The number of confirmed cases of people suffering from the cryptosporidium bug, which is associated with farm visits, has increased to 15. Two days ago it was known that five children in the city had tested positive for the bug, which causes sickness and diarrhoea.

Health officials across North Texas are hoping to avoid last summer’s outbreak of cryptosporidiosis, the waterborne illness that sickened hundreds regionwide.

CHILE -- At an average of 54 per cent, the levels of Campylobacter contamination on broiler carcasses in processing plants were similar to those found in studies in other countries, and the highest rates were found after evisceration. Guillermo O. Figueroa and colleagues at the University of Chile have published the results of their study in BMC Microbiology. Background

First results from a large tissue survey in Britain of the agent that causes variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) are unable so far to establish that the prevalence is lower than that given by previous estimates, concludes a study published on bmj.com today.