United States - Pigs raised without antibiotics more likely to carry bacteria, parasites
11 June 2008
Wondwossen Gebreyes [edited] [iFSN]
It is reported that while consumers are increasing demand for pork produced without antibiotics, more of the pigs raised in such conditions carry bacteria and parasites associated with foodborne illnesses, according to a new study. A comparison of swine raised in antibiotic-free and conventional pork production settings revealed that pigs raised outdoors without antibiotics had higher rates of three foodborne pathogens than did pigs on conventional farms, which remain indoors and receive preventive doses of antimicrobial drugs. The researchers theorized that naturally raised pigs' exposure to moisture, vegetation and other animal species could contribute to their higher rates of pathogens. This study is part of a comprehensive examination of food safety issues related to pork production that includes testing pigs for a broader range of disease-causing organisms.
Experts report progress in food allergy prevention and diet restrictions
14 Nov 2007
American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI)
Progress has been made in food allergy prevention and management according to investigators presenting the latest research at the Annual Meeting of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI) in Dallas. According to Robert A. Wood, M.D., professor of pediatrics and international health director, pediatric allergy and immunology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, research has determined a possible role for allergy prevention strategies. These approaches include maternal food avoidance in pregnancy, breast feeding, maternal food avoidance while breast feeding, use of hypoallergenic formulas, delayed introduction of allergenic foods and probiotics. In addition, Dr. Wood has some recommendations for children at high risk of allergic diseases.
Currently, there is no treatment for food allergies, so allergic individuals must strictly avoid the offending food and its products, and be aware of possible cross-reactivity. In his presentation titled “You Can have Allergy to Food & Eat It Too,” Sami Bahna, M.D., Dr.PH., professor of pediatrics and medicine, and chief of allergy and immunology, Louisiana State University, Shreveport, La., discussed the impact research studies have on dietary restrictions. Some people may have allergy to a food processed in a certain way, but not in another, he said. Manufacturing methods used to reduce allergenicity of proteins include heat treatment, enzymatic hydrolysis, ultra-filtration, high intensity ultrasound, gamma irradiation and combinations of these methods.

Effect of hand wash agents on controlling the transmission of pathogenic bacteria from hands to food
05 Dec 2007
Journal of Food Protection Fischler, George E.; Fuls, Janice L.; Dail, Elizabeth W.; Duran, Melani H.; Rodgers, Nancy D.; Waggoner, Andrea L.
The goals of this study were to evaluate the effectiveness of two hand wash regimens in reducing transient bacteria on the skin following a single hand wash and the subsequent transfer of the bacteria to a ready-to-eat food item, freshly cut cantaloupe melon. The number of bacteria recovered from hands and the quantity transferred to the melon were significantly less following the use of an antibacterial soap compared with plain soap. The antimicrobial soap achieved >3-log reductions versus Escherichia coli and 3.31- and 2.83-log reductions versus Shigella flexneri. The plain soap failed to achieve a 2-log reduction against either organism. The bacteria recovered from the melon handled by hands treated with antimicrobial hand soap averaged 2 log. Melon handled following hand washing with plain soap had >3 log bacteria in the experiments. Based on previously published feeding studies, an infection rate in the range of approximately 15 to 25% would be expected after ingesting melon containing 2 log CFU compared with ingesting greater than the 3 log transferred from hands washed with plain soap, which would result in a higher infection attack rate of 50 to 80%. The data thus demonstrate there is a greater potential to reduce the transmission and acquisition of disease through the use of an antimicrobial hand wash than through the use of plain soap.

Approaches for reducing Salmonella in pork production
15 Nov 2007
Journal of Food Protection®, Volume 70, Number 11, November 2007, pp. 2676-2694(19)
Ojha, Shivani; Kostrzynska, Magdalena
To reduce the presence of Salmonella, a dynamic picture of the pork production chain is needed that includes management practices aimed at health and welfare of swine and practices within swine operations that affect the environment and community health. In light of the threat posed by multidrug-resistant pathogens, old dogma is being revisited with optimism for potential utility in promoting pre- and postharvest pork safety. This review includes possible approaches that can be implemented in swine operations and postslaughter during pork processing with simultaneous omission of subtherapeutic antibiotics to control Salmonella. Researchers emphasize the vital roles of the veterinarians, pig producers, industry, food research scientists, and government guidelines for the strategic implementation of approaches to Salmonella control across the pork production and processing chains.

Journal of Food Protection publishes two articles on E. coli O157:H7 vaccine efficacy
13 Nov 2007
Newswire Press Release
Two articles have been published in a peer-reviewed journal, the Journal of Food Protection, both in regards to the efficacy of the Company's E. coli O157:H7 cattle vaccine. The two articles relate to field challenge studies conducted at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln involving close to 900 animals in 2002 and 2003. The first article, "Efficacy of dose regimen and observation of herd immunity from a vaccine against Escherichia coli O157:H7 for feedlot cattle" (R.E. Peterson, T.J. Klopfenstein, R.A. Moxley, G.E. Erickson, S. Hinkley, D. Rogan, and D.R. Smith), supports the hypothesis that use of the Bioniche vaccine effectively reduces the likelihood of cattle shedding E. coli O157:H7. The same study noted that there was no indication of affect on (feed conversion) performance or carcass quality, and that vaccinating amajority of cattle within a pen resulted in a significant protective effect to unvaccinated cattle in the same pen. This effect is called "herd immunity". The second article, "Effect of a vaccine product containing type III secreted proteins on the probability of Escherichia coli O157:H7 fecal shedding and mucosal colonization in feedlot cattle" (R.E. Peterson, T.J. Klopfenstein, R.A. Moxley, G.E. Erickson, S. Hinkley, G. Bretschneider, E.M. Berberov, D. Rogan, and D. R. Smith), highlights the results of a study that looked at the effect of vaccination on the shedding of E. coli O157:H7 by cattle and their colonization by the organism. Vaccinated cattle were 98.3% less likely to be colonized by E. coli O157:H7 at the terminal rectum (where the bacteria are known to collect and reproduce in large quantities). Specifically, the authors were able to isolate E. coli

Canada - Prion project to assess risk of game meat consumption
11 Nov 2007
Press Release
An international project with European participation investigating the transmission risk of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) on humans will receive EUR3.5 million from the Alberta Prion Research Institute (APRI) in Canada. At European level, the study that will involve testing on primates as well as alternative models will be coordinated by the German Primate Centre (DPZ) in Göttingen. Like BSE or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), CWD is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) that affects deer, elk and moose. It is caused by proteinaceous infectious particles (prions), infectious agents composed only of protein. Up to 15% of game in North America has been already been infected. Game meat is an important branch of the economy in Canada. Hence, consumers of Canadian game meat products might be at risk of contracting CWD if humans are susceptible. In the framework of the project entitled 'Comprehensive risk assessment of Chronic Wasting Disease transmission of humans using non-human primates', researchers will first extract the prion and then test its effects on primates when either ingested or transmitted in other ways. Moreover, the disease might spread to other animals that are part of the human food chain such as sheep. General project coordination will be in the hands of the Lethbridge Laboratory at the University of Calgary, Canada. Further participants include the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Hamilton, USA, and - in addition to the DPZ - the German Robert Koch Institute, the Technical University of Munich, the neuropathology department of the University Hospital Göttingen and the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA).

Recovery and transfer of Salmonella typhimurium from four different domestic food contact surfaces
23 Oct 2007
Journal of Food Protection®, Volume 70, Number 10, October 2007 , pp. 2273-2280(8)
Moore, Ginny; Blair, Ian S.; McDowell, David A.
Domestic food contact surfaces can play an important role in the transmission of foodborne disease, yet debate continues as to which surface materials pose the greatest risk to consumer health in terms of cross-contamination during food preparation. Salmonella typhimurium was inoculated onto stainless steel, Formica, polypropylene, or wooden surfaces (25 cm2) in the presence or absence of protein (tryptic soy broth supplemented with 5% horse serum) and held at room temperature. The pathogen was recovered from the test surfaces immediately after inoculation (T = 0) and every hour for up to 6 h, by a conventional microbiological sampling technique and by direct transfer onto a model ready-to-eat food (cucumber slices). The results of this study emphasize that differences, both in recoverability and in the number of bacteria transferred to the model food rather than simply reflecting differences in pathogen survival, may also reflect differences in the ability of the test bacteria to re-mobilize from the different surface types. However, the results also demonstrate a fundamental problem when choosing food contact surfaces, i.e., that those characteristics that make a surface “easy to clean” may also render it more likely to release contaminating pathogens during common food preparation practices.

Incidence and toxin production ability of Escherichia coli O157:H7 isolated from cattle trucks
23 Oct 2007
Journal of Food Protection®, Volume 70, Number 10, October 2007 , pp. 2383-2385(3) Alonso, Cuesta E.P.; Gilliland, S.E.; Krehbiel, C.R.
Twelve cattle trucks were analyzed for the presence of Escherichia coli O157:H7. Three of them had been washed prior to arrival, and the others had not. Seventy-five percent of the trailers were positive for the presence of this foodborne pathogen. A total of 54 cultures were isolated and identified as E. coli O157:H7, all from the trucks that had not been cleaned. Most of the cultures (96.4%) produced Shiga-like toxin (verotoxin). No E. coli O157:H7 was detected in cattle trucks that were cleaned before arrival at the cattle pens. The incidence of E. coli O157:H7 in transport trailers increases the potential risk of contamination of cattle and transmission from farms to feedlots and to packing plants. This contamination increases the potential of contamination of meat during harvest and the risk of foodborne illnesses.

How one bacteria colonizes the gut and causes food poisoning
18 Oct 2007
Journal of Clinical Investigation - Juan Xicohtencatl-Cortes, Valério Monteiro-Neto, Maria A. Ledesma, Dianna M. Jordan, Olivera Francetic, James B. Kaper, José Luis Puente, and Jorge A. Girón
Food poisoning caused by the bacteria enterohemorrhagic Eschericia coli (EHEC) O157:H7A results in severe abdominal cramps and bloody diarrhea. In the very young and old it can also cause hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) -- a disease characterized by anemia and kidney failure. A new study by Jorge Girón and colleagues from the University of Arizona, Tucson, has provided new insight into the mechanisms by which EHEC colonize the intestines, which is essential if strategies to prevent infection by this bacteria are to be developed. The authors determined that EHEC O157:H7 make a number of proteins that come together to form a structure known as an adhesive type IV pilus, which they termed the hemorrhagic coli pilus (HCP). HCP were shown to enable EHEC O157:H7 to adhere to human intestinal epithelial cells in vitro. Furthermore, individuals with HUS, but not individuals who were healthy, were found to mount an immune response to the HCP component Hcp4, indicating that HCPs are produced by the bacteria during infection with EHEC O157:H7.

New model predicts more virulent microbes
17 Oct 2007
New York University Medical Center
Microbes and humans interact in myriad ways, sharing a long history. Many of the most successful microbes are those that inhabit but do not kill their host. A new mathematical model, devised by a microbiologist renowned for his study of H. pylori and a mathematician, provides the framework for understanding how persistent microbes obtain equilibrium with their human hosts. The multi-scale model, published in the October 18, 2007, issue of the journal Nature, is based on the idea that certain microbes and humans evolved together and along the way established complex strategies that enabled them to co-exist. These strategies are contingent in part on human population size. The model helps explain the rules that govern the transmission of microbes and how they have operated in human history, says Martin J. Blaser, M.D., the Frederick King Professor and Chair of the Department of Medicine, and Professor of Microbiology at New York University School of Medicine. He and Denise Kirschner of the University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, are authors of the study. The model uses game theory, developed by Nobel prize-winning mathematician John Nash, to describe a particular type of equilibrium. The model can be used to better understand microbial responses to a changing human world, says Dr. Blaser.