Food poisoning microorganisms

Other emergent pathogens

• WHO general factsheet on foodborne diseases
• WHO factsheet on medically important emerging diseases
• BSE - WHO factsheet
• vCJD - WHO factsheet
• CJD Surveillance Unit
• BSE-nvCJD
• Emerging pathogens in the UK
• Changes in consumer susceptibility
• Geographic distribution of vCJD
• Geographic distribution of vCJD, learnt?
• Multi-antibiotic resistant Salmonella in ground meat (US)
• European need to survey for antibiotic resistance
• ROAR Network
• WHO factsheet on human antibiotic usage
• WHO factsheet on antibiotic resistance
• Johne's - Crohn's disease and Mycobacterium paratuberulosis
• Assessment of surveillance and control of Johne's disease in farm animals in GB (214 page pdf file)
• Antimicrobial resistance report, UK FSA.

Bacterial and fungal toxins

• Bacterial toxins; Friends or foes?
• E. coli, Salmonella and Shigella cytoskeletal protein toxins

Beansprouts

• Warning about eating beansprouts due to E. coli O157, written 2007
• List of outbreaks in North America due to beansprouts

Outbreaks

Elsehwere there are links to commentary on the E. coli O104:H4 outbreak in Germany.

When an outbreak occurs, it needs to be investigated in a thorough, standardised manner. For a tutorial on this topic visit the CDC web page outbreak toolkit.

BSE-CJD news

The Department of Health in the United Kingdom continues to release the figures on both known cases of CJD and cases of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD)from 1990 web site. By the end of June 2002, a total of 124 cases of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) had been reported in the United Kingdom. The overall median age at death was 28 (range 14-74 years). The median number of days from onset to diagnosis was 334 days and from onset to death 411 days. Of the 124 cases, 68 (55%) were male. It appears that the peak was in 2000. Twenty-eight cases of vCJD were reported in 2000, 15 in 1999, 18 in 1998, and 10 in 1997. Analyses shows that the underlying incidence was increasing by an estimated 18% per year based on date of symptom onset, or 20% per year based on date of death.

The FDA Bad Bug book

The Food and Drug administration (USA) have a very useful web site called Bad Bug Book which has extensive information on foodborne pathogens and toxins. You will notice that the majority of information in food microbiology is concerned with bacterial pathogens, as opposed to viruses and fungi. This is partially due to the relative ease with which bacteria can be cultivated in the laboratory. The perceived rise in viral causes in food poisoning is partially due to improved detection methods. The food poisoning statistics are dominated by Salmonella serotypes and Campylobacter jejuni. However as reviewed in foodborne illness the causative organism of a considerable number of gastroenteritis cases are not identified every year.

It should also be noted that a food microbiology in industry does not, and would not be expected to examine foods for all the possible pathogens. It would be prohibitively expensive and impractical. An additional reason for restricted microbiological analysis is that unless 100% of the food is examined then one cannot be 100% certain of the absence of pathogens or toxins in the whole batch of food. Taking known numbers of samples from a batch of food can be used to give a statistical evaluation of contamination. Hence the development of microbiological criteria. However it should be remembered that the results from a microbiological laboratory make take several days (at least if an outside accredited laboratory is used). Therefore the sampled batch of food might already have been distributed and a product recall would be expensive and deter customers from purchasing the product in the future.

Therefore the question arises as to how can a food manufacturer produce food that is microbiologically acceptable? The answer is in the proactive approach of Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP). This internationally accepted means of assured safe food manufacture has already been used by large food companies for many years. However the implementation in small food outlets has been problematic due to the perceived burden of documentation. For assistance in industrial-scale HACCP implementation see the author's book Food Hygiene, Microbiology and HACCP.