Rodeos can be risky -- and not just for riders.

As reported by researchers from Utah and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, in summer 2009, the Utah Department of Health investigated an outbreak of Shiga-toxigenic Escherichia coli (STEC) O157:H7 (O157) illness associated with attendance at multiple rodeos.

Patients were interviewed regarding exposures during the week before illness onset. A ground beef traceback investigation was performed. Ground beef samples from patient homes and a grocery store were tested for STEC O157. Rodeo managers were interviewed regarding food vendors present and cattle used at the rodeos. Environmental samples were collected from rodeo grounds. Two-enzyme pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and multiple-locus variable-number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA) were performed on isolates.

Fourteen patients with primary STEC O157 illness were reported in this outbreak. Isolates from all patients were indistinguishable by PFGE. Isolates from nine patients had identical MLVA patterns (main outbreak strain), and five had minor differences. Thirteen (93%) patients reported ground beef consumption during the week before illness onset. Results of the ground beef traceback investigation and ground beef sampling were negative. Of 12 primary patients asked specifically about rodeo attendance, all reported having attended a rodeo during the week before illness onset; four rodeos were mentioned. All four rodeos had used bulls from the same cattle supplier. An isolate of STEC O157 identified from a dirt sample collected from the bullpens of one of the attended rodeos was indistinguishable by PFGE and MLVA from the main outbreak strain.

Recommendations were provided to rodeo management to keep livestock and manure separate from rodeo attendees. This is the first reported STEC O157 outbreak associated with attendance at multiple rodeos. Public health officials should be aware of the potential for rodeo-associated STEC illness.

Foodborne Pathogens and Disease. doi:10.1089/fpd.2011.0884
William A. Lanier, Julia M. Hall, Rachel K. Herlihy, Robert T. Rolfs, Jennifer M. Wagner, Lori H. Smith, Eija K. Hyytia-Trees
http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/fpd.2011.0884
 

At a news conference on Friday, Reinhard Burger, president of the Robert Koch Institute said an investigation into the pattern of the E. coli O104 outbreak that has killed at least 31, had produced enough evidence to draw a conclusion.

“In this way, it was possible to narrow down epidemiologically the cause of the outbreak of the illness to the consumption of sprouts,” Mr. Burger said, accompanied by the heads of Germany’s Federal Institute for Risk Assessment and Federal Office for Consumer Protection. “It is the sprouts.”

The breakthrough in the investigation came after a task force from the three institutes linked separate clusters of patients who had fallen sick to 26 restaurants and cafeterias that had received produce from the organic farm.

“It was like a crime thriller where you have to find the bad guy,” said Helmut Tschiersky-Schoeneburg from the consumer protection agency.

“They even studied the menus, the ingredients, looked at bills and took pictures of the different meals, which they then showed to those who had fallen ill,” said Andreas Hensel, head of the Risk Assessment agency.

Those interviews with patients and even the chefs at restaurants where they had eaten showed that people who had consumed bean sprouts were nine times more likely to become infected than those who had not.

Gert Lindemann, the state agriculture minister, said the owners of the farm had already pledged not to sell any produce after their facility came under suspicion last Sunday.

In an interview to be published in next week's edition of Focus magazine, Mr Lindemann said 60 of the people contaminated had eaten sprouts from the small farm in Bienenbuettel.

Contamination might have been caused by infected seeds or "poor hygiene", he added.
He said three of the farm's employees also fell ill last month, suffering from diarrhea.

The farm is located about 35 miles (56 kilometers) southeast of Hamburg. Its products include radish, red-cabbage, alfalfa, broccoli, onion and garlic sprouts, as well as sunflower seedlings, according to information on its website. Gaertnerhof has about 18 employees.

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

"Tacos de chapulines" are a popular cart and bar snack in Mexico City, Oaxaca and even in certain parts of the U.S. Devotees cite the cooked bugs' appealing crunch and protein content - said to be twice that of beef.



However, local authorities aren't keen on where La Oaxaqueña Bakery and Restaurant owner Harry Persaud was sourcing his grasshoppers. While he has a permit to import them, the vendor he's using is not FDA-approved, and he has yet to locate a domestic, approved source.

Persaud is reportedly considering raising his own grasshoppers.

"It is the sprouts."

So says the president of Germany's national disease control center, Reinhard Burger.

Burger says the Robert Koch Institute is lifting its warning against eating cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce but keeping the warning in place for the sprouts.

Burger told reporters Friday that even though no tests of the sprouts from a farm in Lower Saxony had come back positive, the epidemiological investigation of the pattern of the outbreak had produced enough evidence to draw the conclusion.

To date, 30 people have been killed and almost 3,000 sickened in the outbreak of E. coli O104.

An updated table of sprout-related outbreaks is available at

http://bites.ksu.edu/sprouts-associated-outbreaks

Look for something and it will be found.

But is anyone else concerned about the E. coli being found on European produce, even if it is not the O104 outbreak strain?

EU officials said on Wednesday evening traces of EHEC bacteria have been found on beetroot sprouts from a Dutch grower.

The sprouts are not carrying the same variant of the bacteria as has killed some 27 people in Germany, but all produce from that grower is being removed from the supermarket shelves as a precautionary measure.

Beetroot sprouts are sprouted beetroot seeds which can be eaten in salads or used as decoration.
 

Cucumbers came under fresh suspicion on Wednesday in Germany's desperate hunt for a pathogen that has killed 26 people, with investigators discovering the mutant bacteria on food scraps in a family's garbage.

It was the first time the type O 104 enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) had been confirmed on any food since the outbreak began in mid-May. All the other evidence has come from fecal tests.

The scraps turned up in garbage in the eastern city of Magdeburg, authorities of the state of Saxony-Anhalt said.

Three of the family have been sick: the father only had a stomach upset, the mother has been discharged after a hospital stay for diarrhea and the daughter is suffering from hemolytic-uraemic syndrome (HUS), a condition caused by EHEC where the kidneys fail.

Experts said they still did not know how the bacteria came to be on the cucumber, which had been in the bin for a week and a half.

Earlier in the day, investigators affirmed that bean sprouts from a market garden remained the likeliest cause of the E coli outbreak, despite the fact that the pathogen has not been found on any sprouts.

At a Berlin news conference, officials summed up the evidence against sprouts.
One woman working at the Bienenbuettel Gaertnerhof, an organic sprout grower, has been infected with EHEC, the germ behind the outbreak, and two other women there had unexplained diarrhea in May, Lower Saxony state officials said.
Two more clusters of EHEC victims were meanwhile confirmed as having eaten sprouts from the Gaertnerhof.

Consumer Affairs Minister Ilse Aigner said a total of eight clusters of EHEC victims who ate Gaertnerhof products had been spotted this way

The cause of a food poisoning outbreak in 10 pre-schools last month in Singapore, which affected over 270 people, has been traced to Salmonella Enteritidis.

It was found in the seafood marinara pasta supplied by Mum's Kitchen.

The organism is not native to seafood but is commonly found in items such as poultry and eggs.

Mum's Kitchen was the caterer for eight of Pat's Schoolhouse's preschools, the Children's Place at Kay Siang Road and Learning Visions at Raffles Place.

In a joint statement, the Health Ministry and National Environment Agency said there might have been cross-contamination of the pasta with raw food during preparation at the caterer's premises.

Interviews with food handlers indicated that the same trays were used to hold raw and cooked foods.

The only positive thing about working on the couch while my wife watches Real Housewives of New Jersey is that sooner or later, they will screw something up, and I can blog about it.

This week’s episode wasn’t any different. Teresa (right, exactly as shown), one of the many wives, was hosting Thanksgiving dinner for the family. After visiting a local poultry farm, and feeling sorry for the live turkey, she decided to buy a turkey that had been slaughtered the day before. The issue however is not animal welfare, but the food safety atrocity she committed next by washing her turkey in the sink –- this is somebody who has published two cooking books. It has been proven that bacteria can travel up to 3 feet from the sink, highly increasing the risk of cross-contamination.

On a positive note, she was actually shown using a thermometer – it wasn’t digital, but at least she was using one.
 

Lab results confirm the presence of E. coli O157:H7 in a two-year-old girl that died this weekend and the presence of the bacteria in a close contact of the child.

Northeast Regional Health Office Medical Director Dr. David Kirschke also confirms a similar severe strain in Northeast Tennessee.

"We have one case of the severe type in Tennessee," Dr. Kirschke said. "It may be similar to what the two kids from Virginia had."

According to a Washington County, TN Sheriff's Office Coroner's Report, the two year-old was brought to the medical center Pediatric Intensive Care Unit with bloody diarrhea after she was "believed to be exposed to E. coli from a contaminated pool."