Tag Archives: Poop

Don’t eat raccoon poop

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CBC News reported last night that parents should be on alert for raccoon roundworm, a rare parasite transmitted through contact with the animal’s feces, which has left a New York infant with brain damage and a teenager blind.

Raccoon roundworm or Baylisascaris procyonis is an extremely rare parasitic infection in humans that can cause nausea, nerve damage and even death.

People become infected by swallowing the parasite’s eggs that are shed in the feces of infected raccoons.

Parents should supervise children to keep them away from raccoon feces, Sally Slavinski, a spokeswoman for the city’s health department, said Monday.

The infant has been hospitalized since suffering seizures and spinal problems last October and now has permanent brain damage.

The infant had a history of eating soil, and swallowing soil contaminated with raccoon feces is the most likely source of infection, the city’s alert said. The 17-year-old lost sight in the right eye in January. Both are from Brooklyn.

"Avoiding Baylisascaris means avoiding ingestion of raccoon stool," veterinarian Scott Weese of the University of Guelph wrote in his blog, Worms & Germs, which promotes safe pet ownership.

The first rule of public health? CYA

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I say the first rule of public health is, don’t eat poop.

And have fewer sick people.

Bureaucrats say the first rule of public health is, cover your ass (no, not like that) so that the department comes out smelling all pretty and not like poop.

So after 21 people die and a bunch more got sick from listeria in Maple Leaf deli meats, what do Canadian bureaucrats focus on? Covering their asses.

The heads of three federal agencies pivotal to last summer’s listeriosis crisis (right, not exactly as shown) want a damning report by Ontario’s top public health official "clarified and corrected."

The most senior officials at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the Public Health Agency of Canada and Health Canada demanded the revisions in a recent letter to Dr. David Williams, Ontario’s acting chief medical officer of health.

Williams also noted that almost a month elapsed between the first listeriosis death last summer and a widespread recall of suspect Maple Leaf deli meats.

The letter suggests that criticism is unfair.

The he-said-she-said may be mildly entertaining for bureaucrats– in both official languages —  but does nothing to ensure that fewer people barf in the future.

Instead, the federal triumverate of see-no-evil, hear-no-evil, speak-no-evil could focus on:

• making listeria test results public in a timely manner;

• providing compelling information to at-risk populations, especially pregnant women and old folks, that maybe they shouldn’t be eating products at risk for listeria contamination (cause Michael McCain says it’s everywhere); and,

• provide clear guidelines on how outbreaks of foodborne illness are investigated and at what point sufficient evidence exists to warn the pubic.
 

Teacher packs poop in 5-year-old’s backpack

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A father and mother in Washington state are outraged after their 5-year-old son was sent home from school, allegedly forced to carry a package of human feces along with an embarrassing note from his kindergarten teacher.

"This little turd was on the floor in my room," said the note from Susan Graham, an instructor at Apple Valley Elementary School in Yakima, Wash. (right, exactly as shown).

"I’m still kind of in shock over this, because why would somebody do this? It’s disgusting!" said the boy’s father, wishing to be identified only as "Jason."

The case has sparked a flood of comments on KOMO’s messageboard, including:

* If the teacher still has a job after this, then we as a society get what we deserve. This sub-human does not belong in any place of employment where they have control over children.

* Kudos to this teacher. The parents are responsible for teaching their child basic hygiene and potty training not the school system. Sounds like the parents and the brat don’t believe they have any responsibility or know right from wrong. Give this teacher an award for not being politically correct and teaching the parents and the brat a lesson.

* I smell a lawsuit.


 

Domino’s Employees of the Month arrested: mug shot below

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Unfunnyman Dane Cook and untalented Jessica Simpson have a better chance of finding future employment in pizza preparation – actually, a ridiculously certain chance — than the two below.

Police in Conover, North Carolina say two Domino’s Pizza workers and home video enthusiasts, 31-year-old Kristy Lynn Hammonds of Taylorsville and 32-year-old Michael Anthony Setzer of Conover (right, not exactly as shown) have each charged with distributing prohibited foods.

The pair (below, exactly as shown when booked) produced some employee training videos for Domino’s Pizza that are available at GoodAsYou, including one of Michael wiping his ass with a sponge and then using it to clean a pan, and another in which Kristy says, "Did you all see that? He just blew a booger on those sandwiches.”

‘Fecal material’ at N.Y. Applebee’s

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Actor John Corbett – Chris on Northern Exposure, Carrie’s boyfriend for awhile on Sex and the City, empathetic husband on The United States of Tara – needs to do a new Applebee’s advert (he’s the voice).

Shigella – it only comes from fecal material.

WSYR-TV is reporting the Onondaga County Health Department in New York state has confirmed seven cases of Shigella in people who recently ate at the Applebee’s in Camillus, and that up to 9,000 people may have been exposed to the bacteria

County Health Commissioner Dr. Cynthia Morrow said Shigella is associated with consuming water or food contaminated with fecal matter.

Those who are confirmed ill ate at the restaurant on either Saturday, March 7th or Sunday, March 8th, but the overall window that the Health Department is looking at is between Sunday, March 1st and Friday, March 20th.

The health department waited until Tuesday to announce the illnesses because it had sent stool samples to the lab, and had just gotten the results back.

Health officials are now testing all employees at the restaurant, which remains open.

Looking out for the farmers of the “safest food in the world”

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This summer at the Kansas State Fair, I felt like I was getting a lot of strange looks. I tried to brush it off, telling myself that it was no crime to have never slopped a pig or stolen eggs from under a roosting a hen—I should still be welcome at the fair.

I was positive there were other non-farm girls there. Probably even some that grew up in the city; I, at least, shared a property line with a cow pasture. But people just kept staring.

I really got embarrassed when a representative from the Farm Bureau Federation started to laugh out loud and point at me.

When it finally donned on me that I was wearing my Don’t Eat Poop t-shirt that day, I turned to let him read the back: Wash Your Hands.

I explained that I worked for an organization that wants to turn the public’s attention to food safety.

He seemed to think that particular method was effective. “But do you make farmers look bad?” he asked while raising one eyebrow.

I told him we felt it was important that everyone does their part, from the farm to the fork.

He smiled, but I think he remained skeptical.

I raised my eyebrow today at a press release in which the director of congressional relations in the California Farm Bureau National Affairs and Research Division, Josh Rolph, was quoted as saying,

"Congress and the new administration will be sure to consider changes to the way the government oversees the safety of food production. We want to make sure that any changes don’t prove to be burdensome to farmers, who are growing the safest food supply in the world."

I wish I could meet this guy and stare strangely at him. If anyone’s going to claim to grow the safest food in the world, they’re going to have to take some pains to prove it.

“The nation’s farming community understands the need to improve food safety, Rolph said, but the farm-level impact to producers must be considered in any new food safety proposals.”

Salinas vegetable farmer Dirk Giannini referred to the surge in food safety action plans following the outbreak of E. coli from spinach in 2006, and explained that a frenzy of “non-scientific ideas” were putting farmers out.

"And don’t get me wrong,” said Giannini, “The farmers do not want to jeopardize anyone’s health or life—we have the safest food supply in the world. But the scientific-based decisions are the ones that we need to move forward."

Of course any actions to increase the safety of the food supply should be backed by scientific evidence, but public claims of safety should have the same foundation.

To the farmers who grow the food I appreciate every day: In your products and in your claims, Don’t Sell Poop.
 

Are petting zoos safe for kids?

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Last week, an E.coli outbreak involving at least 17 kids and 3 adults was linked to a Denver cattle show.

In light of that, a reporter for the San Antonio Express-News spent a day at the petting zoo at the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo asking parents if they were worried about the "germs" their kids were being exposed to.

Some said yes; many others were confident in the precautions they were taking.

The stepfather of a three-year-old wasn’t worried. "We wash his hands," he said.

One mother said of her thumb-sucking two-year-old,

“I can’t keep her in a bubble. [But] it’s definitely something I think about every day with her.”

One of the largest petting zoo outbreaks of E.coli O157:H7 to date was linked to the North Carolina State Fair in 2004. A study of the outbreak by Goode and colleagues found,

Persons became infected after contact with manure and engaging in hand-to-mouth behaviors in a petting zoo having substantial E coli O157:H7 contamination.

Use of alcohol-based hand-sanitizing gels was not protective [against infection with E.coli O157:H7], although knowledge of the risk for zoonotic infection was protective.

Are petting zoos safe for kids? Maybe, if you’re aware of the risks and make sure they don’t eat any poop. But that might be easier said than done.

In the San Antonio article, Bill Marler was quoted as saying the threat of exposure to new and dangerous pathogens was too high for him to risk taking a small child or anyone with a compromised immune system to a petting zoo.

It’s your call.

What’s the best way to wash hands?

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According to CanWest News, Canadian government officials, based on internal documents, can’t agree on how long to scrub.

Correspondence between senior Ontario and federal bureaucrats obtained under an access to information request reveal disparities in hand washing advice, as discovered by an Ontario health official who surveyed government health websites looking for advice.

The inconsistencies prompted her to muse, "maybe we should have a National consensus meeting on how to wash your hands."

No need to file pondersome information requests. A google search reveals all kinds of differing advice  on how best to wash hands. We’ve come up with our own, but are constantly revising as more information becomes available.

The steps in proper handwashing, as concluded from the preponderance of available evidence, are:

• wet hands with water;
• use enough soap to build a good lather;
• scrub hands vigorously, creating friction and reaching all areas of the fingers and hands for at least 10 seconds to loosen pathogens on the fingers and hands;
• rinse hands with thorough amounts of water while continuing to rub hands; and,
• dry hands with paper towel.

Water temperature is not a critical factor — water hot enough to kill dangerous bacteria and viruses would scald hands — so use whatever is comfortable.

The friction from rubbing hands with paper towels helps remove additional bacteria and viruses.

Next time you visit a bathroom that is missing soap, water or paper towels, let someone in charge know. And next time you see someone skip out on the suds in the bathroom, look at them and say, “Dude, wash your hands!”


 

Watching the trainwreck that is diarrhea

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There’s a certain appeal to trainspotting – or watching an impending trainwreck. It’s appalling and compelling at the same time. Ben and I went to a Sloan concert in Guelph several years ago and we wanted to leave they were so bad – and Sloan is usually great – but had to stay and watch where they would descend to next.

It was worth the wait.

Amy the French professor has a similar obsession. There’s some woman who writes a blog about her meaningless life in France and Amy is hooked. Amy finds this woman’s blog posts meaningless, facile and unbelievably stupid. And she reads it every day.

Recently, French blogger’s daughter had, as Ben likes to say, the squirts: diarrhea at daycare. Mom says, “Our daycare is pretty cool about letting her (diarrhea daughter) come.”

Diarrhea in a daycare is not a good thing, but hey, poop happens. Not so sure about the quality control when the kid’s runny poop ends up on the bandage of her finger that mom had accidentally attempted to sever using a bedroom door. Read the blog and it may make sense; or want to kill yourself.

Surprisingly, the newspaper in Pembroke, Ontario, near the Barry’s Bay cottage owned by the parents of my high school girlfriend, has some tips for kids with the squirts.

Prevent the spread of viruses. Clean your hands and your child’s hands often, especially after using the toilet or changing a diaper. Use soap and warm water, or hand sanitizer. If hands are dirty, hand sanitizers won’t work, you’ll need to wash with soap and water first.

Amy and I have been changing a lot of diapers. We wash our hands. And despite some fantastically explosive messes, haven’t gotten baby shit on the kid’s fingers.
 

Bovine super-shedders and E. coli O157:H7

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Chuck Dodd, a veterinarian in the U.S. Army, currently disguised as a graduate student in Food Science at Kansas State University who spends a lot of time collecting poop (right below, exactly as shown), writes that researchers have now concluded that some cows present a greater risk for beef contamination by shedding higher concentrations of Escherichia coli O157 in their feces.

Some food safety researchers, including me, have begun to label these cows as super-shedders. But that may be a witch hunt, or in this case, a super-shedder hunt.

Escherichia coli O157 remains a significant cause of foodborne illness in the United States. From 1982 to 2002, there were 350 reported outbreaks of E. coli O157 in which 8,598 people became ill. Almost 1,500 were hospitalized and 40 died. During this period, 41 percent of food-related E. coli O157 outbreaks were associated with the consumption of contaminated ground beef. Ground beef that came from cattle. Cattle that may have been shedding very high levels of E. coli O157 in their feces.

Cattle do not get sick if they carry E. coli O157 in their feces. A cow with E. coli O157 looks just like any other cow. In order to discriminate, the feces must be tested. Test methods have improved and now the organisms can be detected at lower concentrations in the feces. The numbers of organisms can also be estimated; hence, food safety researchers are able to separate the super-shedders from the low-shedders. Cattle can also be identified that are not carrying E. coli O157.

Studies have shown that E. coli O157 in cattle feces or on cattle hides is correlated with the detectable presence of E. coli O157 on the carcass. Carcass contamination likely occurs during the hide removal and evisceration process; this leads to the contamination of individual beef products sold at retail. In order to mitigate the risk of E. coli O157 contamination in ground beef, the beef industry employs pre- and post-harvest interventions. Yet some bacteria still make it through the harvest process.

Researchers are now scrutinizing cattle because their feces may have a super-sized dose of E. coli O157. Their theory: if the beef industry can detect and mitigate super-shedders, they can mitigate contamination of beef.

But is super-shedding super-bad? Maybe not.

Cattle with higher concentrations of E. coli O157 in their feces probably pose a higher risk for the eventual contamination of beef; however, the fecal shedding of these organisms comes and goes. Fecal shedding may depend upon host immunity and the environment (neither of which are the cow’s fault). What if a super-shedder on Saturday becomes a low-shedder on Sunday? What if a super-shedder is simply having a bad E. coli day? Does a high fecal concentration of E. coli O157 overwhelm the interventions that exist from farm-to-fork?

Researchers have asked whether the variation in fecal shedding “arises from the inherent stochasticity in transmission dynamics or is a signature of underlying heterogeneities in the cattle population.” Translation: are the differences in fecal shedding simply random or is it because cattle are simply different? Apparently, the fecal shedding of E. coli O157 varies by animal and by day.


Admittedly, due to the transience of E. coli O157 in cattle, a steer may shed a lot on the day of harvest. Nevertheless, if transience is real, then some days cattle may pose a high risk, low risk, or negligible risk.

The new super-shedder hunt may lengthen the path in preventing foodborne illness due to E. coli O157. Some cattle carry E. coli O157 and some don’t. There may be some benefit in knowing which cattle are shedding more than 100,000 E. coli O157 per gram in their feces on a given day, but will this knowledge prevent beef contamination? Perhaps, if it is the day of harvest.