Hong Kong to cull chickens after detecting bird flu
9 Dec 2008
The Wall Street Journal [edited] [Promed]
Hong Kong health authorities said on Tuesday [9 Dec 2008] that they would slaughter 80,000 chickens after 3 dead birds tested positive for the H5 avian flu virus. The outbreak, Hong Kong's first in 6 years, raises fresh questions about the city's efforts to prevent bird flu.
The news could also hit public sentiment as the financial center struggles with the economic impact of the global slowdown. The city, a special administrative region of China, fell into recession in the 3rd quarter, and the city's leader warned this week that the territory faces a difficult 2009.
"Hong Kong is facing a new alert for bird flu," York Chow, Hong Kong's secretary for food and health, said on Tuesday [9 Dec 2008] at a press conference, according to the Associated Press. Mr. Chow said the chickens were found Monday [8 Dec 2008] on a farm with 60,000 birds that has since been designated an infected zone. He added that Hong Kong would suspend poultry imports for 21 days and begin slaughtering 80,000 birds.
Officials said they hadn't yet determined if the virus they found was the H5N1 strain of bird flu that has proven deadly for humans. Still, the outbreak raises questions about how birds at the farm were infected. Yi Guan, a microbiologist and avian flu expert at Hong Kong University, said Hong Kong has some of the highest safety standards in the region but warned of "leaking holes" in the system. "We have a high-tech biosecurity system," Mr. Guan said. "But how the farmer runs the farm is another story." Mr. Guan said it would take scientists "a couple of days" to determine the particular strain of the virus, but warned that several strains within the H5 family of viruses could pose threats to humans.
In June [2008], a routine inspection of an outdoor food market turned up 5 cases of avian influenza, spurring officials to slaughter chickens and suspend supplies of live chickens from local and Mainland Chinese farms for 3 weeks. An investigation was launched to determine the source of that outbreak, but a government spokeswoman said Tuesday [9 Dec 2008] that the source of June's outbreak had "posed some difficulties" and wasn't yet determined.
Hong Kong has seen occasional bird-flu incidents but no major outbreaks since 1997, when the virus killed 6 people and led to a slaughter of the territory's 1.5 million birds. There are currently about 60,000 birds in Hong Kong, according to Hong Kong's government, which is discouraging vendors from selling live chickens.
Related stories
11 Dec 2008 – H5N1 confirmed
CIDRAP News [edited] [Promed]
Agriculture officials in Hong Kong today [11 Dec 2008] confirmed that the avian influenza virus that recently hit a large commercial chicken farm was the lethal H5N1 strain, as authorities vowed to explore potential protection gaps in the poultry vaccine and the possibility that smuggled eggs might be a source of the virus.
Jolly Choi, spokeswoman for Hong Kong's agriculture, fisheries, and conservation department said earlier tests on 9 Dec 2008 were positive for an H5 virus, but further testing showed that 3 chickens found dead on the farm had the H5N1 subtype, according to a report today from the Associated Press.
Meanwhile, York Chow, Hong Kong's secretary for food and health, told reporters at a press conference that experts are focusing on 2 lines of investigation: a possible biosecurity lapse at the farm and if a change in the circulating virus has hobbled Hong Kong's poultry vaccine.
So far there is no evidence that the virus has spread to other farms, Chow said in the statement. Investigators have collected samples from farms to conduct polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing, and the results should be available in a day or 2.
In other developments, poultry trade representatives in Hong Kong said today that smuggled fertilized eggs from China could be the source of the recent H5N1 outbreak, according to a report today from Agence France-Presse (AFP).
14 Dec 2008 - OIE immediate notification report
OIE WAHID (World Animal Health Information Database) weekly disease information 2008; 21(51) [edited] [Promed]
Summary
Report type: immediate notification
Start date: 8 Dec 2008
Date of first confirmation of the event: 8 Dec 2008
Report date: 12 Dec 2008
Reason for notification: reoccurrence of a listed disease
Date of previous occurrence: October 2008
Causal agent: highly pathogenic avian influenza virus [HPAI]
Serotype: H5N1
Nature of diagnosis: suspicion, clinical, laboratory (basic), laboratory (advanced), necropsy
This event pertains to the whole country
New outbreaks
Outbreak 1 Yuen Long, Hong Kong
Date of start of the outbreak: 8 Dec 2008
Outbreak status: continuing (or date resolved not provided)
Epidemiological unit: farm
Species: birds
Susceptible: 67,968
Cases: 285
Deaths: 285
Destroyed: 67,683
Slaughtered: 0
Affected population: there were 67,968 chickens and 25,680 fertilized eggs on this index farm with compulsory avian influenza vaccination program and strict biosecurity measures in place. Unusual mortality was first noted in the sentinel chickens on 8 Dec [2008]. Clinical signs observed included rales, dyspnoea, cyanosis, and oedema of the comb and wattle with yellow creamy nasal discharge. Cloacae swabs and chicken carcasses were collected on the same day for laboratory testing. Culling of the chickens and eggs began on 9 Dec [2008] and finished on 10 Dec [2008].
Epidemiology
Source of the outbreak(s) or origin of infection: under investigation
Epidemiological comments: on 11 Dec 2008, 17,960 chickens were also culled in a chicken farm within the 3-km (2 mi) radius infected zone. Poultry in the wholesale market (10 704 chickens, 2900 pigeons, 1420 pheasants, 3100 silky chickens, and 370 chukars) were also culled on 11 Dec 2008. Initial surveillance using PCR [polymerase chain reaction] did not detect any H5 in all the other poultry farms in Hong Kong (virus isolation pending). Advice was given to these unaffected chicken farms to administer a booster vaccine immediately. Importation of live poultry was banned and movement of poultry, eggs, fodder, and other things in local farms is prohibited for 21 days as from 9 Dec 2008.
Control measures
Measures applied
- stamping out
- quarantine
- movement control inside the country
- screening
- zoning
- vaccination in response to the outbreak
- disinfection of infected premises/establishment(s)
- no treatment of affected animals
Measures to be applied
No other measures
Future reporting
The event is continuing. Weekly follow-up reports will be submitted.

WHO sets first limits for safe melamine levels in food
06 Dec 2008
The Times of India [edited][iFSN]
The World Health Organization on Friday issued safety limits for melamine levels in food as international concern mounted over a widening tainted food scandal in China. It is the first time WHO experts have issued safety limits for the use of the industrial chemical and they stressed that melamine should not be used in food at all. The so-called Tolerable Daily Intake (TDI) has been fixed at 0.2 mg per kilogramme of body weight. This means that a person who weighs 50kg can tolerate up to 10mg of melamine per day, said the WHO. "We expect this could better guide the authorities in protecting the health of their public," said Jorgen Schlundt, WHO director for food safety. The UN agency stressed however that the industrial chemical "should not be in food" even though traces are sometimes unavoidable. "The TDI is meant to help national authorities set safe limits in food for withdrawal purposes should melamine be detected as a result of intentional adulteration," added the WHO.

WHO calls for more research on foodborne illnesses
20 Nov 2008
redOrbit [edited][iFSN]
The World Health Organization (WHO) reported Thursday that the number of foodborne diseases seem to be on the rise in both wealthy and poor nations.
Jorgen Schlundt, director of food safety at the WHO, said additional research is needed to assess how much illness and death is caused by contaminated food, such as tainted milk in China that sickened thousands and a U.S. outbreak of Salmonella that sickened 1,400 people.
During a meeting of experts, Schlundt said 30 percent of new infectious diseases come from bacteria, viruses, parasites, chemicals and toxins introduced along food production chains.
"There are some indications that the foodborne disease burden is increasing. But there is not very good data, it is difficult to say exactly what is happening," he said.
According to WHO figures, roughly 2.2 million children die each year from diarrheal illnesses, such as cholera, caused by contaminated water, food, and poor sanitation.
Schlundt advises that food products be monitored at every stage of their handling.
"If you want to deal with food safety you have to go from the 'farm to the fork'. The notion that you can deal with it at the end of the food chain is clearly wrong," he told Reuters, adding that regulatory authorities often fail to work together effectively in many countries.
Harvard Medical School professor Julie Ingelfinger said many people had failed to notice the gravity of complications caused by contaminated food. For instance, she said, E. coli poisoning can cause hemolytic-uremic syndrome, a cause of kidney failure in children.
"Research into the long-term effects of foodborne disease is increasingly important because it is unquantified and goes on for decades," she added.
David Heymann, WHO assistant director-general for health, security and the environment, said that both wealthy and poor nations were vulnerable to foodborne illnesses.
"Foodborne diseases occur on every continent and in every country really. We never know where these events will happen," he told experts at the meeting.
The WHO pointed to the recent Salmonella outbreak in the United States an example of the evolution of foodborne diseases. Although such outbreaks are typically linked to eggs, poultry and dairy products, they have recently been caused by fresh produce, the U.N agency said. In the case of the U.S. Salmonella outbreak, officials initially suspected tomatoes were the cause, but later traced the bacteria to peppers from Mexico.
Nancy Donley, who leads the U.S. non-profit group Safe Tables Our Priority, said food safety must be taken more seriously as a public health concern.
"It's crucial to keep foodborne disease prevention as a top priority in the world," she told Reuters.
"Behind every statistic is a face, a name, a life," said Donley, who lost her 6-year-old son, Alex, in 1993 from an E. coli infection from contaminated meat.

Canada - Media coverage affects how people perceive threat of disease: study
29 Oct 2008
McMaster University - Michelle Donovan [edited][iFSN]
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-10/mu-mca102908.php
Popular media coverage of infectious diseases greatly influences how people perceive those diseases, making them seem more dangerous, according to a new study from McMaster University. The research, published online in the Public Library of Science: ONE, suggests diseases that show up frequently in the print media –like bird flu –are considered more serious than similar diseases that do not receive the same kind of coverage, such as yellow fever. "The media tend to focus on rare and dramatic events," says Meredith Young, one of the study's lead authors and a graduate student in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour. "When a certain disease receives repeated coverage in the press, people tend to focus on it and perceive it as a real threat. This raises concerns regarding how people view their own health, how they truly understand disease and how they treat themselves." Researchers chose 10 infectious diseases drawn from the Centre for Disease Control database. Five were medical disorders that have been highly prevalent in the recent print media –anthrax, SARS, West Nile virus, Lyme disease and avian flu –and five were medical disorders that have not often been present in current media: Tularemia, human babesiosis, yellow fever, Lassa fever and hantavirus. Two groups of students, undergraduate and medical students, were asked to rate how serious, how prevalent, and how "disease-like" various conditions were. "We see that a single incident reported in the media, can cause great public concern if it is interpreted to mean that the potential risk is difficult to control, as with the possibility of a pandemic like in the case of Avian flu, and bioterrorism, as in the case of anthrax infection," says Young.
Conversely, when participants were presented with the descriptions of the disease, without the name, they actually thought that the diseases which received infrequent media coverage –the control group –were actually worse. "Another interesting aspect of the study is when we presented factual information about the diseases along with the names of them, the media effect wasn't nearly as strong," says Karin Humphreys, one of the study's authors and assistant professor in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour. "This suggests that people can overcome the influence of the media when you give them the facts, and so objective reporting is really critical." Equally surprising, says Humphreys, is the fact that the medical students –who would have more factual knowledge about these diseases – were just as influenced by the media, despite their background. The study was funded by the National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC).

UNICEF ambassadors, The Wiggles, use jingle to encourage kids to wash hands
10 Oct 2008
UN News Centre [edited][iFSN]
Popular Australian children’s entertainers and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Goodwill Ambassadors, The Wiggles, have created a catchy tune to help motivate millions of children worldwide to transform the mundane act of handwashing into an enjoyable habit, thereby improving hygiene and reducing the risk of disease. The Wiggles have donated the song to UNICEF to help the agency mark the first-ever Global Handwashing Day on 15 October.With approximately 5,000 children dying each day as a result of waterborne diseases, the UN agency has suggested handwashing with soap before eating and after using the toilet to help reduce the incidence of diarrheal diseases by almost 50 per cent. Helping to raise awareness and support for related UNICEF water and sanitation projects, The Wiggles have embarked on several fundraising initiatives since being name as Goodwill Ambassadors in February. “UNICEF gives all children, regardless of race or religion, the best start in life. For that reason, we feel deeply honoured to… work with UNICEF to help improve the lives of children around the world,” said ‘Red Wiggle’ Murray Cook. Global Handwashing Day is a public-private initiative spearheaded by UNICEF and other partners, including the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the World Bank Water and Sanitation Programme, Procter and Gamble, and Unilever. The event aims to bring handwashing to the top of the global hygiene agenda, and support the spirit of the UN International Year of Sanitation (2008).

Food giants scrutinize Chinese suppliers
30 Sep 2008
Wall Street Journal - Aaron O. Patrick, Julie Jargon, Sky Canaves, Jason Dean [edited][iFSN]
According to this story, the Chinese milk-safety scandal exposes one of the pitfalls of a key strategy of the world's big multinational food companies: relying on local suppliers in emerging markets. It is reported that the problem shows how big food companies can struggle to impose food-safety standards on suppliers in the developing markets they increasingly rely on for sales growth. The story goes on by explaining that companies can test their own factories and then later find problems with ingredients introduced earlier in their supply chains.

Italy - FAO urges removing melamine from food chain
26 Sep 2008
Reuters - Svetlana Kovalyova
Products containing melamine should be removed from trade to ensure safe infant feeding, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Friday, responding to a scandal over Chinese milk products. More than a dozen countries in Asia, Africa and Europe have banned imports of Chinese dairy products after thousands of Chinese children got sick after drinking infant milk formula tainted with melamine, an industrial chemical. Other countries from Australia to Yemen have recalled milk products. "Restoring consumer confidence is critical," Ezzeddine Boutrif, director of FAO's nutrition and consumer protection division, said in a statement also issued on behalf of the World Health Organization. "Melamine-contaminated products should be removed from the food chain in order to prevent further exposure. The safe supply of dairy products needs to be restored immediately," Boutrif said. More than 54,000 children have sought medical treatment in China related to the use of melamine-contaminated infant formula and almost 12,900 have been hospitalized, the FAO, a United Nations unit, said in the statement. Melamine, a low toxicity chemical, is used in food contact materials, such as labels and containers and can be used in fertilizers. It has yet to be confirmed if it can carry over into food and harm human health, FAO said. FAO said breast-feeding was the safest way to feed babies. It quoted WHO as recommending all infants be breast-fed for the first six months of life and get adequate and safe complementary foods while breast-feeding continues up to 2 years of age and beyond.

International Portal on Food Safety, Animal and Plant Health launches redesigned site; Biosecurity Wiki
12 Aug 2008
National Agricultural Library, USDA - Jimmy Liu, Food Safety Information Center [edited] [iFSN]
http://foodsafety.nal.usda.gov/
From the FAO:
"The International Portal on Food Safety, Animal and Plant Health (IPFSAPH) is pleased to announce the launch of its new website, which has been extensively redesigned to incorporate new functionality and make it easier for users to search for official SPS Agreement related information. Although the website address remains the same (www.ipfsaph.org), additional functionality includes RSS newsfeeds on particular topics and a more intuitive and easier to use advanced search option. With over 35,000 records, new data sets recently incorporated into www.ipfsaph.org include WTO's SPS Information Management System (containing all WTO trade notifications and concerns) and IAEA's Clearance of Irradiated Foods Database. Email: ipfsaph@fao.org to leave feedback and comments."

FAO Networks on Veterinary Public Health, Zoonoses, Feed & Food Safety
07 Jul 2008
FAO Press Release - Agriculture and Consumer Protection Department
The FAO Networks on Veterinary Public Health, Zoonoses, Feed & Food Safety have been created to facilitate thematic discussions and collaboration, to disseminate relevant information and to identify issues to be addressed globally or at regional level. A global and five regional networks for Latin America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East, Anglophone Sub-Saharan Africa and Francophone Africa/the Magreb are currently operational.

New safety standards set for baby formula and nuts
01 Jul 2008
Reuters - Laura MacInnis [edited]
According to this story, diplomats in Geneva have agreed new limits for bacteria in baby formula and natural toxins in nuts, setting safety standards to apply for internationally shipped food, the World Health Organisation said on Tuesday. At a meeting of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, officials also set benchmarks for producing gluten-free foods.

Climate change - Implications for food safety
11 June 2008
National Agricultural Library - Food Safety Information Center
The paper aims to identify potential impacts of anticipated changes in climate on food safety and their control at all stages of the food chain. The purpose is to raise awareness of the issue and to facilitate international cooperation in better understanding the changing food safety situation and in developing and implementing strategies to address them. While this paper takes a broad look at a number of food safety issues and considers possible implications of climate change – it does not provide exhaustive treatment of the topic. The food safety issues covered include: agents of foodborne disease with specific consideration of zoonotic diseases, mycotoxin contamination, biotoxins in fishery products and environmental contaminants with significance to the food chain. The paper also highlights the need for adequate attention to food safety in ensuring preparedness for effective management of emergency situations arising from extreme weather events. There is much uncertainty about possible food safety implications of climate change. This paper discusses some expected effects that are supported by data; it also considers other issues that are largely speculative.

Comparing food safety standards
08 Feb 2008
Food Control - Bo-Hyun Cho, Neal H. Hooker [edited] [iFSN]
Abstract
Food safety regulations are evolving to performance-based regimes in which firms have greater flexibility and responsibility in adopting effective controls. Within such a context, this paper compares performance and process standards modeling the variability of industry-level compliance and therefore the resultant level of food safety. Monte Carlo simulations are conducted manipulating five factors: the variances of input use of efficient and inefficient firms, the proportion of inefficient firms in the industry, the mean of the error term for inefficient firms, and the policymakers’ risk preferences. Results suggest that process standards may be preferred over performance standards under certain circumstances.

WHO/ FAO database available online
Jan / Feb 2008
'Food Safety and Quality Update' eNewsletter from FAO's Food Quality and Standards Service http://www.fao.org/ag/agn/agns/fsqu/54.htm
The World Trade Organization (WTO) recently launched a searchable database of member governments' measures related to the SPS Agreement, thus making it easier to find out about other countries' food safety requirements and alerts. The SPS Information Management System (SPS IMS) allows users to search and obtain information on measures that member governments have submitted to the WTO. These include notifications concerning new export and food safety requirements, specific trade concerns that governments have raised, documents of the WTO's sanitary and phytosanitary measures committee, member governments' national enquiry contacts, and details of the authorities who handle notifications. The SPS Information Management System is available at http://spsims.wto.org. Moreover, FAO and WHO have just completed, and made publicly available, a web-based model to assess the risk associated with Enterobacter sakazakii in powdered infant formula. This user-friendly model allows users to compare the impact of the implementation of different sampling plans at the end of the production of powdered infant formula and also to compare the relative impact of different preparation, storage and use scenarios on the risk of Enterobacter sakazakii infections in infants. This is the first web-based risk assessment tool to be developed by FAO and WHO in the area of food safety. The web-based assessment model can be accessed at: www.mramodels.org.

FAO - Report of the high level special event on food quality and safety
21 Nov 2007
The High Level Special Event on Food Quality and Safety was held on 21 November 2007, with 57 countries attending the Event. At this Event, FAO’s food safety work was discussed, along with needs and goals for future work. Click here to read the report.

WHO Five Keys to Safer Food adapted to travelers
01 Nov 2007
World Health Organization
A new edition of the Guide on Safe Food For Travellers is available is the six WHO official languages. The WHO Five Keys to Safer Food to prevent foodborne diseases were specifically adapted to travellers and WHO is looking for partners to disseminate this message. Following the example of the Five Keys poster translated into more than 50 languages, WHO strongly encourages the translation, reproduction and dissemination of these recommendations. As an example of collaboration, the Beijing Food Safety agency and WHO are cooperating on the promotion of the Five Keys and the Guide for travellers in connection with the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. WHO would welcome further collaboration to promote food safety messages in international events, especially from national health authorities and departments for tourism.

WTO food safety database serves as handy reference
22 Oct 2007
Food Production Daily -Ahmed ElAmin
Finding out about the food safety requirements and alerts in other countries just got easier, with the World Trade Organization (WTO) launching a searchable database of member governments' measures. The tool, which documents food, animal and plant safety measures worldwide, is a resource that can help managers meet new export criteria, or find out if there could be a problem with a particular ingredient sourced from a region. The SPS Information Management System is available at http://spsims.wto.org.


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