South of the border wouldn’t quite make sense living in Australia.
But this was fairly classy for a bunch of hockey folks. And we’re building the game in Australia.
A touching tribute from U.S. hockey
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Tag Archives: US
Norovirus common in children
Norovirus infection has become the leading cause of acute gastroenteritis in children under 5 in the U.S.
Payne et al. report in The New England Journal of Medicine that norovirus infection leads to an estimated 14,000 hospitalizations, 281,000 emergency room visits, and 627,000 outpatient visits a year.
The virus causes severe stomach pain, nausea, diarrhea and vomiting. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it leads to 800 
deaths a year, but the vast majority of people infected recover completely.
For the new study, the researchers counted laboratory-confirmed cases in three United States counties in 2009 and 2010, so the sample may not be representative of the entire country. During that period, norovirus was confirmed in about 20 percent of cases of acute gastroenteritis in children. Infection with another virus, rotavirus, has become less common since the introduction of a rotavirus vaccine.
There is no vaccine and no cure for norovirus infection, and it is highly contagious. There are various strains of the virus, and some may be more potent than others.
Background
Cases of rotavirus-associated acute gastroenteritis have declined since the introduction of rotavirus vaccines, but the burden of norovirus-associated acute gastroenteritis in children remains to be assessed.
Methods
We conducted active surveillance for laboratory-confirmed cases of norovirus among children younger than 5 years of age with acute gastroenteritis in hospitals, emergency departments, and outpatient clinical settings. The children resided in one of three U.S. counties during the years 2009 and 2010. Fecal specimens were tested for norovirus and rotavirus. We calculated population-based rates of norovirus-associated acute gastroenteritis and reviewed billing records to determine medical costs; these data were extrapolated to the U.S. population of children younger than 5 years of age.
Results
Norovirus was detected in 21% of young children (278 of 1295) seeking medical attention for acute gastroenteritis in 2009 and 2010, with norovirus detected in 22% (165 of 742) in 2009 and 20% (113 of 553) in 2010 (P=0.43). The virus was also detected in 4% of healthy controls (19 of 493) in 2009. Rotavirus was identified in 12% of children with acute gastroenteritis (152 of 1295) in 2009 and 2010. The respective rates of hospitalization, emergency department visits, and outpatient visits for the norovirus were 8.6, 146.7, and 367.7 per 10,000 children younger than 5 years of age in 2009 and 5.8, 134.3, and 260.1 per 10,000 in 2010, with an estimated cost per episode of $3,918, $435, and $151, respectively, in 2009. Nationally, we estimate that the average numbers of annual hospitalizations, emergency department visits, and outpatient visits due to norovirus infection in 2009 and 2010 among U.S. children in this age group exceeded 14,000, 281,000, and 627,000, respectively, with more than $273 million in treatment costs each year.
Conclusions
Since the introduction of rotavirus vaccines, norovirus has become the leading cause of medically attended acute gastroenteritis in U.S. children and is associated with nearly 1 million health care visits annually. (Funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.)
Trade seems bigger concern than human health as U.S. halts recalled Alberta beef
In yet another example of the U.S. setting higher food safety standards than Canadians, the huge XL Foods slaughterhouse in Edmonton has been banned from shipping products across the border.
The move coincides with a Canadian Food Inspection Agency report that found systemic failures throughout the XL plant, something CFIA inspectors apparently didn’t notice.
Meanwhile, Alberta Health Services continues to investigate whether eight current E. coli O157 cases in the province — four in Edmonton, three in Calgary, and one in 
central Alberta — are linked to the meat products, said Dr. Gloria Keays, medical officer of health for the Edmonton Zone. The province will share lab results with the CFIA, Keays said.
Verlyn Olson, Alberta’s agriculture minister, told the Edmonton Journal he is “concerned” about reports that the U.S. Food Safety and Inspection Service halted all products imported from XL Foods, but is also convinced the situation will soon be resolved.
“Work is being done to rectify the situation, and we hope and expect the border will open up quickly,” Olson said. “When these things happen, we deal with them.”
1954 cookbook: how to cook possum in America
We moved into a new place in Brisbane and the concrete and stucco of vertical intensification are less welcoming to the possum population than the timber of a traditional Queenslander (that’s what they call the houses).
But the possums will figure it out.
The other night about 2:30 a.m. I saw a little one run across the cedar boundary fence. 
Next day, I spotted it sleeping in the neighboring tree.
They’re coming.
The arrival of my backyard composter will only whet their desire and soon there will be possum crap over everything.
New Zealanders poison possums, Aussies treasure them. Americans eat them.
This recipe comes from 1954’s The American Family Cook Book.
Plunge animal into very hot but not boiling water for 2 minutes.
Pull out or scrape off hair without damaging skin. Slit belly from throat to hind legs. Remove entrails, feet, eyes and brains. Do not remove head or tail.
Wash thoroughly. If possible, freeze for 3 or 4 days. When ready to cook, wipe with a cold, damp cloth. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Put in roasting pan. Put in one cup of water and juice of one lemon.
Bake in hot oven (400 degrees) 15 minutes, turning once. Cover. Reduce heat and bake in moderate oven (350 degrees) 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours.
Bring your best, possums.
Mourners gather in bright pink for funeral of eight-year-old UK girl who died from E.c oli after holiday in US
Hundreds of mourners dressed in bright pink gathered today in Ayrshire for the funeral of tragic E.coli victim Rachel Shaw.
The Daily Mail reports Rachel’s family – including mother Louise Baillie, 38, and father Adam Shaw, 35 – asked mourners attending Dalrymple Parish Church, East Ayrshire, to dress in the eight-year-
old’s favourite color rather than wearing black.
A packed Ayrshire church saw family, neighbours, school pals and teachers come to bid a final farewell to the schoolgirl, whose little white coffin was decorated with pink flowers and a framed photograph.
Rachel died in hospital on Saturday night after contracting E. coli at the end of July. An investigation is underway as to the exact source of the bug, but it is believed she may have contracted it in the U.S. as she had recently returned from visiting her father, who lives there.
Doyle writes: China can learn from US food safety net
Mike Doyle, Regents Professor and director of the Center for Food Safety, University of Georgia, writes in China Daily today:
“The food-borne disease surveillance system in the United States has become so robust that it has detected hundreds of outbreaks in the past six years that previously would likely have gone unrecognized.
“This has resulted in many foods being newly identified as vehicles of illnesses. This increased awareness of weaknesses in the U.S. food safety net has by and large led to the Food Safety .jpg)
Modernization Act, which will raise the level of attention that food producers, processors, distributors and importers must give to ensuring their products are safe for human and animal consumption.
These new regulations will have direct relevance to the Chinese food industry, especially if foods or ingredients from China are exported to the U.S.. Also, many of the new rules, if applied in China, could enhance the overall safety of its food supply. …
“Although federal oversight of food processors is important, there is a fundamental principle that must be adopted by the entire food industry for a food safety net to be robust and effective. Everyone involved in the food continuum must be focused foremost on providing consumers with safe foods. Producers who are more motivated by economics and consider food safety to be secondary can undermine public confidence and the integrity of a country’s entire food system.
The approaches to enhancing the safety of the U.S. food supply are largely the result of decades of experience by food safety regulatory agencies and the food industry in mitigating the risk of food contamination.
With a national food safety program under development in China, the Chinese food industry and regulatory agencies could readily benefit from the U.S. experience in improving the safety of their foods by adopting and implementing similar practices and policies.
Feds mess up food safety rules in US again
This is why I don’t pay attention to grand, federal government initiatives.
It doesn’t make food safer.
People do a lot of talk.
OMB Watch reports the 390 Americans who recently got sick from Salmonella in seafood probably missed out on holiday celebrations. But they weren’t the only ones who weren’t celebrating: food .jpg)
safety advocates were also bemoaning yet another missed Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) deadline.
July 4, 2012 was the statutory deadline for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to enact final "prevention-based requirements for food companies" to develop plans to identify and address possible sources of contamination. That sounds straightforward enough – yet the proposed rules have been waiting for approval from the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) since late 2011.
Pink slime saga boosts Australian beef exports
Like mad cow disease, although on a much smaller scale, Australian cattle exporters are reaping the benefits of the pink slime controversy in the U.S.
AAP reports beef and veal exports to the U.S. are expected to increase by 28 per cent to 205,000 tonnes in 2011/12, the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) said in its June quarter commodities report.
ABARES attributed U.S. demand for imported beef to reduced cattle slaughter and an ongoing fall-out over reports in March that 70 per cent of ground beef sold in American supermarkets contained .jpg)
pink slime – a cheap meat filler treated with an antibacterial agent.
But beef exports to Indonesia are likely to fall by about 27 per cent to 530,000 head during the same period, after footage of cattle being treated inhumanely at local slaughter houses was aired on ABC television.
Public outcry over the footage led to Australian live exports to Indonesia being suspended for a month.
The live trade resumed after stronger auditing requirements were put in place, but exports have struggled to recover, with Indonesia now pushing for self-sufficiency in the beef market.
US Marines will do better than ‘subsist’ on Australian food
They will stay for years, number up to 2500, possibly have their own aircraft and artillery, train with the Aboriginal-dominated Norforce unit and drop in to help in Asia-Pacific disaster zones alongside Australia’s Diggers.
But whatever you do, don’t call the Marine Rotational Force in Darwin, Australia, part of a U.S. base.
”No, no again,” said Lieutenant-Colonel AnDroy Senegar when pressed on how much his operation looked like the forerunner of an official base.
”We will build no infrastructure. We will subsist on Australian food. We will be part of the community. It will be a partnership. We will not be intrusive.”
No worries, here’s our dinner from a couple of days ago: Moreton Bay sand crabs with stuffed shells. Whatever the Marines eat, there will be choices aplenty.
When the Marines arrived in early April for the first of their six-month rotations, then federal Defence Minister, Stephen Smith, justified their presence by saying: ”The world is moving in our direction. It is moving to the Asia-Pacific.
”It is not just the rise of China, it is the rise of China, the rise of India, the rise of the ASEAN economies combined, the emergence of Indonesia, not just as a regional influence but as a global influence,” he said at a welcoming ceremony in Darwin.
Canadian prods horse with hockey stick; rapid Taiwanese animation decries return of horse slaughter in US
Associated Press reported yesterday that horses could soon be slaughtered in the U.S. for human consumption after Congress quietly lifted a 5-year-old ban on funding horse meat inspections, and activists say slaughterhouses could be up and running in as little as a month.
Today, Taiwanese animation house NMA released one of their signature videos to address the situation.
Grub Street New York says things to watch for in the video are “the horse that gets zapped into a pile of money (we’re pretty sure that’s not how the slaughter actually happens) and the bloody Seabiscuit saddle at the French dinner table.”
I appreciated the Canadian slaughterhouse worker in a hockey jersey prodding a horse with a hockey stick.
Some background on the horse slaughter debate from AP; Australia also has two horse slaughterhouses.
Slaughter opponents pushed a measure cutting off funding for horse meat inspections through Congress in 2006 after other efforts to pass outright bans on horse slaughter failed in previous years. Congress lifted the ban in a spending bill President Barack Obama signed into law Nov. 18 to keep the government afloat until mid-December.
It did not, however, allocate any new money to pay for horse meat inspections, which opponents claim could cost taxpayers $3 million to $5 million a year. The U.S. Department of Agriculture 
would have to find the money in its existing budget, which is expected to see more cuts this year as Congress and the White House aim to trim federal spending.
The USDA issued a statement Tuesday saying there are no slaughterhouses in the U.S. that butcher horses for human consumption now, but if one were to open, it would conduct inspections to make sure federal laws were being followed.
Pro-slaughter activists say the ban had unintended consequences, including an increase in neglect and the abandonment of horses, and that they are scrambling to get a plant going – possibly in Wyoming, North Dakota, Nebraska or Missouri.
Sue Wallis, a Wyoming state lawmaker who’s the group’s vice president, said ranchers used to be able to sell horses that were too old or unfit for work to slaughterhouses but now they have to ship them to butchers in Canada and Mexico, where they fetch less than half the price.
The federal ban devastated "an entire sector of animal agriculture for purely sentimental and romantic notions," she said.
Although there are reports of Americans dining on horse meat a recently as the 1940s, the practice is virtually non-existent in this country, where the animals are treated as beloved pets and iconic symbols of the West.
A federal report issued in June found that local animal welfare organizations reported a spike in investigations for horse neglect and abandonment since 2007. In Colorado, for example, data showed that investigations for horse neglect and abuse increased more than 60 percent – from 975 in 2005 to almost 1,600 in 2009.
The report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office also determined that about 138,000 horses were transported to Canada and Mexico for slaughter in 2010, nearly the same number that were killed in the U.S. before the ban took effect in 2007. The U.S. has an estimated 9 million horses.