Food Poison Journal - Food poisoning outbreaks and litigation: surveillance and analysis

This months MMWR contains a report on an outbreak of shiga-toxin producing E. coli O157 at a petting zoo in Florida in 2007. 

Unfortunately, this is nothing new.  The "editorial note" states that between 1991-2005, the CDC received reports of 32 outbreaks of E. coli O157 that "were associated with animals in public settings."  Beginning in 2001, the CDC and then the National Association of State Public Health Veterinarians (NASPHV) has provided a compendium of recommendations to avoid outbreaks like this.   The CDC states, however, that venues in some of these outbreaks were not in compliance with those guidelines. 

Apparantly, those failures continue.  In the 2007 petting zoo outbreak, the CDC found that attendees of the petting zoo "were not instructed in appropriate handwashing technique, and the staff member was stationed too far from the handwashing facilities to observe handwashing behavior." 

E. coli O157:H7 is generally found in ruminants, including cows, sheep, and goats.  So, if your child pets one of these animals, make sure his or her hands are washed thoroughly with soap and running water immediately after contact.   

Setton International Foods, Inc., has just announced another expansion of its previously announced recall for Salmonella contaminated pistachios. 

This announcement is a clarification to their earlier clarification issued on April 20, 2009 which specified that a small amount of the 2007 pistachio crop that was packaged alongside the 2008 pistachio crop was included in their expanded voluntary recall announced on April 6, 2009 due to potential contamination with the Salmonella organism.

Umm, I thought the whole point of a clarification was to make clear that which was not previously clear--to free the mind from ambiguity.  So if this clarification clarifies the earlier clarification, are we all clear now?

I say just head over the FDA's website and check out the complete list of products currently affected.  And as the FDA's notice makes clear, "consumers should not eat pistachios or food products containing them (such as pistachio bakery goods and pistachio ice cream) until they can determine that the products do not contain pistachios recalled by Setton."

Yesterday, there was a report of  E. coli contamination in the Merrimack River in Massachusetts.   Today a report of a positive test from the Greenwood Creek in Greenwood, Indiana.   The creek is apparently a popular swimming spot in the summer.   General tests for E. coli do not indicate whether or not E. coli O157:H7 is present.   The dangerous bacteria is, however, one of the many strains of E. coli. 

Waterborne E. coli presents a risk to human health, particularly where drinking water is involved.  Last summer hundreds were sickened in Oklahoma in an outbreak of E. coli O111, another pathogenic strain in the E. coli family.  Health officials have tied that outbreak to well water served in a restaurant.

ATTENTION SPROUT GROWERS:  If you haven't seen it already, read the FDA's industry guidance on "Reducing Microbial Food Safety Hazards on Sprouted Seeds."  If you have seen it, then see it again.  But don't stop there:  make your employees see it, and then meet with your staff to determine the best ways to implement anything contained in the FDA guide that you haven't already.  AND DON'T STOP THERE:  then contribute a little money or time to research and development so that the 33 outbreaks sprouts have caused since 1990 stays at 33 outbreaks, and the FDA stops telling people not to buy or consume your product.  That can't be good for business. 

The Daily News in North Andover, Massachusetts is reporting on water quality issues in the Merrimack River.  According to the story, the Merrrimack River Watershed Council states that E. coli has been found in the river.

Apparently, it was not an isolated incident.  According to the story, the river was unsafe for swimming on 6% of wet weather days during the study, based on the applicable state standards.  Worse, "state standards for safe E. coli levels are lax when viewed against standards set by other water quality governing agencies. If [one] were to measure the Merrimack River's E. coli levels against safety standards set by the 40-year-old Charles River Watershed Association, for instance, the river would be deemed unsafe for swimming and boating far more often."

E. coli is a general term for a family of common fecal bacteria.  Within that family is E. coli O157:H7, a pathogenic bacteria that can cause serious illness in humans, including hemolytic uremic syndrome, or HUS.