Microbiology information

Scientists Find RNA Surprises in isteria Bacteria

admin — Tue, 19 May 2009 10:33:35 +0000

The bacterium Listeria monocytogenes lives happily in soil and in your compost heap, but also in water, processed meats, milk and cheese. When humans eat food contaminated with Listeria, they can develop listeriosis, an infection that triggers miscarriage in women and kills people whose immune systems are weak. Scientists would like to understand the molecular mechanisms that transform this bacterium from a harmless soil-dweller to a dangerous human pathogen.

Now, a team at the Pasteur Institute in Paris has taken a major step towards realizing that goal, by mapping the genes that Listeria expresses under different environmental conditions. The research is reported in an advance online publication in the journal Nature on May 17, 2009.

As head of the Pasteur Institute’s Unit of Bacteria-Cell Interactions, Howard Hughes Medical Institute international research scholar Pascale F. Cossart is proud of what she refers to as the first complete bacterial operon map. Pasteur scientists François Jacob and Jacques Monod first described the concept of the operon in 1960. Both were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1965 for their seminal work on operons. Operons are functional units of DNA that consist of several adjacent genes controlled by a common promoter—a piece of DNA that determines where and when a gene is active. The genes in operons are transcribed into a single piece of messenger RNA (mRNA).

Since Jacob and Monod first coined the term operon, scientists’ understanding of gene regulation has evolved considerably. Researchers now know, for example, that what was once called “junk” RNA because it wasn’t translated into protein, can nevertheless fulfil important functions. Cossart’s group had previously identified a piece of such non-coding RNA that regulate Listeria’s ability to infect cells, which suggested to them that RNA regulation might be widely exploited by Listeria to aid survival. Cossart and her colleagues decided to map Listeria’s transcriptional program in a systematic way in order to identify as many of those RNA switches as possible.

The biotechnology company Affymetrix built Cossart customized tiling microarrays—that is, arrays of DNA probes that correspond to overlapping stretches of the Listeriagenome. Armed with these arrays, a small army of researchers from Cossart’s and other labs, led by postdoctoral fellow Alejandro Toledo-Arana, compared bacteria grown in the lab with bacteria extracted from the intestine of Listeria-inoculated mice or with bacteria from inoculated samples of human blood. They also compared normal or wild-type bacteria with mutants that had been genetically altered so that they lacked certain known virulence factors.

Their analysis turned up many surprises, one of the biggest of which was how the bacterium’s transcriptome shifts between its soil-dwelling and intestinal modes. “When it arrives in the intestine it turns up the activity of many genes and turns down others, so we see a dramatic reshaping of the transcriptional programme. Strikingly, a series of non-coding RNAs are expressed more often in the intestine or in the blood,” Cossart says. The researchers identified one particular protein, SigB, that controls a series of genes that are needed for Listeria to adapt to the human gut, whereas a different protein, PrfA, switches on genes needed for survival and replication in the blood. By comparing mutant and wild-type bacteria, they identified two non-coding RNAs that appear to contribute to the virulence of L. monocytogenes.

And there were more surprises to come. The researchers found very long untranslated regions (UTRs) of RNA—that is, part of an RNA that is not translated into protein—that overlapped with several genes on the opposite strand and regulated their expression. This was the case, for example, for three genes that are involved in the manufacture of theListeria flagella, the tiny protrusions that allow it to move and find its way in different environments. A known repressor of flagellum synthesis, MogR, turns out to have one very long UTR that spans all three flagellum genes and acts as an antisense RNA, which can block mRNA from being transcribed into a protein

Cossart’s team also identified about 40 riboswitches, RNA structures at the front of genes that act as sensors, stopping translation or expression of the RNA when enough of the gene’s protein product has been made. Some of these riboswitches controlled expression of the gene downstream of them—as had previously been reported—but also the gene upstream. In other words, a riboswitch can extend its influence in both directions, a finding contrary to what anyone had suspected.

These and other regulatory mechanisms will almost certainly turn up in other microorganisms, Cossart says. She believes her group’s paper is likely to be the first of many that will describe, in increasingly minute detail, the complex transcriptional checks and balances that in the case of Listeria make it such a versatile organism.

In the next 10 years, she predicts, the study of bacteria in all their habitats—not just the pathogenic ones—will become a hot topic in research. And the concept of junk in molecular biology will finally be buried, as people realize that when it comes to the genome, nothing is wasted.

Source: http://www.hhmi.org/news/cossart20090517.html

Barack Obama Creates Food Safety Working Group After Eating Bad Peanuts

admin — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 12:11:19 +0000

Now if you think that Salmonella in Peanuts is making news these days - well you’re right. It seems that Barack Obama - the 44th US president may have had his own expereince that he decided to create a new Food Safety Working Group. And the best thing about it - it was officially announced at his weekly address.

That’s right - up there with the big agenda. The economy, the war in Iraq, Recession and now the deadly peanut.

Have a read and tell me what you think.

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary
_______________________________________________________________________________
EMBARGOED UNTIL 6:00 AM ET SATURDAY, March 14, 2009

WEEKLY ADDRESS: President Barack Obama Announces Key FDA Appointments and Tougher Food Safety Measures

WASHINGTON – In his weekly address, President Barack Obama announced the appointments of Dr. Margaret Hamburg as Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, and Dr. Joshua Sharfstein as the Principal Deputy Commissioner, as well as the creation of a new Food Safety Working Group. This Food Safety Working Group will be chaired by the Secretaries of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture and it will coordinate with other agencies and senior officials to advise the President on improving coordination throughout the government, examining and upgrading food safety laws, and enforcing laws that will keep the American people safe.

In addition, the President also announced two other measures to protect the American people. The Department of Agriculture will close a loophole to prevent diseased cows from entering the food supply. And, the government will invest in the FDA to substantially increase the number of food inspectors and modernize food safety labs.

President Obama announced his appointments of the following individuals today:

Margaret “Peggy” Hamburg
Dr. Hamburg is a nationally and internationally recognized leader in public health and medicine, and an authority on global health, public health systems, infectious disease, bioterrorism and emergency preparedness. She served as the Nuclear Threat Initiative’s founding Vice President for the Biological Program. Before joining NTI, she was the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Prior to this, she served for six years as the Commissioner of Health for the City of New York and as the Assistant Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health.

Joshua “Josh” Sharfstein
Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein is Commissioner of Health for the City of Baltimore. He also serves as chair of the board of four affiliated nonprofit agencies. He has been recognized as a national leader for his efforts to protect children from unsafe jewelry and over-the-counter medication, and ensuring Americans with disabilities have access to prescription drugs. He is a member of the Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice of the Institute of Medicine.

The full audio of the address is HERE. The video can be viewed online at www.whitehouse.gov.

Remarks of President Barack Obama
Weekly Address
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Washington, DC

I’ve often said that I don’t believe government has the answer to every problem or that it can do all things for all people. We are a nation built on the strength of individual initiative. But there are certain things that we can’t do on our own. There are certain things only a government can do. And one of those things is ensuring that the foods we eat, and the medicines we take, are safe and don’t cause us harm. That is the mission of our Food and Drug Administration and it is a mission shared by our Department of Agriculture, and a variety of other agencies and offices at just about every level of government.

The men and women who inspect our foods and test the safety of our medicines are chemists and physicians, veterinarians and pharmacists. It is because of the work they do each and every day that the United States is one of the safest places in the world to buy groceries at a supermarket or pills at a drugstore. Unlike citizens of so many other countries, Americans can trust that there is a strong system in place to ensure that the medications we give our children will help them get better, not make them sick; and that a family dinner won’t end in a trip to the doctor’s office.

But in recent years, we’ve seen a number of problems with the food making its way to our kitchen tables. In 2006, it was contaminated spinach. In 2008, it was salmonella in peppers and possibly tomatoes. And just this year, bad peanut products led to hundreds of illnesses and cost nine people their lives – a painful reminder of how tragic the consequences can be when food producers act irresponsibly and government is unable to do its job. Worse, these incidents reflect a troubling trend that’s seen the average number of outbreaks from contaminated produce and other foods grow to nearly 350 a year – up from 100 a year in the early 1990s.

Part of the reason is that many of the laws and regulations governing food safety in America have not been updated since they were written in the time of Teddy Roosevelt. It’s also because our system of inspection and enforcement is spread out so widely among so many people that it’s difficult for different parts of our government to share information, work together, and solve problems. And it’s also because the FDA has been underfunded and understaffed in recent years, leaving the agency with the resources to inspect just 7,000 of our 150,000 food processing plants and warehouses each year. That means roughly 95% of them go uninspected.

That is a hazard to public health. It is unacceptable. And it will change under the leadership of Dr. Margaret Hamburg, whom I am appointing today as Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. From her research on infectious disease at the National Institutes of Health to her work on public health at the Department of Health and Human Services to her leadership on biodefense at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, Dr. Hamburg brings to this vital position not only a reputation of integrity but a record of achievement in making Americans safer and more secure. Dr. Hamburg was one of the youngest people ever elected to the National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine. And her two children have a unique distinction of their own. Their birth certificates feature her name twice – once as their mother, and once as New York City Health Commissioner. In that role, Dr. Hamburg brought a new life to a demoralized agency, leading an internationally-recognized initiative that cut the tuberculosis rate by nearly half, and overseeing food safety in our nation’s largest city.

Joining her as Principal Deputy Commissioner will be Dr. Joshua Sharfstein. As Baltimore’s Health Commissioner, Dr. Sharfstein has been recognized as a national leader for his efforts to protect children from unsafe over-the-counter cough and cold medications. And he’s designed an award-winning program to ensure that Americans with disabilities had access to prescription drugs.

Their critical work – and the critical work of the FDA they lead – will be part of a larger effort taken up by a new Food Safety Working Group I am creating. This Working Group will bring together cabinet secretaries and senior officials to advise me on how we can upgrade our food safety laws for the 21st century; foster coordination throughout government; and ensure that we are not just designing laws that will keep the American people safe, but enforcing them. And I expect this group to report back to me with recommendations as soon as possible.

As part of our commitment to public health, our Agriculture Department is closing a loophole in the system to ensure that diseased cows don’t find their way into the food supply. And we are also strengthening our food safety system and modernizing our labs with a billion dollar investment, a portion of which will go toward significantly increasing the number of food inspectors, helping ensure that the FDA has the staff and support they need to protect the food we eat.

In the end, food safety is something I take seriously, not just as your President, but as a parent. When I heard peanut products were being contaminated earlier this year, I immediately thought of my 7-year old daughter, Sasha, who has peanut butter sandwiches for lunch probably three times a week. No parent should have to worry that their child is going to get sick from their lunch. Just as no family should have to worry that the medicines they buy will cause them harm. Protecting the safety of our food and drugs is one of the most fundamental responsibilities government has, and, with the outstanding team I am announcing today, it is a responsibility that I intend to uphold in the months and years to come.

Thank you.

What’s Cheaper? A Good Microbiologist or a Bankrupt Company!

admin — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 04:40:54 +0000

It seems that the management of PCA stuffed up pretty badly. Let me say - Senior Management and the way they ran their company.

With bankruptcy and one of the biggest lawsuits against them approaching over the next few month - there’s no escape. With over 600 cases linked to them and 9 deaths, it looks like a pretty bad scenario.

there could be some good news out of this - it might out a strong message to the food companies out there. Start spending money on good microbiologist and place them high in the companies or risk bankruptcy. Not a bad way to approach it.

As I write - there news that the Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) on Friday filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Virginia.

This comes just days after PCA’s president, Stewart Parnell, refused to answer questions from members of the House Energy and Commerce investigations subcommittee.

That subcommittee is looking for ways to prevent (easy - have a pathogen monitoring program in place) another outbreak like this one, which has forced food manufacturers to recall more 2,000 products that contain peanut butter or paste made at PCA’s Blakely, Georgia, plant.

The bankruptcy action also comes on the heels of Thursday’s order by the Texas Department of State Health Services to recall all products PCA has ever shipped from its plant in Plainview, Texas.

During an investigation of that plant, inspectors discovered dead rodents, bird feathers, and rodent excrement in a crawl space above the production area. (Again - poor managment and focus on hygiene)

Plainview is the second PCA plant where inspectors have found unsanitary conditions.

Inspectors also uncovered documents that revealed PCA shipped peanut products that had tested positive for salmonella, including the strain linked to the current outbreak: Salmonella Typhimurium. Now if that not crimmal negligence then I’m not saure what is.

That discovery also exposed a dirty secret in the food manufacturing industry: companies are not required to disclose internal tests to the FDA or state officials which I think is totally wrong.

PCA is now the focus of a criminal investigation for allegedly shipping tainted products. It also faces more than a dozen civil lawsuits.

Damaging evidence has already surfaced in the investigation, including e-mails that indicate Parnell ordered products he knew were tainted with salmonella to be shipped anyway.

Some of those potentially-tainted products made their way to poor school children of victims of recent disasters.

Legal experts say companies file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection to liquidate their assets and distribute the proceeds to creditors.

PCA’s bankruptcy filing reveals the company’s debt and assets both ranged between $1 million and $10 million, according to the Associated Press. The filing also states the recalls have been “extremely devastating” to PCA’s financial condition.

Legal teams handling some of the recent litigation against PCA told the Associated Press they are optimistic that victims and their families can still be compensated.

While the bankruptcy proceeding could postpone litigation against the company, the lawyers said they will push a judge to allow the civil actions to proceed.

Many lawyers have also filed lawsuits against King Nut Co. and Kellogg Co., which used PCA-tainted ingredients in their products.

“Even if Peanut Corp. doesn’t have enough insurance and enough assets to cover the damages, King Nut and Kellogg will have to step up,” attorney Bill Marler told the Associated Press. He has filed seven lawsuits against PCA on behalf of more than 40 possible victims.

None of PCA’s products were sold directly to consumers. They were distributed to long-term care facilities, universities, food service industries, and private label food companies in the United States, Canada, Haiti, Korea, and Trinidad.

U.S. food makers, however, used the company’s peanut butter and paste to make various products, including cookies, crackers, ice cream, energy bars, and dog treats. That’s why so many food manufacturers have recently recalled their products.

And the list of products pulled off store shelves continues to grow almost daily, making it one of the country’s largest food-related recalls.

The massive recall, however, does not include any of the major brands of peanut butter sold on grocery stores shelves. That’s a message the makers of Jif, Skippy, and Peanut Pan peanut butters have taken great measures to broadcast to consumers. Some have taken out ads in newspapers nationwide to reassure buyers their products are safe to eat.

The FDA now has a complete list of all products recalled in the salmonella outbreak on its website and it have over 50 recalls and counting.

All consumers can check that Web site daily to see if their favorite products are included in any recalls.

Salmonella is an organism that can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and those with weakened immune systems. Symptoms include fever, diarrhea (which may be bloody), nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain. In rare cases, it can cause more severe illnesses, including arterial infections (i.e., infected aneurysms) and endocarditis.Health officials say salmonella can also be transferred to humans who handle pet treats tainted with the organism. They advise pet owners to wash their hands after they come touch these pet treats.

Symptoms of salmonella infection in pets include lethargy, diarrhea, bloody diarrhea, fever, and vomiting. Some pets, however, may have a decreased appetite, fever and abdominal pain.

List of Products Recalled due to Salmonella Contamination Grows

admin — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 00:26:53 +0000

Since the beginning of 2009, the list of compamies affected by the salmonella contaminated peanut butter or for that matter any products made by the Peanut Corporation of America has grown larger.

It looks like a huge lawsuit will follow and I’m sure there’ll be an increase in salmonella testing from all food manufacturers.

Here’s an up to date list from since Jan 09.

New Salmonella Warning System

admin — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 12:02:50 +0000

The U.S. health officials were the first to be alerted to the current peanut-based salmonella outbreak through a special government computer network called PulseNet.

The only problem with the system is that it relies on doctors testing patients and it takes interviews with patients to identify the food source. Here is an explanation of how this system works:

Q: What is PulseNet?

A: It’s a national network of public health labs coordinated by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. When state and local health officials get lab results of people sick with food poisoning, they post information about cases on the WebBoard, the PulseNet listserv. State and national health officials use this information to look for patterns.

PulseNet gets its name from a lab technology called pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, which enables investigators to do DNA “fingerprinting” of the infection bacteria and its strain subtype.

It’s somewhat like an FBI database that can compare fingerprints from an arrest record in California to fingerprints at the scene of a crime in Florida and determine if it’s the same crook. It takes about two days to run a genetic fingerprint on a sample. Each year, PulseNet identifies more than 300 clusters of patients infected with salmonella, E. coli, shigella and listeria.

Q: How comprehensive is it?

A: This network can’t catalog every case in an outbreak. Only some people who get sick go to doctors, and not all doctors run tests to confirm what infection the patient has. Health officials estimate that the actual number of illnesses in an outbreak may be 10 times higher than the lab network reports.

But by detecting an outbreak while it’s still going on and then identifying the food that’s spreading it, health officials believe they can prevent countless illnesses and some deaths.

Other countries have similar systems. The CDC routinely shares data with Canada, but not with other countries.

Q: How long does it take to identify a foodborne germ?

A: It generally takes two to four weeks from the time the first person in a cluster gets ill until the cluster is detected by PulseNet. In the case of the peanut butter outbreak, CDC first detected a national pattern in November, the month after substantial numbers of lab-tested illnesses first emerged.

CDC officials did not disclose the outbreak until January. They said it took more than a month for health officials to interview sick patients to determine that peanut butter was the food they all had in common. Then, a test from a peanut butter container in Minnesota found the outbreak strain of salmonella.

Q: Can’t this process be sped up?

A: The PulseNet system itself is relatively rapid. But investigation timelines are driven by what patients and doctors do about illnesses, and how quickly health officials in individual states react.

“The PulseNet system is a great system. The problem is it’s a 22nd century system resting on pillars of epidemiologic research that go back to the 1800s,” said Bill Marler, a Seattle plaintiff’s attorney who specializes in national food poisoning cases.

Such limitations may explain why Florida has had no lab-confirmed cases in the current salmonella outbreak. Unlike some other states, Florida does not require doctors and hospitals to send salmonella samples to a state lab for analysis and does not budget to handle such a workload. At least 270 samples that may be the outbreak strain have been collected, but only 25 were sent to a state lab for genetic fingerprinting.

Q: How long has this network been in place?

A: PulseNet was launched in 1996, but didn’t have the participation of all states until 2002. The cost is shared by the CDC and states. CDC says it spends about $5.6 million annually, but has no figure for what states spend.

The origin of the system lies with a 1993 outbreak of E. coli food poisoning in the western United States. CDC successfully used DNA fingerprinting to nail the strain of E. coli O157:H7 that sickened hundreds and killed four children; it was traced to hamburger patties served at Jack in the Box restaurants. That’s when the idea of a collaborative system among the states and federal government began to take shape.

Source: http://www.cdc.gov/pulsenet/

Peanut Butter Hides Salmonella Surprise!

admin — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 00:46:11 +0000

The Salmonella recovered from Peanut Butter (King Nut) has been found to be a genetic match to cases in the national Salmonella outbreak that has resulted in over thrity (30) illnesses in Minnesota and over 400 nationwide.

The lab tests conducted last week by MDA has found that the Salmonella bacteria in a 5-pound package of King Nut peanut butter collected from a long-term care facility was associated with one of the reported illnesses.

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) and the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) issued a product advisory on Friday alerting institutions that may have received the product. MDA and MDH scientists performed additional testing this weekend to verify the connection between the contaminated product and the illnesses.

State officials initially discovered the contaminated product through product testing conducted after MDH epidemiological evidence and an investigation by MDA’s Rapid Response Team implicated King Nut creamy peanut butter as a likely source of Salmonella infections in Minnesota residents. In the product advisory issued Friday, state officials urged establishments who may have the product on hand to avoid serving it, pending further instructions as the investigation progresses.

Eating food contaminated with Salmonella can result in abdominal cramping, diarrhea, and fever. Anyone who believes they may have become ill as a result of eating this product or foods made with this product should contact their health care provider.

King Nut peanut butter is produced by Peanut Corporation of America, of Lynchburg, Va., and is distributed in seven states by Ohio-based King Nut Companies. The product was distributed in Minnesota to establishments such as long-term care facilities, hospitals, schools, universities, restaurants, delis, cafeterias and bakeries. King Nut Companies reports that the product is not distributed for retail sale to consumers, and has voluntarily withdrawn the product from distribution.

Minnesota officials continue to coordinate their investigation with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other states.

Rapid evolution of a protein produced by an immunity gene is associated with increased antiviral activity in humans

admin — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 11:28:30 +0000

This finding suggests suggests evolutionary biology and virology together can accelerate the discovery of viral-defence mechanisms, according to researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

These findings by Julie Kerns, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher in the Hutchinson Center’s Basic Science Division, published Jan. 25 in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics, present a striking example by which evolutionary studies can directly lead to biomedically important discoveries in the field of infectious diseases.

The immunity gene, called ZAP, is a key player in a newly discovered branch of antiviral defences in mammals referred to as ‘‘intrinsic immunity.’’ Host proteins like ZAP can target intracellular stages of the viral life cycle to inhibit viral activity. The ZAP gene, first discovered in rats, thwarts a variety of divergent viruses, from retroviruses (like HIV) to alphaviruses (like Sindbis) to filoviruses (like Ebola).

Researchers believe ZAP functions by virtue of its RNAbinding abilities, which recognize specific sequences of the virus and target their viral RNA for destruction. Host-virus interactions are a classic example of genetic conflict in which both entities try to gain an evolutionary advantage over the other. This ‘‘back-and-forth’’ evolution is predicted to result in rapid changes of both host and viral proteins, which
results in an evolutionary signature of positive selection, especially at the direct interaction interface.

“This suggests that we might be able to deduce host-virus conflicts purely by looking at rapidly evolving protein segments,” said Kerns, the lead author of the study, which was conducted in collaboration with senior author Harmit Singh Malik, Ph.D., of the Center’s Basic Sciences Division and also co-author Michael Emerman, Ph.D., of the Center’s Human Biology Division Department.

The researchers found that there has been very little sequence evolution in the RNA-binding domain, which
suggests that human ZAP may be similar to the rat gene in its viral RNA-binding specificity.

Surprisingly, the rapid evolution characteristic of “intrinsic immunity” genes was concentrated in a protein domain that was not even present in the originally discovered rat gene.

The authors found that humans encode two protein versions, or isoforms, from a single ZAP gene: a shorter version similar to the original rat gene and a longer version that possesses a rapidly evolving poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP)-like domain.

In virological assays, the longer human ZAP protein isoform has higher antiviral activity. Thus, positive selection correctly predicted the more potent antiviral isoform of this protein.

The authors further suggest that ZAP is locked in a conflict with alphaviruses. The discovery of a potential human gene that can restrict alphaviral infection is particularly timely as the mosquito-borne alphavirus, Chikungunya, was responsible for a large epidemic in parts of Southeast Asia in 2006 and is now threatening to invade certain parts of Europe.

The researchers believe that this finding has an enormous implications for the understanding of intrinsic immunity against viruses. This could potentially serve as a guide in the development of antiviral therapeutics.

“We think that a particular alphaviral protein may be playing an evolutionary ‘cat-and-mouse’ game with the ZAP gene,” Malik said. “Identifying this protein could lead to novel ways to tackle diseases caused by alphaviruses.”

Source http://www.fhcrc.org

Listeria Outbreak Creates New Technical Role in Company

admin — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 12:33:35 +0000

It’s quite ironic that when profits are down the first people they seem to target is technical people. Now it seems after a major outbreak of listeria from Maple Leaf Foods in Canada, they’ve created a senior role of Chief Food Safety officer.

Bacteria from a Maple Leaf plant in Toronto was linked to the deaths of UP TO 20 people in a nationwide outbreak that has affected all types of people. The company says the chief food safety officer will be responsible for leading Maple Leaf’s food safety and quality programs across the country.

Randall Huffman, currently the president of the American Meat Institute, will step into the new role as of Jan. 5.

Huffman has a PhD and a master’s degree in meat and animal science and has held a number of advisory positions in the field.

The position is one of several moves Maple Leaf is taking after sales of their products declined by up to 35 per cent following the recall, wiping out 94 per cent of the operating profits in its meat division.

I just hope we see more technical people in senior levels - safety should be in the same light as profits.

Listeria Contamination in Maple Leaf Products Shocking!

admin — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 12:45:31 +0000

Two-thirds of meat samples taken from Toronto-area nursing homes and hospitals in mid-August for testing were contaminated with listeria, according to records obtained by CBC News and the Toronto Star in a joint investigation.

A listeriosis outbreak that health officials warned the public about in August has been linked to the deaths of 20 Canadians and prompted the largest food recall in Canadian history. Vinita Dubey, Toronto’s associate medical officer of health, said the test results illustrate the extent of the contamination.

“I’d never seen anything like this,” Dr. Dubey said after reviewing the test data for the first time.

‘The fact that so many came back positive shows how contaminated the source was.’—Vinita Dubey, Toronto associate medical officer of health

“Usually in our food investigations, we’ll send a number of samples for testing and most will be negative. The fact that so many came back positive shows how contaminated the source was,” she added.

The Ontario Ministry of Health and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) in mid-August ordered public health units across the province to collect samples of processed meats such as turkey, ham and roast beef as part of the investigation into the listeriosis outbreak. A federal government source confirmed Wednesday that half of the samples tested positive for listeria, and Toronto was a hot spot.

Toronto Public Health inspectors collected 26 samples from nursing homes, hospitals and HIV/AIDS hospices on Aug. 14 and Aug. 15. Seventeen of those samples - roughly two-thirds of the total - tested positive for a dangerous strain of listeria.

“There shouldn’t be any positives,” said Rick Holley, a microbiologist who teaches at the University of Manitoba. “The reality is if you did a survey in the market, you might find one or two at most out of this sample [size] that are positive.… And it is a particularly virulent strain of listeria. It’s one of the bad ones.”

The results are also disturbing given that the samples were taken from institutions that house the elderly and infirm, Holley said. The highest risk groups in listeriosis outbreaks include people with weaker immune systems, such as children, pregnant women and the elderly.

“In an environment where these products are going to be consumed by that minority of the population that has some predisposition to some serious infection, this would represent significant challenge for those people,” he said.

Maple Leaf Foods has now confirmed that the test results, which it received on the evening of Aug. 16, prompted it to launch the massive recall of its meat products on Aug. 17.

“When we looked at [the test results], we felt it was important to do more and that’s why we closed the plant and recalled 191 products,” said Linda Smith, a spokeswoman for Maple Leaf.

The test results obtained by the CBC and the Toronto Star show that the meat had various levels of contamination, when the standard set by Health Canada calls for zero tolerance.

The meat samples that tested positive for listeria had best-before dates ranging from early August to early October. Holley said this suggests the meat from the Toronto Maple Leaf Foods plant was being contaminated over a period of nearly two months.

“Whatever the defect was here, it had to be a continuing source of contamination. There had to be a reservoir of the bacteria growing.”

Source: http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2008/10/09/listeria-tests.html

Legionella infects No.13

admin — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 13:55:18 +0000

Another person whihc now totals 13 has come down with the deadly Legionnaires’ disease and health officials say the bacteria that causes the deadly respiratory ailment has been found at a second location, a Syracuse nursing home in NY.

So far investigators searching for the potential source of the outbreak have discovered that the Legionella bacteria that causes the illness in the water system of the 526-bed Van Duyn Home and Hospital, said Gary Sauda, the Onondaga County director of environmental health.

Legionnaires’ is a severe form of pneumonia. People become infected by inhaling airborne water droplets that contain the bacteria. It can be fatal if left untreated.

So far one person has died since the outbreak began June 30, although health officials said they have not yet confirmed Legionnaires’ was the cause of the person’s death.

Investigators suspect the outbreak was caused by Legionella bacteria discovered in one of the air conditioning cooling towers at Community General Hospital, but they have not yet proven it. Six of 13 people infected were Community General patients.

In Legionnaires’ outbreaks, people up to two miles away from the source can be infected. The nursing home and hospital are located less than a half mile apart.

The staff at Van Duyn is working with state health department officials to minimize risks to the nursing home’s residents, Sauda said.

On Wednesday, officials at Community General reported that their first effort to kill the Legionella bacteria in its cooling towers two weeks ago did not work. The hospital performed a 24-hour disinfection process July 4. The hospital received test results Tuesday showing the bacteria was still present.

At that point, the hospital had already carried out a second 48-hour disinfection process over the weekend, following federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, said Tom Quinn, the hospital’s president and chief executive officer.

Test results from the second cleaning may not be available for two weeks, he said.

Source

Microbiology information

Scientists Find RNA Surprises in isteria Bacteria

Barack Obama Creates Food Safety Working Group After Eating Bad Peanuts

What’s Cheaper? A Good Microbiologist or a Bankrupt Company!

List of Products Recalled due to Salmonella Contamination Grows

Since the beginning of 2009, the list of compamies affected by the salmonella contaminated peanut butter or for that matter any products made by the Peanut Corporation of America has grown larger.

It looks like a huge lawsuit will follow and I’m sure there’ll be an increase in salmonella testing from all food manufacturers.

Here’s an up to date list from since Jan 09.

February 17, 2009

February 14, 2009

February 13, 2009

February 12, 2009

February 11, 2009

February 10, 2009

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