Radio Sweden reports that 12 more cases of hepatitis A in Sweden are probably linked to the same strain of virus first discovered in Denmark 
which authorities believe is caused by frozen berries.
Fifty-six cases of hepatitis A have been reported in Sweden since December. Normally, there are five cases a year in the country.
Cases have been reported in other Nordic countries, bringing the total sickened to about 83.
Swedish authorities announced on Thursday that frozen berries may have been the cause of over 20 Hepatitis A infections in Sweden since December.
The Swedish Institute for Communicable Disease Control (Smittskyddsinstitutet, SMI) warned that the berries may have 
been responsible for 22 cases of Hepatitis A in Sweden so far.
The usual contagion rate for the same timeframe is about five people in Sweden.
Experts from the institute advised berry lovers to take caution when consuming any berries bought in Sweden that were sold frozen.
“If you cook them for at least one minute then all the contagion will die or disappear,” Margareta Löfdahl, epidemiologist from the Institute, told the TT news agency.
The people infected in Sweden were infected with the same type of Hepatitis that 30 people in Denmark were diagnosed with recently, which has since been traced to frozen berries and strawberries in particular.
People send me things, and I am grateful. This one’s from Sweden, and some things may be lost in translation.
A customer at a pizzeria in Skåne who found a screw in his kebab went back the day after with his find to confront the pizza bakers. They expressed no surprise, but told me that other customers found the screws in the food, according to the customer who reported the incident.
“The screw was sitting on a pair of pliers that we use throughout the day to add to salad and finally to release it and fall into the kebab box. The screw is black and kebab is black – it’s not easy to see the time,” says the restaurant’s owner told DN.
It was March 8 that the customer bought a kebab at the pizzeria to take away and eat at home. In the food he found to his undisguised astonishment a screw. The day after he went back to the pizzeria to talk about the event and show the screw. The staff seemed, as the customer, do not be surprised, but told me that something like this happened before.
The customer reported the incident to the Environment Agency on the resort. In an unannounced inspection at the pizzeria told the staff that they noticed that the screw on a pair of pliers were plaster gone. It had been replaced with a new screw. Although a nut was missing on the forceps used it anyway in daily operations. Where the original screw gone had not thought about, according to the inspection report that DN seen.
It was also found during the inspection personnel to use a cement mixer for mixing sauces and dressings. It was painted with blue paint – paint flaked off in several places.
Give the Swedes credit: they’re direct.
None of this, “abundance of caution” crap, when meat is recalled, it’s because 
of crap.
thelocalse.com reports around six tonnes of hamburger and kebab meat distributed and sold across Sweden may have been contaminated by intestinal bacteria which may have been caused by animal excrement.
The meat, which has been on sale across the country for the past four months, has been found to contain traces of the potentially life-threatening E .coli bacteria.
The contaminated meat was brought to the attention of the authorities when two children fell ill in Västerås in eastern Sweden in January.
The beef has been traced to the distributor Sven P in Stockholm, but is originally from a slaughterhouse in the Netherlands.
According to the current issue of Eurosurveillance, one of Sorenne’s favorite journals, the number of sporadic cases of Cryptosporidium identified in the Stockholm county area increased above the expected limit during October 2010. Additionally, two food-borne outbreaks of cryptosporidiosis occurred in two other Swedish cities: Umeå (4 October) and Örebro (9 October). The outbreak investigations did not reveal any 
responsible food item, however fresh herbs were suspected. Thirty stool samples, originating from all three events, tested positive for Cryptosporidium oocysts. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and subsequent restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) revealed that 27 individuals were infected with C. parvum, two with C. hominis, and one with C. felis. Using sequence analysis of the GP60 glycoprotein gene, a polymorphic marker with high intra-species diversity, we identified the same C. parvum subtype IIdA24G1 in samples from both the Umeå outbreak and the Stockholm area cases, thus indicating a possible outbreak in the Stockholm area and establishing a link between these two events. C. parvum IIdA24G1 has not previously been described in connection with a foodborne outbreak. For the outbreak in Örebro, another subtype was identified: C. parvum IIdA20G1e. These findings demonstrate that subtyping C. parvum isolates using GP60 gene amplification can be used to link cases in an outbreak investigation and we recommend its use in future similar events.
The complete paper is available at http://www.eurosurveillance.org/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=20318.
Food giant Axfood AB has been forced to recall two tonnes of pork, following test samples showing salmonella bacteria present in the meat.
The Local reports the pork has been sold all over Sweden, but as of yet there have been no reports of anyone falling ill.
According to Axfood’s press manager Ingmar Kroon, the affected meat is pork imported mainly from Denmark, including chops, marinated loin and mince. The products have been sold by 
supermarket chains Willys, Hemköp, Prisextraand Tempo.
“We’re recalling it from all over the country, but we don’t know how much has already been sold,” he said to the TT news agency, adding, “but only some of the meat has been infected. …
“It’s happened twice this summer that we’ve had infected meat from Denmark, and that might look bad, but Denmark isn’t bad at handling. I definitely don’t want to point the blame at them.”
When a strain of shiga toxin producing E. coli (VTEC O8:H19) was found in Spanish cucumbers in May 2011 during the Germany-based sprout outbreak that killed 53 – and subsequently proven to not be the outbreak strain – producers and politicians focused on how public health got it wrong, and demands for compensation.
Shouldn’t it have been worrisome that any shiga-toxin producing E. coli was found at retail, in a (1).jpg)
cucumber?
Researchers in Sweden are now reporting that microsporidia may be an underreported source of foodborne illness after cucumbers were linked to dozens of sick people visiting a hotel in Sweden. Abstract below.
Microsporidia are spore-forming intracellular parasites that infrequently cause disease in immunocompetent persons. This study describes the first report of a foodborne microsporidiosis outbreak which affected persons visiting a hotel in Sweden.
Enterocytozoon bieneusi was identified in stool samples from 7/11 case-patients, all six sequenced samples were genotype C. To confirm that this was not a chance finding, 19 stool samples submitted by healthy persons from a comparable group who did not visit the hotel on that day were .jpg)
tested; all were negative for microsporidia. A retrospective cohort study identified 135 case-patients (attack rate 30%). The median incubation period was 9 days.
Consumption of cheese sandwiches [relative risk (RR) 4·1, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1·4–12·2] and salad (RR 2·1, 95% CI 1·1–4) were associated with illness. Both items contained pre-washed, ready-to-eat cucumber slices.
Microsporidia may be an under-reported cause of gastrointestinal outbreaks; we recommend that microsporidia be explored as potential causative agents in food- and waterborne outbreaks, especially when no other organisms are identified.
Epidemiology and Infection March 2012, 140:519-527
V. Decraene, M. Lebbad, S. Botero-Kleiven, A.-M. Gustavsson and M. Lofdahl
Sorenne’s day care had its own petting zoo on Thursday with sheep, ducks, and others. I’d been in Brisbane less than 24 hours and had to finish marking papers so didn’t stick around to observe the interactions, but I attempted to ensure the kids were going to be .jpg)
washing with soap and water, not just sanitizer, and that staff would be watching to minimize the hand-on-ruminant-and-into-mouth move favored by 2-year-olds.
A petting zoo in southern Sweden closed its doors after it was confirmed that at least one foal was infected with salmonella.
Although one park visitor was first suspected of contracting salmonella after petting the zoo’s salmonella-infected pony, authorities are now saying there is no information about humans having been infected.
The family-run farm, at Foston-on-the-Wolds, had been a firm favorite with school children and families for almost quarter of a century.
But now owners John and Sue Johnston have taken the decision to close the 60-acre site permanently after several visitors to the farm fell ill and a Health Protection Agency investigation launched.
It is believed that six cases of E. coli O157 have been linked to the farm and Mr Johnston said they are working closely with the HPA to help them with their enquiries.
A single shipment of fenugreek seeds from Egypt is the most likely source of a highly toxic E. coli epidemic in Germany which has killed 49 people and of a smaller outbreak in France, European investigators said on Tuesday.
The European Food Safety Authority urged the European Commission to make "all efforts" to prevent any further consumer exposure to suspect seeds and advised consumers not to eat sprouts or sprouted seeds unless they are thoroughly cooked.
Reuters reports more than 4,100 people in Europe and in North America have been infected in two outbreaks of E. coli infection — one centred in northern 
Germany and one focused around the French city of Bordeaux.
Almost all of those affected in the first outbreak — the deadliest on record — lived in Germany or had recently travelled there. The infection has killed 48 people in Germany and one person in Sweden so far.
"The analysis of information from the French and German outbreaks leads to the conclusion that an imported lot of fenugreek seeds which was used to grow sprouts imported from Egypt by a German importer is the most common likely link," the EFSA said in a statement.
A consignment of fenugreek seeds, from the batch believed to be the source of the EHEC infection in Germany and France, has been tracked to Sweden, according to the Swedish National Food Administration.
The seeds have been recalled but 25 kilos have already arrived in Sweden. The National Food Administration has contacted the company Econova in Norrköping, who in their turn have stopped the sales and recalled already delivered bags of seeds.
Around 50 dog owners and several dogs are believed to have been infected with enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) following a dog show in eastern Sweden.
"We’re right in the middle of investigating where the bacteria came from," Britt .jpg)
Åkerlind of the infectious disease unit of Östergötland County told The Local.
So far, two Swedes have been confirmed as infected by EHEC, one from Skåne in the south, and another from Gothenburg in the west.
"But we’re expecting more confirmed cases to come in," said Åkerlind.
Those infected with the bacteria all attended a dog show near Norrköping in eastern Sweden held the first weekend in June.
Of the roughly 120 participants, who traveled from all over Sweden as well as from Denmark, Norway, and Finland, about half have come down with symptoms stemming from EHEC infection.
"We’ve also received reports that some of the dogs have had upset stomachs," said Åkerlind, who labeled the outbreak as "quite large."
