New Zealand bio-security and food safety authorities this morning announced the discovery of a disease in a single New Zealand sheep's brain, but were quick to emphasise that the discovery represented no trade or food safety risks. The condition carries the names "atypical scrapie", and is otherwise known to scientists as "Nor 98". It is considered non-threatening.

An Indiana woman has died of rabies. Little information is currently available but reports state that bat rabies was involved but that the source of exposure was not known. Presumably, they have determined that she was infected by the bat rabies variant (strain) but she didn't report being bitten or otherwise exposed to a bat.

The high-profile South Wales E.coli public inquiry appears to have sparked an increase in the number of reported food-poisoning cases. Latest figures show that June was the worst month so far this year for reports of food poisoning in Wales. The number of cases notified to health boards was 631 in June, compared to 234 in January.

WASHINGTON -- Crocetti's Oakdale Packing Co., doing business as, South Shore Meats, Inc., a Brockton, Mass., establishment, is voluntarily recalling approximately 1,039 pounds of fresh ground beef patties derived from bench trim as well as mechanically tenderized beef cuts that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7, the U.S.

An outbreak of pathogenic blue-eared pig disease, also known as porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, has appeared in five areas of China, the country’s agriculture ministry has announced. An epidemic of the swine disease killed more than 80,000 pigs in 2007.

A new paper published October 27 in PLoS ONE, the online, open-access scientific journal, unveils for the first time a method to accurately distinguish between all eight tuna species from any kind of processed tissue using genetic sequencing. Tunas are among the most economically valuable and yet the most endangered commercially exploited fish in the world.

A children’s farm at the centre of an E.coli outbreak that left several youngsters seriously ill was re-opened on Monday. Godstone Farm closed on September 12, two weeks after the first case of E.coli was reported there, and samples taken from animals were later found to contain traces of the virus.

I don't believe that HACCP as it exists today was what the National Academy of Sciences had in mind in 1985, when they recommended it as the best system for controlling microbiological hazards in foods. Somewhere along the way, we have lost sight of the fundmanentals that could make HACCP so much more effective.

For Wisconsinites who grew up on farms, raw milk may seem like a natural source of nutrition. Some swear by it for digestive problems and a boost to immunity.