Scott Weese from Worms & Germs Blog said it best, “a dog’s tongue is not a medical device.”

According to an article by All Pet News (referencing a study by University of Florida Gainesville), in which risk for zoonotic transmission was obviously disregarded, treating human wounds with dog saliva leads to wounds healing twice as fast. It’s the perfect example of lab results being extrapolated into real world situations without proper knowledge or testing. Although dog saliva may have antibacterial properties and Nerve Growth Factor, you can’t conclude from lab-controlled experiments, using purified concentrated compounds, that a dog licking a wound is beneficial.

Lefebvre et al. (2006) published a paper titled “Prevalence of zoonotic agents in dogs visiting hospitalized people in Ontario: Implications for infection control,” in which zoonotic agents were isolated from 80 out of 102 (80%) dogs.

Clostridium difficile, was the most prevalent agent, isolated from 58 out of 102 (58%) fecal specimens, 71% of which were toxigenic. Extended-spectrum beta-lactamase Escherichia coli was isolated from one dog, extended-spectrum cephalosporinase E. coli was isolated from three dogs, and organisms of the genus Salmonella were isolated from three dogs.

Common sense would state that if you use your dog’s saliva for wound healing, you probably wouldn’t be washing it after being licked. This would increase the risk for wounds in general to get infected, but if your wound is on your hand, you are also at a higher risk of getting you and others (via cross-contamination) infected with a zoonotic disease. I don’t know about laboratory dogs, but I know my dog spends a lot of time licking herself, including her rear end. So as cute as those images of dogs licking their owner’s face look on TV, I keep my dog’s tongue away from me.
 

Gina Kolata of The New York Times writes in tomorrow’s paper that the E. coli O104 that killed 40 people in Germany over the past month have a highly unusual combination of two traits and that may be what made the outbreak among the deadliest in recent history.

One trait was a toxin, called Shiga, that causes severe illness, including bloody diarrhea and, in some patients, kidney failure. The other is the ability of this strain to gather on the surface of an intestinal wall in a dense pattern that looks like a stack of bricks, possibly enhancing the bacteria’s ability to pump the toxin into the body.

With the two traits combined in one strain of E. coli bacteria, “now they are highly virulent,” said Dr. Matthew K. Waldor, an infectious-disease expert at Harvard Medical School who was not connected with the new research.

The new findings, by a team led by Helge Karch of the University of Münster, are being published Wednesday in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases. They result from two days of fevered work to characterize the bacteria causing the illness that raced through Germany in May.

Experts in the United States praised the German scientists’ work. The work and the entire outbreak are “a real game-changer,” said Dr. Philip I. Tarr, a professor of pediatrics and expert in gut infections at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. John Mekalanos of Harvard called the paper “extremely important.”

Dr. Karch, a well-known expert in E. coli, infections, got the first stool samples on May 25. Over the next few days, more and more samples flooded his lab, 50 to 100 a day. “You can’t imagine,” he said.

He isolated the strain that was causing the illness and analyzed it to determine that it was strain O104:H4. Then he began investigating the bacteria’s DNA. First he determined what kind of Shiga toxin it made. Then he did adherence tests and found that the bacteria stuck to surfaces in the bricklike pattern. It is an unmistakable phenomenon: “Once you see it you will never forget it,” Dr. Karch said.
He posted the results and provided detailed information so most labs that had a suspicious stool sample could analyze it immediately and see if the stool contained O104:H4 bacteria. Until he posted that information, most labs would be at a loss. The strain is so rare that there are no standard tests to find it.

Dr. Karch also realized that the O104:H4 strain had been seen before in bloody diarrhea and kidney failure, but only on rare occasions — first in Germany in 2001, then sporadically in a few other countries. And in each outbreak, at most a few people were ill.

Dr. Karch thinks it smoldered in human populations, causing mild illnesses in most and occasionally causing severe disease. Then, somehow, it was passed to the bean sprouts by someone who harbored the bacteria. And since sprouts are eaten raw, they were highly infectious.

He himself does not like sprouts, he says, though his wife does. Aware that sprouts have always been “a high-risk food” for bacterial illnesses, he will not touch them unless they have been cooked.

The Daily Mail reports a father-of-two today told how he almost died after eating an under-cooked pork chop.

Darren Ashall, a plant operator from Chorley, Lancashire, developed a potentially lethal brain bug that has left him in hospital for nearly five months.

The 46-year-old cannot walk and still struggles to communicate. However, doctors told him he is lucky to be alive after listeria meningitis attacked his immune system and left an abscess on his brain.

He first fell ill after cooking two pork chops on a caravan stove while working away from home in Birmingham.

“I thought one of the chops wasn't cooked properly. I regretted eating it straight away. I knew it was a mistake. A month later I went to hospital thinking I was having a heart attack. After three days, my face started drooping on one side and people thought I was having a stroke.”

Darren had picked up the listeria bug, which can lay dormant for up to 70 days.
 

This is the only advice I’ve given my daughters: keep your stick on the ice, don’t take wooden nickels, and when someone says, “trust me,” immediately distrust that person.

When a sprout grower involved in an outbreak that sickened 140 people says, “it's next to impossible for anything to happen," giggle knowingly and walk away.

Tiny Greens’ Organic Farm in Urbana, Illinois, the source of a Jimmy John’s related sprout outbreak that sickened at least 140, talks a lot on its web page about being sustainable, natural, organic and using a crap-load of crap in their sprout production.

“The farm is certified by the Global Organic Alliance, which helps with finding a supply of organic seeds, which can be surprisingly hard to acquire. We grow the seeds in compost that we create ourselves, made of a mixture of year old woodchips and leftover sprouts. We have never had to find an outside source for compost. As long as you keep the sprouts healthy, there is no need for using chemicals. Healthy growing materials also mean an end product that is higher in vitamins, minerals and enzymes.”

Why a national sandwich chain like Jimmy John’s would buy an identified high-risk product – raw sprouts – from such an outfit is beyond me; it’s their business to lose.

Yesterday, the owner of Tiny Greens’ went on the PR offensive, telling The News-Gazatte he has taken several corrective actions to address food safety concerns raised by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Why didn’t he do that previously, what with all the raw sprout outbreaks over the past two decades?

"After the changes we made, it's next to impossible for anything to happen," said Bill Bagby Jr., owner of Tiny Greens in Urbana.

According to the FDA, a sample of compost runoff from outside the Urbana farm turned up a salmonella strain "indistinguishable" from the one responsible for the outbreak.

After agency inspectors noted that Tiny Greens employees, who were wearing boots, pushed carts through compost water runoff outside the facility and did not sanitize boots or carts before returning through a greenhouse door to the production area, Bagby said now the outside carts and boots never come inside the production facility, and inside boots and carts never go outside the facility. The greenhouse door also is now for exiting the building only.

Bagby consulted with an epidemiologist to help him throughout the process, and a new food safety manager is now on staff.

Food safety Frank was walking around the vet college with me yesterday and we ran into my research pal, Dr. Kate Stenske KuKanich.

It took about 10 seconds and they were into a full discussion of pet food safety, the role of pets as carriers of salmonella, and how infections cycle throughout the home.

Wal-Mart is asking more of its pet food suppliers; that’s good.

Dr. Kate wrote a report for the June 1, 2011 issue of the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA), laying out recommendations for pet owners on how to avoid Salmonella infection in pets; that’s good too.

From the AVMA press release that went out last night:

The report, written by Kate S. KuKanich, DVM, Ph.D., DACVIM, details the circumstances under which Salmonella organisms are most often ingested and includes a history of Salmonella outbreaks associated with pet food and treats. In addition, it offers recommendations on how pet owners can minimize the risk of Salmonella infection for both their pets and families.

Recommendations include:
Avoiding raw food diets for pets.
Purchasing individually packaged pig ears, rather than buying them from bulk bins.
Checking the packaging of pet food products to ensure that they are in good condition prior to purchase; returning products to the store if they appear tainted, discolored, or malodorous.
Storing pet foods, treats, and nutritional products in accordance with label instructions, preferably in a cool, dry environment.
Saving the original pet food packaging material, including the date code and product code of all food products, for product identification in case of food contamination.
Discouraging children, the elderly, and immunosuppressed people from handling pet food and treats.
Washing hands with soap and water before and after handling pet food, treats, and nutritional products.
Using a clean scoop to dispense pet food into bowls.
Washing water and food bowls used by pets, as well as feeding scoops, routinely with hot soapy water in a sink other than in the kitchen or bathroom.
Avoiding feeding pets in the kitchen.

I like working with smart people.
 

WNYC reports that even though they're not cooking any food, Broadway theaters are getting letter grades from the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The Broadway venues, along with Off-Broadway and movie theaters, are included in the city's restaurant grading program because they operate concession stands. Many of the stands aren't performing very well.

Although final grades are still pending for most theaters, at least 15 of them have already been written up for violations that range from mice to bad plumbing in preliminary inspections.

According to Variety editor Gordon Cox, theaters are getting bad scores because they are housed in very old buildings.

In a written statement, a health department spokesperson said, "Even with the limited food and drink offerings typically found at theaters, there is a risk of food borne illness if food safety practices are not followed."

Lay off that whiskey, and let that cocaine be.

That’s how the 1927 song made famous by Johnny Cash goes, but maybe add the line, if you’re going to do cocaine, try not to do it with animal drugs.

KTLA in Los Angeles reports doctors are warning cocaine users about product cut with levamisole, used for deworming livestock.

The warning follows reports of several patients developing serious skin reactions after smoking or snorting cocaine believed to be contaminated with the veterinary drug.

The report, published online in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, said six patients developed purple-colored patches of necrotic skin on their ears, nose, cheeks and other parts of their body and, in some instances, suffered permanent scarring after they had used cocaine.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, up to 70% of cocaine in the U.S. is contaminated with levamisole, which is cheap and widely available.

According to the cookbook, Grillin’ with Gas by Hank Hill Fred Thompson, and reproduced on Culinate:

“Judging the doneness of steak is not as much science as it is technique and feel.

“Poke your index finger into your cheek at mouth level. Then press your finger into the steak. If they feel very similar, that’s an indication of a rare steak.

“Touching the tip of your nose gives you the feel of a medium steak, and touching your forehead is a medium-well to well-done steak.”

Use a tip-sensitive thermometer and stick it in.
 

French and Italian media are reporting that 46 young American students were
hospitalized in Salerno, south of Naples, for food poisoning after eating pasta and meat.

Young people and a teacher of 32 years, who had to travel in Greece, were hospitalized in various establishments in the vicinity of Salerno on Saturday night after complaining of fever, vomiting and diarrhea.

The group made a stop for lunch at a self-service Hydromania water park on the outskirts of Rome. They ate cold pasta and chicken thawed. But none of the 170 other guests had suffered the same problems as American students. 



A group of Nas, the carabinieri unit that specializes in food control, collected samples of the food consumed by the young Americans for laboratory analysis.