Most of the intercepted reptiles were still alive.
And they are all Salmonella factories.
The carpet python, if established in NZ, could harm native food webs and ecosystems, according to an ecologist.
Introduced reptiles could also impact agricultural productivity and incur economic costs from expensive eradication efforts, according to research from Florida-based ecologist Dr Ikuko Fujisaki.
Dozens of stowaway reptiles, including snakes, have been detected at container ports and wharves in the past year.
A popular City Road café in the Welsh capital was closed down after around 100 cockroaches were discovered in the kitchen and dining area.
The insects were found at Mr Tikka on City Road in Roath, Cardiff, when council officers carried out an unannounced routine inspection on May 7 of last year.
When officers arrived, the owner, Rubi Begum, was seen sweeping two live insects off the counter and white powder – believed to be an insecticide – was on the kitchen floor.
More insects, including German cockroaches, which pose a significant health risk, were later discovered in the kitchen and dining area where customers were eating.
Ms Begum and her husband Munim Khan appeared at Cardiff Magistrates’ Court on July 9 for sentencing after admitting four food hygiene offences.
Mr Tikka, which serves baguettes, baked potatoes and curry dishes, has since been awarded a four-star food hygiene rating.
Queensland’s latest salmonella outbreak has caused officials to warn backyard chicken owners to practice biosecurity steps to ensure everyone’s safety in handling the animals. Since June 26, 17 cases of Salmonella typhimurium have been documented.
According to ABC News, 13 of the cases were aged 11 or younger. Additionally, five out of the 17 cases were admitted to the hospital. The recent outbreak has been associated with chicks from an unnamed supplier.
Backyard poultry can appear harmless, healthy, and clean but can carry Salmonella spp or Campylobacter spp. Moreover, chicken coops, habitats, and eggs could also become contaminated.
Zoonotic diseases that backyard poultry may transmit to humans include salmonellosis, campylobacteriosis, and avian influenza viruses. Since the 1990s, epidemics of human Salmonella spp infections connected to contact with backyard chickens have been recorded in the United States.
In Victoria, nine cases of salmonella in two months were linked to the pet chicks and their eggs.
And in the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control reported that as of June 23, 2020, there were 465 recent cases of Salmonella linked to backyard poultry, including one death, an increase of 368 ill people since the previous report on May 20, 2020.
CDC says always wash your hands and don’t kiss backyard poultry or snuggle them and then touch your face or mouth.
Don’t let backyard poultry inside the house, especially in areas where food or drink is prepared, served, or stored.
Set aside a pair of shoes to wear while taking care of poultry and keep those shoes outside of the house.
Don’t eat or drink where poultry live or roam.
Stay outdoors when cleaning any equipment or materials used to raise or care for poultry, such as cages and containers for feed or water.
Supervise kids around poultry.
Always supervise children around poultry and while they wash their hands afterward.
Children younger than 5 years of age shouldn’t handle or touch chicks, ducklings, or other poultry. Young children are more likely to get sick from germs like Salmonella.
Handle eggs safely.
Collect eggs often. Eggs that sit in the nest can become dirty or break.
Throw away cracked eggs. Germs on the shell can more easily enter the egg though a cracked shell.
Eggs with dirt and debris can be cleaned carefully with fine sandpaper, a brush, or a cloth.
Don’t wash warm, fresh eggs because colder water can pull germs into the egg.
Refrigerate eggs after collection to maintain freshness and slow germ growth.
Cook eggs until both the yolk and white are firm. Egg dishes should be cooked to an internal temperature of 160°F (71°C) or hotter. Raw and undercooked eggs may contain Salmonella bacteria that can make you sick.
When I was attempting a Masters degree (I never finished after almost three years, became a newspaper editor, then went back and got a PhD in Food Science; thanks Mansel for taking me on) looking at susceptible and resistant strains of tomato plants to Verticillium wilt, I had to inoculate these plants and walk up to the lab at all hours of the day and night to nurture and harvest the plants at prescribed times and look at their cells under a microscope – sometimes even electronic – and see what the fungus was doing.
That was 1985.
There have been improvements in technology.
The effects of using contaminated seed and water on the persistence and internalization of Salmonella Newport in organic spinach cultivars- Lazio, Space, Emilia and Waitiki were studied.
Seeds were contaminated by either immersing in a suspension of Salmonella and then sprouted or were sprouted in Salmonella contaminated water in the dark at 25 °C. After 5 days, germinated sprouts were analyzed for S. Newport population and internalization. Germinated sprouts were potted in soil and grown in a plant incubator for 4 weeks. Leaves, stems and roots were sampled for Salmonella population by plating on CHROMagar™. Plants surface-sterilized with chlorine were analyzed for internalized pathogen. Potting soil and water runoff were sampled for Salmonella after 4 weeks of plant growth.
Contaminated seeds and irrigation water had S. Newport populations of 7.64±0.43 log CFU/g and 7.12±0.04 log CFU/ml, respectively. Sprouts germinated using contaminated water or seeds had S. Newport populations of 8.09±0.04 and 8.08±0.03 log CFU/g, respectively and had a Salmonella population that was significantly higher than other spinach tissues (P<0.05). Populations of S. Newport in leaves, stem and roots of spinach plants were as follows: contaminated seed- 2.82±1.69, 1.69±0.86, and 4.41±0.62 log CFU/ml; contaminated water- 3.56±0.90, 3.04±0.31, and 4.03±0.42 log CFU/ml of macerated tissue suspension, respectively. Internalization was observed in plants developing from contaminated seeds and in sprouts germinated using contaminated water. S. Newport populations of 2.82±0.70 log CFU/g and 1.76±0.46 log CFU/ml were recovered from soil and water runoff, respectively.
The results indicate that contamination of spinach during germination can result in persistence, internalization and environmental reintroduction of Salmonella.
Contamination of spinach at germination: A route to persistence and environmental reintroduction by salmonella, 02 August 2020
As coronavirus increases, many have taken to old timey ways of raising food.
Careful with that.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reports the outbreak strain of Salmonella Hadar has een reported from 28 states.
17 people (34% of those with information available) have been hospitalized and no deaths have been reported.
30% of ill people are children younger than 5 years of age.
Epidemiologic evidence shows that contact with backyard poultry (such as chicks and ducklings) is the likely source of this outbreak.
In interviews, 38 (86%) of 44 ill people reported contact with chicks and ducklings.
People reported obtaining chicks and ducklings from several sources, including agricultural stores, websites, and hatcheries.
Advice to Backyard Flock Owners
You can get sick with a Salmonella infection from touching backyard poultry or their environment. These birds can carry Salmonella bacteria even if they look healthy and clean and show no signs of illness. Follow these tips to stay healthy with your backyard flock:
Wash your hands.
Always wash your hands with soap and water right after touching backyard poultry, their eggs, or anything in the area where they live and roam.
Adults should supervise handwashing by young children.
Use hand sanitizer if soap and water are not readily available.
Be safe around poultry.
Don’t kiss backyard poultry or snuggle them and then touch your face or mouth.
Don’t let backyard poultry inside the house, especially in areas where food or drink is prepared, served, or stored.
Set aside a pair of shoes to wear while taking care of poultry and keep those shoes outside of the house.
Don’t eat or drink where poultry live or roam.
Stay outdoors when cleaning any equipment or materials used to raise or care for poultry, such as cages and containers for feed or water.
Supervise kids around poultry.
Always supervise children around poultry and while they wash their hands afterward.
Children younger than 5 years of age shouldn’t handle or touch chicks, ducklings, or other poultry. Young children are more likely to get sick from germs like Salmonella.
Handle eggs safely.
Collect eggs often. Eggs that sit in the nest can become dirty or break.
Throw away cracked eggs. Germs on the shell can more easily enter the egg though a cracked shell.
Eggs with dirt and debris can be cleaned carefully with fine sandpaper, a brush, or a cloth.
Don’t wash warm, fresh eggs because colder water can pull germs into the egg.
Refrigerate eggs after collection to maintain freshness and slow germ growth.
Cook eggs until both the yolk and white are firm. Egg dishes should be cooked to an internal temperature of 160°F (71°C) or hotter. Raw and undercooked eggs may contain Salmonella bacteria that can make you sick.
My friend, veterinarian, University of Guelph prot and OK hockey player writes in his Worms and Germs blog, Scott Weese I’m not anti-backyard chickens. I’m anti-“spending the weekend on the toilet” and anti-“seeing people hospitalized unnecessarily” and, I guess, just anti-Salmonella and anti-Campylobacter in general. I can’t see any redeeming qualities of those bacteria, at least in people.
Kelsey Wilkie of the Daily Mail reports at least three people have come down with salmonella poisoning after purchasing eggs from a popular supermarket.
The infection is believed to have come from eggs bought in the Melbourne suburb of Werribee.
The Weekly Times reported the eggs were supplied from farms in New South Wales.
However, a spokesman for the NSW Department of Primary Industries disputed those claims.
‘There is no evidence to suggest the reported illnesses in Victoria are connected to NSW eggs, or even eggs. The matter is an active investigation being undertaken by Victorian authorities.
‘There are no current recalls of eggs in NSW and no warnings with regards to eggs.’
Since 2012 there have 12 farms identified with Salmonella Enteritidis bacteria and has been working to eliminate the infection.
Most of the infections were discovered in 2019 and the majority of the farms have had their hens removed, but the NSW DPI is still clearing three properties.
There are still salmonella cases in humans in NSW which are linked to a yet-to-be-identified farm.
Officials from Agriculture Victoria have warned Victorian egg producers to be careful when trading eggs with NSW farmers.
Lab results have found a dubious dish dubbed “death dumplings” after at least one woman died contained salmonella.
After-sale of the dumplings in southeast metro Bangkok was blamed for one death and several illnesses, the lab results, which came out yesterday confirmed they contained salmonella, according to Prakit Wongprasert of the Samut Prakan provincial health office.
Earlier this month, 66-year-old Thanu Changpoopanga-ngam suffered severe diarrhoea and was taken to a hospital. Her condition was allegedly caused by eating a dumpling bought from a local vendor. Others in Thanu’s family, who also ate the dumplings, said they also had severe diarrhoea.
Thanu died a few days later. Her death, led the media to dub the dim sum snack as ‘death dumplings,’ after several others came forward to say they had taken sick from eating them.
Salmonella is a leading cause of foodborne outbreaks in Taiwan. On 27 April 2018, a salmonellosis outbreak among customers of a restaurant was reported to the Taiwan CDC. We investigated the outbreak to identify infection sources and prevent further transmission. We interviewed the ill customers and their dining companions.
We conducted a case-control study to identify foods associated with the illness. Case-patients were those who had diarrhoea within 72 hours after eating at the restaurant during 16–27 April 2018. Specimens, food samples, and environmental samples were collected and tested for enteric pathogens. Salmonella isolates were analysed with pulse-field gel electrophoresis and whole-genome sequencing.
We inspected the restaurant sanitation and reviewed kitchen surveillance camera recordings. We identified 47 case-patients, including one decedent. Compared with 44 controls, case-patients were more likely to have had a French toast sandwich (OR: 102.4; 95% CI: 18.7–952.3). Salmonella Enteritidis isolates from 16 case-patients shared an indistinguishable genotype. Camera recordings revealed eggshell contamination, long holding time at room temperature, and use of leftovers during implicated food preparation. Recommendations for restaurant egg-containing food preparation are to use pasteurized egg products and ensure a high enough cooking temperature and long enough cooking time to prevent Salmonella contamination.
Investigation of a salmonellosis outbreak linked to French toast sandwich with the use of surveillance camera, Taiwan, 2018
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/epidemiology-and-infection/article/investigation-of-a-salmonellosis-outbreak-linked-to-french-toast-sandwich-with-the-use-of-surveillance-camera-taiwan-2018/02CF410BD619914ED790F440A0F1A40F
Salmonella is a leading cause of foodborne outbreaks in Taiwan. On 27 April 2018, a salmonellosis outbreak among customers of a restaurant was reported to the Taiwan CDC. We investigated the outbreak to identify infection sources and prevent further transmission. We interviewed the ill customers and their dining companions.
We conducted a case-control study to identify foods associated with the illness. Case-patients were those who had diarrhoea within 72 hours after eating at the restaurant during 16–27 April 2018. Specimens, food samples, and environmental samples were collected and tested for enteric pathogens. Salmonella isolates were analysed with pulse-field gel electrophoresis and whole-genome sequencing.
We inspected the restaurant sanitation and reviewed kitchen surveillance camera recordings. We identified 47 case-patients, including one decedent. Compared with 44 controls, case-patients were more likely to have had a French toast sandwich (OR: 102.4; 95% CI: 18.7–952.3). Salmonella Enteritidis isolates from 16 case-patients shared an indistinguishable genotype. Camera recordings revealed eggshell contamination, long holding time at room temperature, and use of leftovers during implicated food preparation. Recommendations for restaurant egg-containing food preparation are to use pasteurized egg products and ensure a high enough cooking temperature and long enough cooking time to prevent Salmonella contamination.
Investigation of a salmonellosis outbreak linked to French toast sandwich with the use of surveillance camera, Taiwan, 2018, 11 May 2020
Epidemiology and Infection
Yu-neng Chueh (a1) (a2), Tsai-hsia Du (a3), Chao-jung Lee (a3), Ying-shu Liao (a4), Chien-shun Chiou (a4), Jui-chen Chang (a2), Chiao-wen Lin (a2), Tsuey-fong Lee (a2) and Chia-ping Su
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0950268820000989
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/epidemiology-and-infection/article/investigation-of-a-salmonellosis-outbreak-linked-to-french-toast-sandwich-with-the-use-of-surveillance-camera-taiwan-2018/02CF410BD619914ED790F440A0F1A40F
Anthony Colangelo of The Age wrote a week ago a café in Melbourne’s inner-north has been closed for more than a week due to a salmonella outbreak that’s feared to have caused illness in 36 people.
The Lincoln Bakery Café on Bouverie Street in Carlton was closed on May 8 and 36 people who ate there prior to the closure have been diagnosed with salmonella poisoning.
Former hockey buddy and nice veterinarian Scott McEwen at the University of Guelph (that’s in Ontario, Canada) is one of the authors of a paper investigating Salmonella Heidelberg and Salmonella Typhimurium role in human salmonellosis in Ontario. Introduction of the Ontario Investigation Tools (OIT) in 2014 allowed for standardized case investigation and reporting. This study compared the risk factors and symptomatology for sporadic S. Heidelberg and S. Typhimurium cases reported in Ontario in 2015, following implementation of the OIT.
Multilevel logistic regression models were applied to assess associations between serotype and individual‐level demographic characteristics, exposures and symptoms for sporadic confirmed cases of S. Heidelberg and S. Typhimurium in Ontario in 2015. There were 476 sporadic cases of S. Typhimurium (n = 278) and S. Heidelberg (n = 198) reported in Ontario in 2015. There were significant associations between the odds of the isolate from a case being one of these serotypes, and travel, consumption of sprouts (any type), contact with reptiles and development of malaise, fever or bloody diarrhoea.
The S. Typhimurium and S. Heidelberg cases differed in both symptom presentation and risk factors for illness. Case–case comparisons of Salmonella serotypes have some advantages over case–control studies in that these are less susceptible to selection and recall bias while allowing for rapid comparison of cases to identify potential high‐risk exposures that are unique to one of the serotypes when compared to the other.
Comparing cases of two different Salmonella serotypes can help to highlight risk factors that may be uniquely associated with one serotype, or more strongly associated with one serotype compared to another. This information may be useful for understanding relative source attribution between common serotypes of Salmonella.
A case-case study comparing the individual risk factors and symptomatology of salmonella Heidelberg and salmonella typhimurium in Ontario, 04 May 2020
A total of 110 reptiles were intercepted at ports and airports in 2019, up from 93 the year before.
