The risk model considered variability and uncertainty in Salmonella contamination in seeds, Salmonella growth and spread during sprout production, sprout consumption, and Salmonella dose response.
Based on an estimated prevalence of 2.35% for 6.8 kg seed batches and without interventions, the model predicted 76,600 (95% confidence interval (CI) 15,400–248,000) cases/year. Risk reduction (by 5- to 7-fold) predicted from a 1-log10 seed treatment alone was comparable to SIW testing alone, and each additional 1-log10 seed treatment was predicted to provide a greater risk reduction than SIW testing. A 3-log10 or a 5-log10 seed treatment reduced the predicted cases/year to 139 (95% CI 33–448) or 1.4 (95% CI <1–4.5), respectively. Combined with SIW testing, a 3-log10 or 5-log10 seed treatment reduced the cases/year to 45 (95% CI 10–146) or <1 (95% CI <1–1.5), respectively. If the SIW coverage was less complete (i.e., less representative), a smaller risk reduction was predicted, e.g., a combined 3-log10 seed treatment and SIW testing with 20% coverage resulted in an estimated 92 (95% CI 22–298) cases/year.
Analysis of alternative scenarios using different assumptions for key model inputs showed that the predicted relative risk reductions are robust. This risk assessment provides a comprehensive approach for evaluating the public health impact of various interventions in a sprout production system.
Risk assessment of salmonellosis from consumption of alfalfa sprouts and evaluation of the public health impact of sprout seed treatment and spent irrigation water testing
January 2018, Risk Analysis
Yuhuan Chen, Regis Pouillot, Sofia Farakos, Steven Duret, Judith Spungen, Tong-Jen Fu, Fazila Shakir, Patricia Homola, Sherri Dennis, Jane Van Doren
In March, 1996, the UK government confirmed what had been known for years: bovine spongiform encephalopathy (or mad cow disease) was killing humans in the UK.
The various forms of transmissible encephalopathies have different names according to the species – scrapie in sheep, feline spongiform encephalopathy in cats, Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease in humans, chronic wasting disease in deer and elk.
But they’re all the same affliction, caused by infectious proteins, or prions.
I haven’t been following the CWD outbreak in deer, but it seems to be where BSE was about 1993: There’s this mysterious new disease no one ever thoughts would cross over to humans, but now, maybe?
Jim Robbins of the New York Times writes that, as darkness closed in, one hunter after another stopped at this newly opened game check station, deer carcasses loaded in the beds of their pickups.
They had been given licenses for a special hunt, and others would follow. Jessica Goosmann, a wildlife technician with Montana’s Fish, Wildlife & Parks Department, stepped outside to greet them, reaching for the neck of each freshly killed deer to cut an incision and remove a lymph node for testing.
On the edge of this south-central Montana village, where deer hunting is a way of life, the game check station has become the front line of the state’s efforts to stop the spread of a deadly infection known as chronic wasting disease.
It has ravaged deer herds throughout the United States and Canada and forced the killing of thousands of infected animals in 24 states and three Canadian provinces. It has also been found in Norway and South Korea. With the disease widespread in Wyoming, the Dakotas and the province of Alberta, Montana officials had been bracing for its emergence.
So in November, when biologists discovered it in six deer in this part of Montana and in another near the Canadian border, officials began setting up special hunts and stations for testing.
“It wasn’t a surprise that we found it,” said John Vore, game management bureau chief for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks. “It was a disappointment, but not a surprise.”
On Friday, the department announced that two more deer from this region, taken early in the special hunt, tested positive for the disease. Other test results are pending.
Chronic wasting disease is a contagious neurological disease that infects elk, deer, moose and caribou, and reduces their brains to a spongy consistency. Animals become emaciated, behave strangely and eventually die. It’s not known to be transferred to humans. Neither is it known to be spread from wild to domestic animals. There is no treatment, although a vaccine has been successful in tests in wild deer.
It is among a class of diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, or TSE. Most experts believe the infectious agent is something called a prion, a misfolded cellular protein found in the nervous system and lymph tissue. The disease was first noted in captive deer in Colorado in the 1960s. The most closely related animal disease is scrapie in sheep.
“It’s a very unusual disease,” said Matthew Dunfee, an expert at the Wildlife Management Institute in Fort Collins, Co. and project director for the Chronic Wasting Disease Alliance. “Some experts say it’s a disease from outer space.”
Between 1340 and 1400, the Black Death spread throughout Europe, killing more than 20 million people. For hundreds of years, it was thought that fleas carried by black rats spread the deadly disease. But new research suggests that the “vermin” might not be to blame.
Kristin Hugo of Newsweek reports a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday illustrates how the plague might have spread. Researchers at the University of Oslo ran computerized mathematical simulations of disease spread by human-to-human fleas and lice, by human-to-rat-to-human fleas, and by airborne pathogens.
The researchers compared those computerized simulations to nine examples of the actual spread of the Black Death. They found that the simulations of human-to-human models most closely resembled the actual spread patterns in the nine real studies that they investigated, indicating that rats might not have been involved at all.
A study published in 2011 supports this conclusion. Authors say that the spread of the plague was too fast for rats to have been an intermediary, and furthermore, researchers should have found more dead rats that had succumbed if they were such important disease-carriers.
Another study in 2015 criticized the idea of rats as reservoirs of disease, claiming that the weather was too cold and rainy for rats to thrive and spread the disease widely. And an ecological review in 1986 cited a general lack of evidence for rats as the carriers of the disease.
However, exonerating the rats is likely to prove controversial among historians, who believe that the bacteria must have at least come from rats, or some other animal carrying fleas, at some point. The researchers at Oslo admit that their computer simulations could use more data, according to National Geographic. The more data a program has, the more accurate simulations it can run.
Notably, the Black Death lost its grip when people started improving sanitation and cleaning themselves regularly, and covering sewers.
Millions of American children have been exposed to a parasite that could interfere with their breathing, liver function, eyesight and even intelligence. Yet few scientists have studied the infection in the United States, and most doctors are unaware of it.
The parasites, roundworms of the genus Toxocara, live in the intestines of cats and dogs, especially strays. Microscopic eggs from Toxocara are shed in the animals’ feces, contaminating yards, playgrounds and sandboxes.
These infectious particles cling to the hands of children playing outside. Once swallowed, the eggs soon hatch, releasing larvae that wriggle through the body and, evidence suggests, may even reach the brain, compromising learning and cognition.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention periodically tracks positive tests for Toxocara through the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The latest report, published in September in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, estimated that about 5 percent of the United States population — or about 16 million people — carry Toxocara antibodies in their blood, a sign they have ingested the eggs.
But the risk is not evenly shared: Poor and minority populations are more often exposed. The rate among African Americans was almost 7 percent, according to the C.D.C. Among people living below the poverty line, the infection rate was 10 percent.
The odds of a positive test rise with age, but it’s unknown whether this reflects recent infections or simply an accumulation of antibodies from past encounters.
Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, calls Toxocara both one of the most common parasites in the country and arguably the most neglected.
“We know in some cases it is linked to lower intelligence and epilepsy,” he said. “So if you were to look at disadvantaged kids living in poverty who are also doing lower on tests of school performance, what percentage of that can be attributed to this worm?”
While much is still unknown, “there’s enough here to warrant doing a major study on a large number of children.”
At the moment, research into Toxocara among Americans is so lacking that the National Institutes of Health funding website lists no grants to study it. Even many of the most basic questions are unanswered, including how often ingested eggs progress to full-blown infection.
Among the country’s overlooked parasitic infections, “Toxocara is probably the one that affects the broadest range of people,” said Sue Montgomery, lead of the epidemiology team at the parasitic diseases branch of the C.D.C. “Dogs and cats are everywhere. Many of them may carry the parasites.”
Studies indicate that owned pets who receive regular veterinary care rarely carry Toxocara. Poorer neighborhoods bear a disproportionate share of strays. In one survey, 8,700 unowned dogs were said to be roamingparts of Dallas.
A survey of New York City playgrounds, presented at a medical conference last year, sampled 21 parks across the city. Toxocara eggs were found in nine parks. Three quarters of samples taken in the Bronx contained eggs in the larval stage, which are more infectious. No parks in Manhattan had eggs with larvae.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), public health and regulatory officials in several states, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are investigating a multistate outbreak of Salmonella infections.
As of January 12, 2018, 25 people infected with the outbreak strains of Salmonella I 4,[5],12:b:- (24 people) or Salmonella Newport (1 person) have been reported from 9 states. One more ill person infected with the outbreak strain of Salmonella I 4,[5],12:b:- has been reported from Canada.
WGS showed that isolates from people infected with Salmonella I 4,[5],12:b:- are closely related genetically. This close genetic relationship means that people in this outbreak are more likely to share a common source of infection.
Illnesses started on dates ranging from May 11, 2017 to November 4, 2017. Ill people range in age from 1 year to 82, with a median age of 19. Among ill people, 19 (76%) are male. Six people (24%) report being hospitalized. No deaths have been reported.
In interviews, ill people answered questions about the foods they ate and other exposures in the week before they became ill. Ten (63%) of 16 people interviewed reported eating or maybe eating coconut. Of these 10 people, 8 (80%) reported having an Asian-style dessert drink that contained frozen shredded coconut.
Throughout the outbreak investigation, state and local health officials have collected different food items from restaurants where ill people consumed Asian-style dessert drinks. In November 2017, laboratory testing of a sample from coconut milk made in one restaurant in New York did not identify the outbreak strain of Salmonella I 4,[5],12:b:-, but did identify a strain of SalmonellaNewport. This sample was from coconut milk made with Coconut Tree Brand frozen Shredded Coconut, as well as other ingredients. WGS showed that the Salmonella Newport isolated from the coconut milk was closely related genetically to a Salmonella Newport isolate from an ill person from Massachusetts who had consumed an Asian-style dessert drink.
In December 2017, officials in Massachusetts collected food items from a restaurant where that ill person had consumed Asian-style dessert drinks. One sample from frozen shredded coconut identified a strain of Salmonella that was new to the PulseNet database and has not been linked to any illnesses. This sample was from an unopened package of Coconut Tree Brand Frozen Shredded Coconut. As a result, on January 3, 2018, Evershing International Trading Company recalled all Coconut Tree Brand Frozen Shredded Coconut. The recalled product was packaged in 16-ounce plastic bags.
Officials in Massachusetts returned to the restaurant and collected more Coconut Tree Brand frozen Shredded Coconut in January 2018. On January 12, laboratory testing confirmed that samples from that frozen shredded coconut identified the outbreak strain of Salmonella I 4,[5],12:b:-. Laboratory testing of other samples identified several types of Salmonella bacteria, including Salmonella Javiana, Salmonella Rissen, and Salmonella Thompson. These samples were from unopened packages of Coconut Tree Brand Frozen Shredded Coconut sold before January 3, 2018. CDC is reviewing the PulseNet database to determine if the other Salmonella isolates from the frozen shredded coconut are linked to any illnesses.
Frozen shredded coconut can last for several months if kept frozen and may still be in retail stores or in people’s homes. CDC recommends that retailers not sell, restaurants not serve, and consumers not eat recalled Coconut Tree Brand frozen Shredded Coconut.
Rebecca Hersher of NPR reports that in 1545, people in the Mexican highlands starting dying in enormous numbers. People infected with the disease bled and vomited before they died. Many had red spots on their skin.
It was one of the most devastating epidemics in human history. The 1545 outbreak, and a second wave in 1576, killed an estimated 7 million to 17 million people and contributed to the destruction of the Aztec Empire.
But identifying the pathogen responsible for the carnage has been difficult for scientists because infectious diseases leave behind very little archaeological evidence.
“There have been different schools of thought on what this disease was. Could it have been plague? Could it have been typhoid fever? Could it have been a litany of other diseases?” says Kirsten Bos, a molecular paleopathologist at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, and an author of a new study published Monday in Nature Ecology and Evolution.
The study analyzes DNA from the teeth of 10 people who died during the epidemic and pinpoints a possible culprit: a type of salmonella that causes a deadly fever.
A new algorithm allowed Bos and her team to identify fragments of ancient salmonella DNA with extreme specificity.
“It was an analytical technique that was really the game-changer for us,” Bos explains. While scientists have been able to extract ancient DNA from bones and other tissue, until recently it was impossible to compare that extracted DNA to a wide variety of potential matches.
But a new computer program called MALT allowed them to do just that. “The major advancement was this algorithm,” Bos says. “It offers a method of analyzing many, many, many small DNA fragments that we get, and actually identifying, by species name, the bacteria that are represented.”
Bos and her team used MALT to match up the DNA fragments extracted from teeth of epidemic victims with a database of known pathogens. The program didn’t entire save them from mind-numbing work — at one point PhD student and study author Ashild Vagene had to go through the results of the program by hand.
In the end, they found evidence of the deadly Salmonella enterica Paratyphi C bacteria.
The study does not pinpoint the source of the bacteria, which is an area of great interest for biologists and archaeologists alike. The authors note that many epidemics of the period are believed to originate with European invaders who arrived in the region in the early part of the 16th century, but the new research doesn’t present biological evidence for or against that.
Salmonella enterica gemones from victims of a major sixteenth-century epidemic in Mexico
Indigenous populations of the Americas experienced high mortality rates during the early contact period as a result of infectious diseases, many of which were introduced by Europeans. Most of the pathogenic agents that caused these outbreaks remain unknown.
Through the introduction of a new metagenomic analysis tool called MALT, applied here to search for traces of ancient pathogen DNA, we were able to identify Salmonella enterica in individuals buried in an early contact era epidemic cemetery at Teposcolula-Yucundaa, Oaxaca in southern Mexico. This cemetery is linked, based on historical and archaeological evidence, to the 1545–1550 CE epidemic that affected large parts of Mexico. Locally, this epidemic was known as ‘cocoliztli’, the pathogenic cause of which has been debated for more than a century.
Here, we present genome-wide data from ten individuals for Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Paratyphi C, a bacterial cause of enteric fever. We propose that S. Paratyphi C be considered a strong candidate for the epidemic population decline during the 1545 cocoliztli outbreak at Teposcolula-Yucundaa.
Continuing with the French imperialism theme, after returning from fishing, villagers in the fokontany of Ambavarano, Mahavanona commune in Ansirtanana II shared sea turtle meat
Immediately after the meal, the first symptoms of food poisoning appeared. They did not stop vomiting and were later evacuated to the hospital.
And despite the intensive care that was provided to the sick, 10 people, including a one-year-old, baby, did not survive. According to the explanations, sea turtles were unfit for consumption.
Currently three other villagers are still receiving treatment at the hospital. Local officials conducted a public awareness campaign to prevent the incident from recurring.
Many thanks to our French correspondent who forwarded this abstract on the latest foodborne illness data from France.
To assess the impact of foodborne infections on human health and to set priorities for surveillance, prevention and control strategies, estimates of food-related morbidity and mortality are necessary. The objective of the present study was to produce the annual number of symptomatic cases, hospitalized cases and deceased cases for 21 foodborne pathogen agents (10 bacteria, 3 viruses, 8 parasites) in metropolitan France for the 2008-2013 period.
Our findings reveal that morbidity and mortality attributed to infectious foodborne diseases remain high in France, representing 1.28-2.23 million illnesses, 15,800-21,200 hospitalizations, and 232-358 deaths. Campylobacter spp., non-typhoidal Salmonella spp. and norovirus infections accounted for the majority of all food-related illnesses and hospitalizations in France. Non-typhoidal Salmonella spp. and Listeria monocytogenes accounted for half of the burden of food-related deaths.
The knowledge of the absolute and relative burden of food-borne infections is useful for all stakeholders (public authorities and operators) involved in the field of food safety.
Estimates of food-related morbidity and mortality in metropolitan France, 2008-2013
Bulletin epidemiologique hebdomadaire
Dieter Van Cauteren, Yann Le Strat, Cecile Sommen, Mathias Bruyand, Mathieu Tourdjman, Nathalie Jourdan-Da Silva, Elisaveth Couturier, Nelly Fournet, Henriette De Valk, Jean-Claude Desenclos
We’re in New Caledonia for Amy to do some French professoring stuff, with the Calgary-Carolina hockey game on in the background on a sports channel from France.
I went for a walk along the ocean this morning, sans Ted, which is the extent of my French.
While I’m surrounded by the beauty of this Pacific island, the Lactalis mess in France continues a downslide into parody (except for the sick kids and their families).
According to Reuters, France welcomed dairy group Lactalis’ pledge to compensate victims of a Salmonella contamination in its baby milk on Sunday, but said a judicial investigation to determine who was responsible would continue.
Lactalis Chief Executive Emmanuel Besnier told the weekly Journal du Dimanche his family company, one of the world’s biggest dairies, would “pay damages to every family which has suffered a prejudice.”
Is prejudice French for barfing?
Salmonella infections can be life-threatening and the families of three dozen children who have fallen sick in France as a result of the contaminated baby milk have announced a raft of lawsuits.
Besnier’s promise came two days after Lactalis widened a product recall to cover all infant formula made at its Craon plan, regardless of the manufacture date, in a bid to contain the fallout from a health scare that risks damaging France’s strategic agribusiness in overseas markets.
“Paying compensation is good, but money cannot buy everything,” government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said in an interview on BFM TV.
The health scare intensified last week after France’s biggest retailers including Carrefour, Auchan and Leclerc admitted products recalled in December had still found their way onto shelves.
“It is the job of the investigation to determine where failings occurred and who is to blame,” Griveaux said, adding that “responsibilities were shared.”
Implementing the global recall will be challenging. Privately owned Lactalis, one of the world’s biggest dairies, exports its baby food products to 83 countries across Europe, Africa and Asia.
The recall involves some 12 million tins of baby milk.
“It’s not easy to evaluate the number of items that need to be returned because we don’t know what’s been consumed already,” Besnier said in a rare newspaper interview published on Sunday.
Friday’s recall was the third in a month and Lactalis has come under fire for its clumsy response. Besnier also told the French weekly that the company had acted as quickly and efficiently as possible and denied slowing the process to curb losses.
Besnier has also been criticized for failing to speak out publicly during the salmonella scare.
While his family are France’s 11th wealthiest, according to a 2017 ranking by Challenges magazine, the dairy tycoon has long shunned the public limelight and schmoozing with politicians.
His workers nickname him the “invisible man.”
“We’re a discreet business. In this region there is a mentality of ‘work first, speak later,” he said. But he acknowledged lessons had been learned during the past few weeks.
Lactalis has become an industry giant, with annual sales of 17 billion euros ($20.73 billion) and 18,900 employees across some 40 countries.
The Christchurch City Council has taken steps to reduce closures across its three indoor facilities. This has led to a 20 per cent drop in closures this year compared to 2016 when the pools were closed 224 times.
Pioneer pool in Spreydon was the hardest hit, experiencing 79 closures, including 50 “code browns” and 26 vomiting incidents. Pioneer pool was closed 93 times in 2016.
Most incidents happened in the leisure pool, which was closed 52 times, followed by the teach pool with 20 closures.
With those kind of numbers, should there be a sad poop emoji to go with the smiling pile of poop emoji?
Barbara Ortutay of USA Today reports that the Unicode Consortium is tasked with setting the global standard for the icons. It’s a heady responsibility and it can take years from inspiration — Hey, why isn’t there a dumpling? — to a new symbol being added to our phones.
That’s because deciding whether a googly-eyed turd should express a wider range of emotions is not the frivolous undertaking it might appear to be. Picking the newest additions to our roster of cartoonish glyphs, from deciding on their appearance to negotiating rules that allow vampires but bar Robert Pattinson’s or Dracula’s likeness, actually has consequences for modern communication.
Not since the printing press has something changed written language as much as emojis have, says Lauren Collister, a scholarly communications librarian at the University of Pittsburgh.
“Emoji is one way language is growing,” she says. “When it stops growing and adapting, that’s when a language dies.”
So full congrats to the New York Daily Post, whose front-page this morning slammed the immigration comments of so-called U.S. President Donald Trump with an appropriate emoji of its own.
According to the Washington Post, which first reported the story, President Trump grew frustrated with lawmakers Thursday in the Oval Office when they discussed protecting immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries as part of a bipartisan immigration deal, according to several people briefed on the meeting.
“Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” Trump said, according to these people, referring to countries mentioned by the lawmakers.
Trump then suggested that the United States should instead bring more people from countries such as Norway, whose prime minister he met with Wednesday. The president, according to a White House official, also suggested he would be open to more immigrants from Asian countries because he felt they help the United States economically.
In addition, the president singled out Haiti, telling lawmakers that immigrants from that country must be left out of any deal, these people said.
“Why do we need more Haitians?” Trump said, according to people familiar with the meeting. “Take them out.”
George Washington said in 1783, “The bosom of America is open to receive not only the opulent & respectable Stranger, but the oppressed & persecuted of all Nations & Religions; whom we shall wellcome to a participation of all our rights & privileges” (except for colored people which was sorta dumb).
Maybe Jimmy Buffett got it.
Buffet’s 1978 album, Son of a Son of a Sailor, was one of the first 8-tracks I bought while on vacation in Florida when I was 15-years-old, and it included the track Manana, which weirdly applies to Trump.
She said I can’t go back to America soon
It’s so goddamn cold it’s gonna snow until June
Yeah, they’re freezin’ up in Buffalo stuck in their cars
And I’m lyin’ here ‘neath the sun and the stars.
Customs man tell her that she’s gotta leave
She’s got a plan hidden up her shrewd sleeve
Wants to find her a captain, a man of strong mind
And any direction he blows will be fine.
Please don’t say manana if you don’t mean it
I have heard those words for so very long
Don’t try to describe the ocean if you’ve never seen it
Don’t ever forget that you just may wind up being wrong.
Tried and I tried but I don’t understand
Never seems to work out the way I had it planned
Hanging out at a marina when Steve Martin called
Singin’ anybody there really want to get small.
But women and water are in short supply
There’s not enough dope for us all to get high
I hear it gets better, that’s what they say
As soon as we sail on to Cane Garden Bay.
Please don’t say manana if you don’t mean it
I have heard your lines for so very long
Don’t try to describe the scenery if you’ve never seen it
Don’t ever forget that you just may wind up in my song.
Called all my friends on those cheap nightly rates
Sure was good to talk to the old United States
While the lights of St. Thomas lie twenty miles west
I see General Electric’s still doing their best.
I’ve got to head this boat south pretty soon
New album’s old and I’m fresh out of tunes
But I know that I’ll get ’em, I know that they’ll come
Through the people and places and Caldwood’s Rum
So please don’t say manana if you don’t mean it
I have done your lines for so very long
Don’t try to describe a Kiss concert if you’ve never seen it
Don’t ever forget that you just may wind up being gonged
And I hope Anita Bryant never does one of my songs.
The risk model considered variability and uncertainty in Salmonella contamination in seeds, Salmonella growth and spread during sprout production, sprout consumption, and Salmonella dose response.
