Food Safety Scan for Feb 24, 2014

News brief

Two-state Listeria outbreaks sickens 8, kills 1

Eight people of Hispanic ethnicity in Maryland and California have contracted listeriosis, possibly from soft cheese, and one has died, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Feb 21.

Seven of the Listeria monocytogenes cases were in Maryland, and the fatal case was in California, the CDC said. Five cases were related to a pregnancy, with two mother-newborn pairs being affected and one case in only the newborn. The other three cases were all in adults.

Illness-onset dates ranged from Aug 1 to Nov 27 of last year, and seven of the patients were hospitalized.

All the Maryland patients reported eating soft or semi-soft Hispanic-style cheese, and all had shopped at different locations of the same grocery store chain. The FDA did not name the chain, but a Food Safety News (FSN) story today said that fresh cheese curd "likely produced" by Delaware-based Roos Foods and repackaged by a Maryland-based Megamart store in Virginia is the source of the contamination.

The CDC said that about 800 lab-confirmed US listeriosis cases and three or four outbreaks are reported each year. The agency added that recent outbreaks have involved Mexican-style cheeses, soft ripened cheeses, other cheeses, and other foods.
Feb 21 CDC update
Feb 24 FSN story

FDA estimates that attack on food system could cost $130 billion

During the first public meeting last week on its proposed rule on intentional adulteration under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) estimated that the rule would be cost effective if it prevented a catastrophic attack on the US food system once every 350 years, FSN reported today.

An FDA official said during the Feb 20 meeting in College Park, Md., that one such attack would cost the United States $130 billion, whereas the rule will cost an estimated $370 million per year. The rule, one of six under FSMA, will require domestic and foreign food facilities to address hazards that could be intentionally introduced by acts of terrorism and is slated to take effect May 31, 2016.

Don Kraemer with the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition said the agency is particularly interested in hearing how the proposed rule could be better focused, whether it would be feasible to require measures to protect against adulteration only in the event of a "credible threat," and what the appropriate level of public health protection is for intentional food adulteration.

The next public meetings are scheduled for Feb 27 in Chicago and Mar 13 in Anaheim, Calif. Those meetings will also cover the sanitary transportation rule.
Feb 24 FSN story

News Scan for Feb 24, 2014

News brief

H5N1 leads to 20,000 poultry deaths in Vietnam

Seven outbreaks of H5N1 avian flu among village flocks in seven separate provinces in northern and southern Vietnam have led to almost 20,000 new poultry deaths, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) reported on Feb 22.

Flock sizes ranged from 657 to 12,941 birds, and the onset of the outbreaks varied from Feb 16 to Feb 20. The virus killed anywhere from 250 to 5,705 birds in the flocks, and in each case the remainder were culled to prevent disease spread.

All told, 10,356 poultry died from H5N1, while 9,606 additional birds were culled, for 19,962 poultry deaths.

H5N1 outbreaks have hit at least 18 Vietnamese provinces this year, affecting tens of thousands of poultry.
Feb 22 OIE Vietnam report

In related news, officials in India reported H5N1 in two dead house crows in the eastern coastal province of Odisha, according to a separate OIE report.

The birds were found in Bileipada in the Kendujhar district of Odisha, the report said. Officials have disinfected the area in which the crows were found. India's most recent H5N1 detection was in November 2013, according to the OIE.
Feb 21 OIE India report

WHO aims to vaccinate 140,000 in South Sudan against cholera

The World Health Organization (WHO) is working with the South Sudan government to provide vaccines against cholera for nearly 140,000 people living in temporary camps in the country, the agency said in a Feb 22 news release.

The vaccines are from an emergency stockpile managed by the WHO and other international organizations, the first time the stockpile will be activated since it was established last year by the WHO.

"Although currently there is not a cholera outbreak, people displaced by the recent conflict and living in the camps are at risk due to poor sanitary conditions and overcrowding," the WHO said in the release.

Beginning Feb 22, 94,000 people are slated to be vaccinated in the Minkaman camp, Awerial County, followed by 43,000 in camps based in Juba. All the people will eventually receive two doses of the vaccine, the WHO said.
Feb 22 WHO news release