Tag:
Disease
According to the Food Safety and Inspection Service, Tyson Foods, Inc. is recalling over 36,000 pounds of chicken nugget products that may be contaminated with extraneous materials, specifically rubber.
Undercover footage filmed in an abattoir in Poland appears to show extremely sick cows being slaughtered. The video from a slaughterhouse located in the central Polish region of Mazovia depicts sick cows unable to stand and being dragged by their horns and legs out of trucks and into the abattoir using a winch.
Two recent cases of Legionnaires’ disease have been reported at Alomere health hospital in Alexandria, Minnesota. The Minnesota Department of Health is working with Alomere Health of Alexandria to investigate the cases. The initial case was reported late November 2018 and subsequently recovered, while a second case developed symptoms late January 2019 and remains in hospital.
The most recent romaine lettuce outbreak, which sickened 62 people in 16 states and the District of Columbia and caused nationwide warnings against any consumption of romaine lettuce, has been declared over by the Centers for Disease Control.
The traceback investigation pointed to farms in the central coast of California as the likely sources of the outbreak. The CDC found the outbreak strain of E. coli 0157:H7 in sediment collected within an agricultural water reservoir on one farm in Santa Barbara County, but the FDA is still investigating how the bacteria could have entered the reservoir, ways in which the romaine lettuce from the farm could have been contaminated, and potential other sources of the outbreak.
As the year draws to a close, it’s natural to look back and reflect. Last year was eventful on all fronts. In food safety, we saw repeated outbreaks of potentially deadly E.coli on US romaine lettuce and the largest ever Listeria outbreak.
The Board of Animal Health released a newsbyte on December 17th regarding the spread and impact of Asian longhorned ticks in the United States, an invasive species from Asia, New Zealand and Australia.
With deer hunting season underway, there is mandatory and voluntary Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) surveillance testing in designated areas across Minnesota. A wild deer harvested in Houston County, southeast of Rochester, MN, reported a presumptive positive of CWD on November 17.
This response follows the confirmation of 11 new cases of CWD in wild deer this fall. Until this year, only 17 CWD cases were found in wild herds, raising concerns of disease persistence and spread.
The Minnesota Board of Animal Health has identified H5N2 low pathogenic avian influenza in a two commercial turkey flocks in Stearns County and Kandiyohi County.