party
and our guests and wash your hands thoroughly."
WALES: 'Boil
water' warning to thousands
30.aug.08
BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/7589501.stm
About 45,000 people in north Wales have been told to boil
their drinking water after an increase in bacteria in
reservoirs supplying the area.
The warnings apply to the Bangor, Menai Bridge and
Llanfairpwll areas, as well as the village of Capel Curig.
Welsh Water said any tap water used for drinking or food
preparation should be boiled until further notice.
The company said the warning is likely to remain in place
for at least two weeks while investigations take place.
This is the latest in a series of problems with
cryptosporidium affecting water supplies in north Wales.
The area's tap water comes from the Mynydd Llandegai water
treatment works, which takes supplies from the Marchlyn Bach
and Ffynnon Lligwy reservoirs.
Welsh Water said an increase in levels of cryptosporidium
was found after "routine water quality sampling," which
"prompted us to take this precautionary measure to protect
public health."
The company said "extensive" further water sampling was
needed, and it did not know why there was an increase in
cryptosporidium levels.
Welsh Water's head of water quality Tim Masters said: "I
have to stress we wouldn't do this unless we felt it was the
right thing to do on a precautionary basis.
FSnet is produced by the
International Food Safety Network at Kansas State
University, and is supported at the Gold Fork level by:
Marler Clark.
FSnet is supported at the Sterling Fork level by: CropLife
Canada, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural
Affairs , New Zealand Food Safety Authority, Monsanto
Canada, and the Ontario Cattlemen's Association.
Fsnet is supported at the Silver-plate Fork level by: The
National Restaurant Association, Unilever, Sholl Group/Green
Giant Fresh, Feedlot Health Management Services, McDonald's,
and Syngenta Crop Protection Canada.
The Food Safety Network presents a unique opportunity to
bring together all those associated with agriculture and
food, to enhance the safety of the food supply. To provide
financial support to the Food Safety Network, please visit
http://www.foodsafety.ksu.edu/en/donations.php. For
information on collaboration or fee-for-service
opportunities, please contact Dr. Doug Powell:
dpowell@ksu.edu
To subscribe to the html version of FSnet, send mail to:
(subscription is free)
listserv@listserv.ksu.edu
leave subject line blank
in the body of the message type:
subscribe fsnet-L firstname lastname
i.e. subscribe fsnet-L Doug Powell
(replace fsnet-L with fsnettext to subscribe to the text
version)
To unsubscribe to the html version of FSnet, send mail to:
listserv@listserv.ksu.edu
leave subject line blank
in the body of the message type: signoff fsnet-L
(replace fsnet-L with fsnettext to unsubscribe from the text
version)
For more information about the FSnet research program,
please contact:
Dr. Douglas Powell
associate professor
dept. diagnostic medicine/pathobiology
Kansas State University
Manhattan, KS
66506
cell: 785-317-0560
fax: 785-532-4039
dpowell@ksu.edu
http://www.foodsafety.ksu.edu
archived at
http://archives.foodsafety.ksu.edu/fsnet-archives.htm
|
|