The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reports that 71 people –more than half children under 5-years-old – have been sickened with Salmonella Altona or Salmonella Johannesburg from handling chicks or ducklings, that have been traced back to the same mail-order hatchery in Ohio.

Reuters reported the implicated business was Mt. Healthy Hatchery, which supplies chicks and ducklings to an unnamed nationwide agricultural feedstore.

As of June 27, 2011, a total of 49 individuals infected with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Altona have been reported from 16 states and a total of 22 individuals infected with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Johannesburg have been reported from 12 states. Ill persons reported purchasing live poultry for either backyard flocks to produce eggs or as pets.

The complete CDC investigation update is available at http://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/altona-baby-chicks/062911/index.html
 

European Union food safety and disease prevention agencies joined a mounting chorus today and said, don’t eat raw sprouts, as clues emerged about the origin of seeds.

AFP reports the two bodies conducted a study and said that they "strongly recommend to advise consumers not to grow sprouts for their own consumption and not to eat sprouts or sprouted seeds unless they have been cooked thoroughly."

The report by the European Food Safety Authority in Italy and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control in Sweden said sprouts are often sold as mixes and "during re-packaging cross-contamination cannot be excluded."

Meanwhile CIDRAP reports new trace-back investigations in German and French E. coli outbreaks are pointing to two lots of fenugreek seeds that were imported from Egypt, according to the latest threat assessment from European officials.

Sprouts from Egyptian fenugreek seeds are suspected in both a cluster of French E coli O104:H4 illnesses and the large outbreak in Germany involving the same strain, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) said in a risk assessment today. But the agencies cautioned that there is no lab evidence yet tying the seeds to the outbreaks.

The ECDC and the EFSA said they have urgently requested that the German-based company that imported the seeds help them track other customers who received fenugreek seeds from the two lots.

Officials suspect that Egyptian fenugreek seeds imported in 2009 are linked to the French E coli cluster and that a batch from 2010 is linked to the German outbreak. The ECDC identified the seed importer as AGA SAAT GMBH, based in Dusseldorf, Germany. It said a UK company that reportedly supplied the sprout seeds linked to the French cluster obtained the seeds from AGA SAAT GMBH.

This is why I don’t pay attention to government: for months, Americans have been told that under new legislation the U.S. Food and Drug Administration would have the authority to recall products.

Instead of a recall, FDA warned consumers yesterday not to eat alfalfa sprouts from Evergreen Produce because of possible salmonella contamination, which has apparently sickened 20.

According to The Packer, the owner of the company declined to recall her product until the agency could provide “hard evidence.”

(That’s what she said.)

Nadine Scharf owns 23-year-old Evergreen Produce Inc., Moyie, Idaho. She said June 27 that someone reported to health officials that they had gotten sick after eating Evergreen sprouts in recent weeks, but that there haven’t been any new illnesses reported since June 2.

“The FDA encouraged us to do a recall but I said I needed to see hard evidence that our sprouts were involved. They are down to only three cases now. It started out that they thought 20 people were sick, then they dropped that number to six and now it’s down to three. And they say it will be a week before any tests results will be available.”

Scharf said government officials took swab samples throughout her hydroponic growing operation, but she said the first batch of samples was sent to the wrong place. So, more swabs were taken and Scharf is still awaiting results.

In the meantime, she laid off half of her 14 employees and shut down production of her alfalfa and spicy sprout lines as a precautionary move.

“If I had the money I would be fighting what they (FDA and Idaho state health officials) have done,” Scharf said. “They have issued that statement and smeared us without any evidence.”

Scharf said Evergreen Produce always tests its seed lots before using them. The company has third-party water tests done three times each week.

“The military also comes in once every quarter for an audit and we always pass those without any problems,” Scharf said.

KTUU reports the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services is investigating four cases of people who became sick after drinking bacteria-contaminated raw milk from a Mat-Su Valley farm.



According to DHSS spokesperson Greg Wilkinson, state law doesn’t allow the sale of raw milk, but does permit owning shares of an animal to receive its milk -- which doesn’t have to be tested or pasteurized it’s distributed.



The four people infected with Campylobacter jejuni bacteria from May 7 through June 4 were Southcentral Alaska residents ranging in age from 1 to 81 years old. All four experienced severe stomach flu after drinking raw milk from one of the unnamed farm’s cows, and two said family members also experienced symptoms but did not seek medical attention.
 

The FDA is warning consumers not to eat alfalfa sprouts or spicy sprouts from plastic bags labeled “Evergreen Produce” or “Evergreen Produce Inc.”

The sprouts are possibly linked to 20 reported cases, including one hospitalization, of Salmonella Enteritidis in Idaho, Montana, New Jersey, North Dakota and Washington State.

The elderly, infants and those with impaired immune systems are more likely to have a severe illness from Salmonella infection.

Consumers, retailers and others who have alfalfa sprouts or spicy sprouts in plastic bags labeled “Evergreen Produce” or “Evergreen Produce Inc.” should discard them in a sealed container so people and animals, including wild animals, cannot eat them.

A happy birthday shout-out to barfblog.com contributor Amy Hubbell, who faithfully edits my writing (eventually) and asked Wal-Mart Frank if the steaks we bought were needle-tenderized. Not bad for a French professor.

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland gets it right, and said this morning, don’t eat sprouts.

The German outbreak of E. coli O104 that has killed 45 and sickened some 3,800 has now spread to the Bordeaux region of southern France and sickened at least 10 people.

The N.Y. Times reports this morning what food safety types have been saying all along: a common supplier sprout seed might be the ultimate source of the E. coli O104 and if those seeds are still in circulation, other outbreaks could occur.

William E. Keene, a senior epidemiologist at the Oregon Public Health Division, said it was urgent to find out if the seeds used by the German grower had come from the same source as the seeds linked to the French cases.

At least five of the French cases involved kidney failure, and tests on two of those people showed they were infected with the O104:H4 strain. The eight people infected in the Bègles area were adults, age 31 to 78. In addition, two children were sickened in another town and they were presumed also to have E. coli infections, although it was not clear if they had the same strain.

The source of the bean sprouts or the seeds from which they were sprouted is not known at this time and is the subject of ongoing investigation. The implicated bean sprouts are unlikely to have originated in the German organic bean sprout farm as this farm is closed and it is known not to have exported bean sprouts.

This raises the possibility that contaminated seeds are on the market. Therefore as a precautionary measure, and until investigations are concluded, FSAI advises, for the time being that consumers should not to eat raw bean sprouts or other sprouted seeds and caterers should not serve raw bean sprouts or other sprouted seeds.

Who knows what kind of crap is sprouting by your kitchen windowsill or in your herb garden.

Given the number of dead and dying related to this outbreak, the traceback has been an enormous failure.

A table of international sprout outbreaks is available at http://bites.ksu.edu/sprouts-associated-outbreaks.
 

Who wouldn’t want to hang out in Bordeaux, southwestern France. We did on our way back from the ocean-and-lake-side retreat of Maubuisson a few years ago and had probably the best lunch any friends could ever serve.

Unfortunately, 10 cases of E. coli poisoning have emerged in Bordeaux in the past few days, linked to raw spouts, and the same strain that walloped Germany.

Early on in the German outbreak, a U.S. science-type told me, it’s the seed that’s probably infected and more outbreaks will appear; that’s what happened in the U.S. over the past 15 years.

At least six out of the 10 people were found to have eaten the sprouts at a local fete in Begres, southeast of Bordeaux, said a police statement, citing health authorities.

Health authorities said tests had shown two of the patients were infected by the same potentially deadly strain of the disease as that found recently in Germany, but did not say whether there was a link between the two outbreaks.

Frederic Lefebvre, secretary of state for consumer affairs, said the sprouts were purchased at a Jardiland store and were produced by Thompson & Morgan based in Ipswich, England.

The minister called for the company's sprouts, mustard and roquette to be withdrawn from sale while an analysis was conducted.

Lefebvre also recommended that "consumers who bought these same products not use them," he said in a statement.

Two children who visited the Opelika Sportsplex and Aquatics Center’s Splash Park between June 12 and June 20 have tested positive for E. coli infection, according to a Thursday release from the Alabama Department of Public Health.

Parents of children who visited the Splash Park during the same period have been cautioned to be alert for symptoms of illness such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal cramps.

“Based on what we know now, four children who were in the Splash Park between June 12 and June 18 have been hospitalized at East Alabama Medical Center with gastrointestinal illness,” said Dr. Mary McIntyre, medical officer of the ADPH’s Bureau of Communicable Disease. The Splash Pool appears to be the common area of exposure at this time, according to that same ADPH release.

Of the two samples to test positive for E. coli, only one was from a child admitted to the East Alabama Medical Center, said John Atkinson, EAMC public relations manager.

“The other sample is from a child that was seen at a local doctor’s office, and who did not require hospitalization. To our knowledge, two children have been seen by local doctors with similar symptoms, making it a total of six (four at EAMC and two in the community),” Atkinson said. “We do not expect that number to increase.”

In one of the worst media quotes ever, Sam Bailey, director of the Opelika Parks & Recreation Department, said, “I would be shocked to think at some point tomorrow (Friday) we won’t be open, unless something we don’t know about occurs, and we’re not expecting that.”

With microorganisms, expect the unexpected.