Shiga toxin producing E coli in raw milk products in Norway

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The Norwegian Food Safety Authority has detected Shiga toxin producing E. coli (STEC) in four unpasteurized milk products.

Mattilsynet said 82 unpasteurized milk products were examined and STEC was isolated from three products from Norwegian companies and a French cheese. Stx genes were also detected in 20 samples.

E. coli O-, stx2a was found in a Norwegian-produced soft red cheese of cow’s milk and rømme (a type of blue cheese) and E. coli O26, Stx1 and eae was in fresh cheese from goat milk. E. coli O113, stx2d was detected in French chèvre.

Joe Whitworth of Food Quality News reports Mattilsynet took 714 samples of pasteurized and unpasteurized dairy products – mainly cheeses – as part of a monitoring program from 2010 to 2016 – including 184 samples last year.

Samples in 2016 consisted of 102 produced from pasteurized milk and 82 of unpasteurized milk from stores, importers and manufacturers.

These products consisted of cow’s milk (139), goat (33), sheep (11) and a mixture of these (1).

The monitoring program was done to acquire knowledge on hygiene of dairy products on the Norwegian market.

Chefs do the darnedest things

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My experience as a dishwasher was short lived. When I was in grad school studying restaurant food safety I volunteered at a local restaurant. I wanted to know what it was like, even just a little bit, to be a food handler – figuring I’d be better at food safety if I understood the pressures of the job. I spent most of my time in the dish pit, listening to Tom Petty working with fun folks, who were into lots of different substances.

One day, one of my last, I was doing salad prep, and trying to wash my hands between handling lettuce (with bare hands) and dirty dishes. The chef yelled at me because we didn’t have time to waste – and I skipped the whole handwash process.

That’s my self-reported story. Researchers in the UK (Jones and colleagues) published a paper a couple of weeks ago about the self reported behaviors of chefs, managers and catering students. They didn’t fare much better than I had. And surveys have their limitations.

Foodborne disease poses a serious threat to public health. In the UK, half a million cases are linked to known pathogens and more than half of all outbreaks are associated with catering establishments. The UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) has initiated the UK Food Hygiene Rating Scheme in which commercial food establishments are inspected and scored with the results made public. In this study we investigate the prevalence of food risk increasing behaviours among chefs, catering students and the public. Given the incentive for respondents to misreport when asked about illegal or illicit behaviours we employed a Randomised Response Technique designed to elicit more accurate prevalence rates of such behaviours. We found 14% of the public not always hand-washing immediately after handling raw meat, poultry or fish; 32% of chefs and catering students had worked within 48 hours of suffering from diarrhoea or vomiting. 22% of the public admitted having served meat “on the turn” and 33% of chefs and catering students admitted working in kitchens where such meat was served; 12% of the public and 16% of chefs and catering students admitted having served chicken at a barbeque when not totally sure it was fully cooked. Chefs in fine-dining establishment were less likely to wash their hands after handling meat and fish and those who worked in award winning restaurants were more likely to have returned to work within 48 hours of suffering from diarrhoea and vomiting. We found no correlation between the price of a meal in an establishment, nor its Food Hygiene Rating Score, and the likelihood of any of the food malpractices occurring.

Ukrainian bot death linked to dried fish

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In late 2016 six cases of botulism were linked to dried salted fish products in Germany and  Spain. According to 24.my.info a woman from the Kirovohrad region of Ukraine died from botulism also linked to dried fish (something may be lost in translation).

In the town of Novoukrainka of Kirovohrad region woman died from botulism after eating dried fish, which she bought personally in the store ATB city of Kharkiv. It is reported Kirovohrad regional laboratory center.

According to the report, the first symptoms of the disease in women appeared on July 6 near midnight, four hours after eating dried fish, which she (her words) bought personally in the store ATB city of Kharkiv.

Two trichina outbreaks in Alaska; it was the walrus

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There’s not a lot of trichina in the U.S. food supply anymore. It used to be a much more important pathogen. In the 1940s, when the US Public Health Service started tracking the illness, there was around 400 cases a year. Now there’s about 20.

A couple of the more notable incidents were reported in MMWR last week – two outbreaks in Alaska linked to raw walrus.

During July 2016–May 2017, the Alaska Division of Public Health (ADPH) investigated two outbreaks of trichinellosis in the Norton Sound region associated with consumption of raw or undercooked walrus (Odobenus rosmarus) meat; five cases were identified in each of the two outbreaks. These were the first multiple-case outbreaks of walrus-associated trichinellosis in Alaska since 1992.

The walrus consumed during the implicated meal in the second outbreak had been harvested and butchered by patients F and I during the previous 1–3 months, and the meat had been stored frozen in unlabeled bags in their respective household chest freezers. The meat was prepared by patient H, who reported that she boiled it for approximately 1 hour, after which the exterior was fully cooked, but the interior remained undercooked or raw, which was the desired result; interviewed persons reported that many community members prefer the taste and texture of undercooked or raw walrus meat to that of fully cooked meat.

These outbreaks also highlight the importance of culturally sensitive public health messaging. In areas where wild game species are harvested for subsistence, traditional methods of collecting, handling, preparing, storing, and consuming meat often have great cultural significance; however, some of these methods can be inconsistent with public health best practices. Rather than promoting or proscribing specific methods, public health messages that focus on communicating risks and explaining the manner and magnitude of risk reduction that can be achieved using different approaches (e.g., alternative methods of preparing meat for consumption) enable members of the target population to make informed decisions that integrate their traditional practices with their awareness and tolerance of risks.

Almost 500 sickened: German pigs and Salmonella

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In 2013, raw pork was the suspected vehicle of a large outbreak (n = 203 cases) of Salmonella Muenchen in the German federal state of Saxony. In 2014, we investigated an outbreak (n = 247 cases) caused by the same serovar affecting Saxony and three further federal states in the eastern part of Germany.

Evidence from epidemiological, microbiological and trace-back investigations strongly implicated different raw pork products as outbreak vehicles. Trace-back analysis of S. Muenchen-contaminated raw pork sausages narrowed the possible source down to 54 pig farms, and S. Muenchen was detected in three of them, which traded animals with each other. One of these farms had already been the suspected source of the 2013 outbreak. S. Muenchen isolates from stool of patients in 2013 and 2014 as well as from food and environmental surface swabs of the three pig farms shared indistinguishable pulsed-field gel electrophoresis patterns.

Our results indicate a common source of both outbreaks in the primary production of pigs. Current European regulations do not make provisions for Salmonella control measures on pig farms that have been involved in human disease outbreaks. In order to prevent future outbreaks, legislators should consider tightening regulations for Salmonella control in causative primary production settings.

Two consecutive large outbreaks of salmonella muenchen linked to pig farming in Germany, 2013 to 2014: Is something missing in our regulatory framework?

Eurosurveillance, vol. 22, no. 18, 4 May 2017, A Schielke, W Rabsch, R Prager, S Simon, A Fruth, R Helling, M Schnabel, Siffczyk, S Wieczorek, S Schroeder, B Ahrens, H Oppermann, S Pfeiffer, SS Merbecks, B Rosner, C Frank, AA Weiser, P Luber, A Gilsdorf, K Stark, D Werber

http://www.eurosurveillance.org/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=22793

Warning: Communion bread contains gluten

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I grew up Catholic and still go to church every Sunday with my family. I remember my father dragging me out of bed every Sunday to attend mass. Then afterwards, in the true Italian spirit, we would have a massive feast with extended family, heavy on the carbs, great time.

During mass, I was never a huge fan of everyone sipping out of the same wine goblet, always found that gross, but never thought of gluten in the communion bread, especially for those with Celiac disease.

The New York Times report:

The unleavened bread that Roman Catholics use in the celebration of Mass must contain some gluten, even if only a trace amount, according to a new Vatican directive.

The directive, which was dated June 15 but received significant attention only after it was reported by Vatican Radio on Saturday, affirms an existing policy. But it may help to relieve some of the confusion surrounding church doctrine on gluten, a protein that occurs naturally in wheat and has become the subject of debates over nutrition and regulation.

The issue is especially urgent for people with celiac disease, a gastrointestinal immune disorder that causes stomach pain, diarrhea and weight loss and that can lead to serious complications, or for those with other digestive conditions that make them vulnerable even to small amounts of gluten.

Many other people who do not have celiac disease may nonetheless have a sensitivity or allergy to gluten, and yet others have adopted a gluten-free diet in the belief that it is healthier — although science is far from clear on this point.

In both the United States and the European Union, the description “gluten-free” can be legally applied to foods made with wheat starch from which almost, but not absolutely, all gluten has been removed — the upper limit is 20 parts per million. The Catholic church will allow bread of this kind to be used for communion.

But it will not allow truly gluten-free altar breads made with rice, potato, tapioca or other flours in place of wheat. (The Anglican Communion has taken a similar position, while some other Christian denominations consider such breads acceptable.)

Campy on the risin’ risin’

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Lyrics to the Doors’ song below are sorta dumb, but a great guitar solo that still sends shivers up and down my spine. And Campy, it keeps on risin.’

Campylobacter is the most frequently occurring cause of bacterial gastroenteritis in Europe. Unlike other zoonotic diseases, European-wide incidences of Campylobacter infections have increased during the past decade, resulting in a significant disease burden. In Denmark, campylobacteriosis is notifiable by laboratory and a unique registration system of electronic transfer and storage of notified Campylobacter cases linked to the national person register of age, gender and geographical location allows collection of comprehensive case data.

Using national surveillance data, we describe Campylobacter infections in Denmark from 2000 to 2015, focusing on age-specific incidences, geography, seasonality and outbreaks. During the observed period, a total of 60,725 Campylobacter infections were registered with a mean annual incidence of 69.3 cases/100,000 population. From 2000 to 2014, the incidence of campylobacteriosis decreased by 20%, followed by an apparent increase of 20% from 2014 to 2015. Approximately one-third of cases were travel-related. Incidences were highest in males, young adults aged 20–29 years and children under 5 years of age. Generally, children under 10 years of age living in rural areas were at higher risk of infection. Infection patterns were seasonal with an increase from May to October, peaking in August. Outbreaks were identified each year, including four large waterborne outbreaks which all occurred following heavy rainfall events. For the most part, patterns of Campylobacter infection in Denmark during 2000 to 2015 remained remarkably constant and followed what is known about the disease with respect to demographic, temporal and spatial characteristics.

To establish better targeted prevention and control measures, the current knowledge gaps regarding both Campylobacter microbiology (degree of clonal diversity and clustering) and the importance of different risk factors (food versus environment/climate) need to be filled.

Epidemiology of campylobacteriosis in Denmark 2000–2015

Zoonoses and Public Health

G. Kuhn, E. M. Nielsen, K. Mølbak, S. Ethelberg

DOI: 10.1111/zph.12367

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/zph.12367/abstract;jsessionid=B1876B46881FE2313CB2972DF3AA7AD3.f04t01

Dirty hippies: Mad Tea Party Jam forced to cancel headliner in Penn after illness

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Colin Stutz of Billboard reports the Mad Tea Party Jam in Artemis, Pennsylvania, this past weekend saw attendees, artists and staff fall ill to sicknesses that sent several people to the hospital and prevented performances. 

The event was held at Four Quarters Farm where WickerMan Burn was held the weekend prior from June 8-11. Similarly, that event saw a number of attendees get sick with reported stomach issues. The outbreaks have not been officially linked and no official cause of either weekend’s illnesses has yet been announced. 

On Saturday night at the Mad Tea Party Jam, headliner Papadosio canceled their third and final performance of the weekend due to three of the band’s five members falling ill. The festival announced the news with a post, saying they were “sorry to disappoint and take these health issues very seriously.”

According to NYS Music, Mad Tea Party also released a statement on Sunday via social media that has since been deleted:

“Despite our best efforts to maintain the health safety of our patrons, people were falling ill. We ourselves are seeking any and all answers. The Pennsylvania Center of Epidemiology has been contacted by the venue in order to properly ascertain what has happened this past weekend. In order to better understand and identify the issue and better yet, how to fix this issue, we are openly asking people to report their own health issues to the Pennsylvania board of health. Please call this number in order to aid us. 1-877-PA HEALTH”

Billboard has reached out to the festival for comment but did not hear back at time of publishing. 

Why I don’t eat raw oysters: Vibrio thrives by attacking the cell’s cytoskeleton

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The leading cause of acute gastroenteritis linked to eating raw seafood disarms a key host defense system in a novel way: It paralyzes a cell’s skeleton, or cytoskeleton.

That finding, from UT Southwestern Medical Center, was reported today in PLoS Pathogens. Without a working cytoskeleton, infected cells are unable to produce defensive molecules called reactive oxygen species (ROS) that normally attack bacterial DNA, said Dr. Marcela de Souza Santos, lead author of the study and a postdoctoral researcher in the laboratory of senior author Dr. Kim Orth. Dr. Orth is a Professor of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at UT Southwestern as well as an Investigator in the prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

“Vibrio parahaemolyticus bacteria deploy a needlelike apparatus called a Type III Secretion System (T3SS) that injects toxic bacterial proteins, known as effectors, into cells that line the intestine, resulting in severe gastroenteritis,” Dr. de Souza Santos said.

Usually V. parahaemolyticus causes only a few days of gastrointestinal distress in the form of vomiting or diarrhea. On rare occasions, however, particularly in people with chronic health conditions like diabetes or liver disease that compromise the immune system, the bacteria can escape from the gut and enter the bloodstream, causing life-threatening systemic infection.

Of the nearly 80 known Vibrio strains, only about a dozen infect humans. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates Vibrio cause 80,000 illnesses and 100 deaths in the U.S. annually. Of those, an estimated 45,000 people are sickened by V. parahaemolyticus. Another Vibrio strain, V. vulnificus, can cause life-threatening infections in people with open wounds exposed to warm seawater. As with other Vibrio strains, people who are immunocompromised are at highest risk.

“Vibrio parahaemolyticus is the reason for the old saying that you shouldn’t eat oysters in months without an ‘r’ in them, meaning the summer months,” said Dr. Orth, holder of the Earl A. Forsythe Chair in Biomedical Science and a W.W. Caruth, Jr. Scholar in Biomedical Research. “With the warming of the oceans, the risk now starts earlier in the year and the bacteria’s geographical range is spreading.” The CDC’s fact sheet says that 80 percent of U.S. vibriosis infections occur between May and October.

The state of Alaska reported its first V. parahaemolyticus outbreak in July 2004. Another strain of Vibrio sickened more than 80 people exposed to contaminated seawater during a heatwave in Northern Europe in 2014. The first Vibrio strains were identified in the 18th century.

Until recently, it was believed that Vibrio bacteria remained outside cells, doing their damage by shooting effectors into cells. However, in 2012, the Orth laboratory identified a way that V. parahaemolyticus tricks random cells lining the gut into engulfing the bacterium and bringing it inside the cell. The current study indicates how the T3SS protein VopL aids V. parahaemolyticus infection by helping the pathogen secure a niche within the cell for bacterial replication.

It’s a good strategy for a bacterium to infect random cells only, Dr. Orth said. If a pathogen were to infect most of the host’s cells quickly – as is thought to occur with the Ebola virus – the pathogen might kill its host so fast that it could undermine its own survival, she said.

In a study published last month in Science Signaling, the Orth laboratory did something unprecedented: It followed V. parahaemolyticus infection over time – flash freezing samples every 15 minutes – to chart the pathogen’s effect on host signaling. That study identified 398 genes whose expressions were changed by Vibrio infection, said lead author and postdoctoral researcher Dr. Nicole De Nisco.

In the current study, the researchers found that one of V. parahaemolyticus’ many effectors – VopL – paralyzes the cytoskeleton through a novel mechanism. The cellular machinery, or complex, that makes the ROS sits on the cell surface, but the molecules that the cellular factory needs to assemble ROS are created inside the cell. A working, flexible cytoskeleton is necessary to move the molecules to the ROS factory, she explained.

To confirm their observation, the researchers created two V. parahaemolyticus strains, one able to make VopL and another not. Using confocal microscopy, they found that the Vibrio able to produce VopL inactivated the assembly of ROS by gathering the cytoskeleton into nonfunctional filaments. In contrast, the mutant bacterium unable to produce VopL was vulnerable to ROS attack.

This study identifies the virulence factor used by V. parahaemolyticus to suppress host ROS generation and also reveals an unprecedented mechanism used by a microbial pathogen to do so, said Dr. Orth.

“By hijacking the cytoskeleton, VopL prevents the cell from launching one of its major weapons, reactive oxygen species,” said Dr. Orth. “We hope our work will lead to a better understanding of host defense, which, in turn could lead to new ways to undermine the pathogens.”