Monthly Archives: March 2014

Blame the consumer – norovirus on cruise lines edition

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The first official norovirus outbreak on a cruise ship this year, according to Jim Walker of Cruise Law News, involved the Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) Norwegian Star. 

The outbreak occurred during a cruise from January 5-19, 2014. The virus sickened 130 of 2318 cruise passenger (5.61%) and 12 of 1039 crew members vomit cruise(1.15%).  You can read the CDC report here.

The CDC concluded that the virus in question which sickened the 142 or so people was norovirus. This was the “causative factor” in CDC parlance. The CDC can usually figure out the “causative factor” and most of the time norovirus is the culprit. But I have never seen a CDC report in the last 10 or 15 years where the CDC figured out how the norovirus came aboard the cruise ship.

The cruise lines always blame the passengers. Sometimes the blame is direct with a cruise line public relations representative pointing the finger at their guests. Sometimes it is more subtle with no blame assessment but in the form of “passengers-need-to-wash-their-hands” type of admonishment. 

Determining the cause of a norovirus outbreak is a scientific process to be made by epidemiologists and doctors, not cruise line PR people.

Livestock industry loses a voice in Scott Hurd

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I had the pleasure of interacting briefly with Scott Hurd as he began to set up a food safety risk assessment program at Iowa State after his time at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The following obituary is from meatingplace.com.

Scott Hurd was a veterinarian, a civil servant, a university professor and a strong industry voice on livestock issues including antibiotics use in food animals and scott.hurd.mar.14animal welfare. He died last week and will be greatly missed.

Hurd spoke on behalf of animal agriculture in the media and social media, including National Public Radio, USA Today, Huffington Post, and the Dr. Oz Show. Hurd maintained his own blog site called “Hurd Health.” A year ago, he started a blog onMeatingplace titled, “The Gentle Vet.”

“Dr. Hurd was an outspoken champion for truth relative to farm animal and food safety issues,” said Kay Johnson Smith, CEO of the Animal Agriculture Alliance.  “He diligently corrected misinformation and the misrepresentation of the facts surrounding issues such as the important role of antibiotics in caring for animals, and he made complex issues such as food safety risk assessment understandable to the layman.  He was passionate, personable and enormously respected.  His passing is a great loss for all of us in animal agriculture.”

“Scott believed in principle and acted on his beliefs.  He was a critical thinker who radiated pure joy in deciphering and sharing in simple language the complex notions of probability, risk, and consequence,” said Guy Loneragan, veterinary epidemiologist and professor of food safety and public health at Texas Tech University. “He could see and revel in both the serious and humorous sides of any issue.”

Loneragan, who worked with Hurd on several projects, went on to say,  “[Scott] could be softly spoken yet was not afraid to pound the table with his fist to emphasize a point when emphasis was needed.  He was clearly a man of conviction yet above all else, he was a family man and all too happy to include anecdotes of his family – particularly his many children – in his presentations.  He will be missed on so many levels and by so many people.”

Hurd started his veterinary career at a dairy practice in South Central, Pennsylvania. This was one of the first practices in the country to computerize their herd health records and the data collected in this program piqued his interest in epidemiology. As a result, he earned a Ph.D. in epidemiology and economics from Michigan State University in 1990, after graduating from veterinary school at Iowa State in 1982.

Hurd spent 15 years of his career in government service, working in three different branches of the USDA. He was also appointed USDA’s deputy acting under secretary for food safety in 2008. There he served as the country’s highest-ranking food safety veterinarian and policy advisor to the Secretary of Agriculture.

Hurd was most recently an associate professor at Iowa State University’s Department of Veterinary Diagnostic and Production Animal Medicine and director of the Food Risk Modeling and Policy Lab at Iowa State.

“Iowa State University and global animal agriculture has lost a wonderful gentleman, a world class epidemiologist and food scientist, a talented communicator and a tireless advocate for helping livestock farmers and the meat industry continuously improve best practices to feed the world,” said Patrick Halbur, executive director of the ISU Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. 

Hurd is survived by his wife, Susan, his seven sons and his daughter. Visitation will be at St. Cecilia Catholic Church in Ames, Iowa, from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, April 6. Funeral mass will be at 10:30 a.m. Monday, April 7.

A memorial fund is being set up to support parenting and family missions programs through the Regnum Christi Mission Corps, a youth formation and leadership training program. Donations can be written to Dr. Scott Hurd’s Charitable Memorial Fund and sent to the family at 3275 400th Street, Roland, IA 50236.

Survival of Salmonella during baking of peanut butter cookies

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Peanuts and peanut-based products have been the source of recent Salmonella outbreaks worldwide. Because peanut butter is commonly used as an ingredient in baked goods, such as cookies, the potential risk of Salmonella remaining in these products after baking needs to be assessed. This research examines the potential hazard of Salmonella in peanut butter cookies when it is introduced via the peanut-derived ingredient.

The survival of Salmonella during the baking of peanut butter cookies was determined. Commercial, creamy-style peanut butter was artificially inoculated peanut.butter.cookieswith a five-strain Salmonella cocktail at a target concentration of 108 CFU/g. The inoculated peanut butter was then used to prepare peanut butter cookie dough following a standard recipe. Cookies were baked at 350°F (177°C) and were sampled after 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15 min. Temperature profiles of the oven and cookies were monitored during baking. The water activity and pH of the inoculated and uninoculated peanut butter, raw dough, and baked cookies were measured. Immediately after baking, cookies were cooled, and the survival of Salmonella was determined by direct plating or enrichment. After baking cookies for 10 min, the minimum reduction of Salmonella observed was 4.8 log. In cookies baked for 13 and 14 min, Salmonella was only detectable by enrichment reflecting a Salmonella reduction in the range of 5.2 to 6.2 log.

Cookies baked for 15 min had no detectable Salmonella. Results of this study showed that proper baking will reduce Salmonella in peanut butter cookies by 5 log or more.

Journal of Food Protection®, Number 4, April 2014, pp. 528-690 , pp. 635-639(5) ;

Lathrop, Amanda A; Taylor, Tiffany; Schnepf, James

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iafp/jfp/2014/00000077/00000004/art00014

Most juice outlets in Kochi function by flouting food safety norms

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Locating a juice shop in the city fully complying with the guidelines prescribed by the Commissioner of Food Safety may be a Herculean task this summer.

With shops mushrooming in every nook and cranny in Kochi, Indian Food Safety officials seem groping in the dark on how to curb the violations.

Even though reports on use of contaminated ice have come down gradually, they admitted that the majority of the shops store ice in thermocol boxes against the FRUITS_JUICE-2_1814515fprescribed rules. As per the guidelines, ice should not be stored in polystyrene boxes, but in freezers or ice boxes.

Many juice shop owners now claim that they use water supplied in cans by private manufacturers of bottled drinking water. But there is little check on whether these suppliers meet the safety standards.

Use of low quality milk, especially that brought from outside the State, is also rampant in juice shops offering milk shakes.

The Food Safety Department has no clues on whether the shops were storing milk in freezers well beyond the expiry period.

University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown identifies norovirus outbreak, takes steps to limit virus exposure

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A few years ago fellow graduate student Brae Surgeoner had a fun idea to collect behavior data in the midst of an outbreak. The University of Guelph was dealing with a bunch of illnesses that seemed to be linked to residence halls and the symptoms looked like norovirus. The local health folks worked with the universities housing group and placed alcohol-based sanitizer at the entrance to one of the cafeterias (which was thought to be ground zero). Looking back, the hand sanitizer step wasn’t the greatest public health intervention (not with commercially available products), but what we wanted to know was whether students heeded the warnings and advice. student-cafeteria-02

By using ethnography, we found that only 17 per cent of the observed students followed the hand hygiene recommendations, but self-reported surveys of the same population showed that 83 per cent of students said that they had been following the guidance (we published the results in the Journal of Environmental Health, abstract below).

Health officials often put up posters and signs and rely on self-reporting to determine whether interventions are effective. People may say they are washing their hands more, but our study showed that the behavior and reports don’t always match up.

Faced with a bunch of students ill with norovirus, the decision-makers running the show at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, according to Global Dispatch, made a good disease management call by canceling all events and closing the cafeteria to limit virus transfer.

Several University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown students have reported an illness–with the symptoms of  fever, chills, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and general abdominal discomfort, to campus Health Services during the past 48 hours prompting the university to cancel all in-door social events for the weekend. In addition, the decision has been made to suspend cafeteria services at all dining facilities on campus. Instead, prepackaged meals will be available in the Student Union for pick-up.

In an effort to respond to students who feel that they need medical attention, the Office of Health and Counseling will be open on both Saturday and Sunday, 8:30 A.M. to 5:00 P.M.

University Students’ Hand Hygiene Practice During a Gastrointestinal Outbreak in Residence: What They Say They DO and What They Actually Do

Journal of Environmental Health, 72(2):24-28

Brae V. Surgeoner, M.S., Benjamin J. Chapman, Ph.D., Douglas A. Powell, Ph.D.

Abstract

Published research on outbreaks of gastrointestinal illness has focused primarily on the results of epidemiological and clinical data collected postoutbreak; little research has been done on actual preventative practices during an outbreak. In this study, the authors observed student compliance with hand hygiene recommendations at the height of a suspected norovirus outbreak in a university residence in Ontario, Canada. Data on observed practices was compared to postoutbreak self-report surveys administered to students to examine their beliefs and perceptions about hand hygiene. Observed compliance with prescribed hand hygiene recommendations occurred 17.4% of the time. Despite knowledge of hand hygiene protocols and low compliance, 83.0% of students indicated that they practiced correct hand hygiene during the outbreak. To proactively prepare for future outbreaks, a current and thorough crisis communications and management strategy, targeted at a university student audience and supplemented with proper hand washing tools, should be enacted by residence administration.

Linked to global frozen fruit outbreak? 28 cases of hepatitis A infection reported in Norway

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A total of 28 cases of hepatitis A infection has been reported over the last few months in Norway, where this disease is said to be rare, the Norwegian news Agency NTB reported Saturday, quoting public health officials.

In almost half of the cases, the patients were found to have infected with hepatitis A virus while travelling abroad.

frozen.strawberryThe remaining half got infected in Norway, which was described as a rare occurrence.

Last year there was an outbreak of hepatitis A in the Nordic countries, which was believed to be most likely caused by eating imported frozen berries.

Norwegian health authorities suspect the new outbreak in Norway is also caused by eating contaminated food.

Handheld inspection tool may increase food safety for soldiers

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Military food inspectors may one day hold the key to avoiding foodborne illness in the palms of their hands. The U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center is working to develop a small, sensitive, hand-held device that will both capture and detect dangerous pathogens that can cause food-related illness. 

The effort received a 2013 U. S. Food and Drug Administration leveraging and collaboration award. Under the award, scientists from Food Protection Team and Macromolecular Sciences and Engineering Team at the Natick Soldier Research, napoleonDevelopment and Engineering Center, or NSRDEC, are collaborating with the FDA, Winchester Engineering and Analytical Center, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

NSRDEC originally came up with the idea of conductive membrane sensors and performed the initial research under the Army’s 6.1 basic research programs. This research is the basis for the collaboration with the FDA and MIT.

The food inspection tool will reduce the danger soldiers face from contaminated food. Food safety is critical to combat readiness. Soldier performance, quality of life, and health can be seriously affected by undetected pathogens in food.

“Military operations at some overseas locations where food is procured locally and food safety laws are lenient, are especially problematic. Soldiers can lose a lot of time from work because they get sick from pathogens present in water and food,” Andre Senecal said. “We are starting our work with E. coli O157:H7, but the goal is to look at all microbial pathogens and toxins that they produce.”

“The leading cause of illness among troops has historically been gastroenteritis, with one of the primary culprits being E. coli,” McGraw explained.

Biosensors consist of a biological component, such as an antibody or DNA that is capable of capturing, detecting and recording information about a measurable physical change in the biosensor system.

Worst food safety failures in NSW grocery stores

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Rodents, bugs, filth and expired food have caused nearly 300 supermarkets, greengrocers and delis to be slapped with fines over the past six years, data from the New South Wales Food Authority shows.

The IGA Plus Liquor store in East Lindfield is the biggest repeat offender, receiving 11 fines totaling $5,280 for breaching food safety rules since 2009.

Despite being penalised two years ago for displaying food for sale past use-by dates, it committed the offence again. In August, it received three fines for peddling expired feta animal.house.double.secret.probationcheese, quince paste and steak.

An analysis of nearly 600 penalty notices issued to grocery retailers across the state since mid-2008 revealed one in 10 notices related to the selling of expired food.

Others concerned the failure to eradicate bug infestations and stop rodent activity, the failure to display potentially hazardous food under temperature control, filthy premises and grimy equipment, and the mislabelling of products. Most received prior warnings.

An employee at IGA East Lindfield, who refused to be named, said a Ku-ring-gai Council food inspector had fined them on ”very little things that shouldn’t be an offence,” such as running out of paper towels for the staff’s hand basin.

The fines for selling expired food were unfair, he said.

Since 2008, the state’s councils and the NSW Food Authority collected $400,000 in fines from transgressing supermarkets, groceries and delis. Fairfield Council holds the lion’s share at $45,650, followed by Willoughby Council ($29,150) and Blacktown Council ($18,920).

However, the compliance rate for all food businesses in the three council areas hovered between 89 per cent and 93 per cent in the past financial year.

Among the supermarket giants, 14 Coles stores were hit with 17 fines and eight Woolworths stores received 10 fines. The most recent fine was against the Pemulwuy Woolworths, which displayed barbecue chicken pieces outside the safe temperature zone.

Gavin Buckett, a food safety auditor of 12 years and founder of the consultancy firm Gourmet Guardian, said Woolworths and Coles had better training systems, signage with work instructions and systems to prevent recalled items being sold.

He said smaller businesses were more likely to source products from unaudited overseas suppliers without applying rigorous quality checks.

First cases documented of TB caught from cats

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There was this one time, I went to the U.S., and when I returned there were two Persian furballs in the house.

I vacuumed this morning and reminded Amy, you wanted fluffy cats, right?

jacques.salamader.2.14She laughed as she went out the door.

The New York Times reports the first documented cases of people catching tuberculosis from their cats were revealed in England this week, but TB experts there and in the United States reassured pet owners that they had virtually nothing to fear.

The four human cases were all related to a rare cluster of sick cats in southern England, and all were instances of bovine tuberculosis, which is carried by cows.

Public Health England, which released the report, said the risk to cat owners was “very low.”

The English medical report was a follow-up to a veterinary TB outbreak, in which one veterinarian diagnosed the illness in nine very sick cats from different households within a few miles of one another in or around Newbury, England, from late 2012 to early 2013. Twenty-four people connected to those cats were screened; two had latent TB without symptoms, and two had active infections. DNA testing showed that all four had the same strain as all the cats.

The cats roamed through local woods, the report said, and probably got infected either by eating rodents that had picked up the disease from cows or by fighting with badgers, which also carry it. They may have passed it among themselves through bites.

Bovine TB is more common in England than in the United States, said Dr. Paul P. Calle, chief veterinarian for the Wildlife Conservation Society at the Bronx Zoo.

“This may very well have happened before, in the days before milk was pasteurized and cats were kept in barns for mouse control,” he said. “But for an apartment cat, the risk is nil.”

Although there could be a Salmonella risk from hunting salamanders and skinks, and the little ones enter the townhouse routinely.

Why Salmonella needs to be prevented and controlled; 1 million jars of peanut butter to be dumped in landfill

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Nearly a million jars of peanut butter are being dumped at a New Mexico landfill to expedite the sale of a bankrupt peanut-processing plant that was at the heart of a 2012 salmonella outbreak and nationwide recall.

Bankruptcy trustee Clarke Coll said he had no other choice after Costco Wholesale refused to take shipment of the Sunland Inc. product and declined requests to let it be sunland_20120925084929_320_240donated to food banks or repackaged or sold to brokers who provide food to institutions like prisons.

“We considered all options,” Coll said. “They didn’t agree.”

Costco officials did not return telephone calls seeking comment. But court filings indicate the product was made with $2.8 million worth of Valencia peanuts owned by Costco and had been sitting in the warehouse since the company shut down and filed for bankruptcy last fall.

After extensive testing, Costco agreed to a court order authorizing the trustee to sell it the peanut butter. But after getting eight loads, Costco rejected it as “not merchantable” because of leaky peanut oil.

Coll said “all parties agreed there’s nothing wrong with the peanut butter from a health and safety issue,” but court records show that on a March 19 conference call Costco said “it would not agree to any disposition … other than destruction.”

So instead of selling or donating the peanut butter, with a value estimated at $2.6 million, the estate is paying about $60,000 to haul the 950,000 jars of nut butter — or about 25 tons — to the Curry County landfill in Clovis, where public works director Clint Bunch says it “will go in with our regular waste and covered with dirt.”

The last of 58 truckloads was expected Friday, he said.