di Roberto La Pira

“La resistenza agli antibiotici è una della maggiori minacce alla salute pubblica nell’Unione europea. La principale causa di resistenza agli antibiotici negli esseri umani è il ricorso ad antibiotici in medicina umana in modo scorretto ed eccessivo. Se si continua così sarà sempre più complicato curare le malattie infettive gravi”.

E’ questo il messaggio presente nel  documento “Joint Opinion on antimicrobial resistance (Amr) focused on zoonotic infections”, redatto dai quattro centri di ricerca europei :  il Centro europeo per la prevenzione e il controllo delle malattie (Ecdc), l’Autorità europea per la sicurezza alimentare (Efsa), l’Agenzia europea per i medicinali (Emea) e il Comitato scientifico sui rischi per la salute emergenti e recentemente identificati (Scenihr).

Il documento  esamina la resistenza agli antibiotici nel trattamento delle infezioni da Salmonella e Campylobacter ritenute le  più segnalate in Europa. Gli esperti ritengono che le cause siano molteplici e ricordano  l’eccessivo ricorso agli antibiotici  e l’uso di disinfettanti, antisettici e conservanti. Secondo l’Efsa la resistenza all’acido nalidixico della Salmonella enteritidis è cresciuta dal 2005 al 2006 dal 13% al 15%.

Per quanto riguarda il Campylobacter  nel 2005 in Europa il 37% dei casi di infezione umana da Campylobacter jejuni e il 48% dei casi da Campylobacter coli sono risultati resistenti a ciprofloxacina. Purtroppo nel 2006 le percentuali sono cresciute rispettivamente al 44% e al 58%. Per combattere l’antibioticoresistenza bisogna rafforzare la sorveglianza, favorire la ricerca di nuovi farmaci e adottare strategie di prevenzione efficaci.

Le infezioni di origine alimentare causate da questi batteri spesso sono dovute alla contaminazione durante il ciclo di macellazione degli animali e alla manipolazione nella filiera . Gli esperti  raccomandano l’uso prudente degli antibiotici negli animali e l’educazione di veterinari.

Fonte: http://robertolapira.nova100.ilsole24ore.com/

If the smell of beets makes you gag but you simply can’t get enough sour crème and chive potato chips, your Mom may be to blame — and not because of what she fed you growing up. Several studies show that food preferences may be set even before you’re born, as early as 13 weeks after gestation. And those preferences derive from what your Mom ate while you were in the womb. 

Read more at Jon Barron’s Natural Health Blog

Salmonella in Horses

by: Heather Smith Thomas
May 01 2005, Article # 5686

Salmonellosis affects humans, horses, most mammals, and birds. It can cause debilitating–and even deadly–diarrhea. Salmonella bacteria can affect both foals and adults, and they spread easily by horse-to-horse contact and by fomites (shared tools, water buckets, hands, etc., on which bacteria can “hitch a ride” to the next victim). Seemingly well horses can harbor the bacteria, and when stressed, they can shed it or become ill. “The environment can be contaminated by birds, rodents, or other wild animals shedding the organism in feces, including contaminating feed for horses,” says Simon Peek, DVM, MRCVS, PhD, Dipl. ACVIM, clinical assistant professor of large animal internal medicine, theriogenology, and infectious disease in the department of large animal internal medicine at the University of Wisconsin. Salmonella has received attention lately due to several outbreaks of nosocomial disease (infections picked up at a hospital by an animal that did not have that infection upon entrance) in various teaching hospitals.

Peek says there are more than 2,000 types of Salmonella, including several that affect horses. Most common is S. typhimurium, a type that also infects cattle and people. All types are zoonotic (affect animals and humans) except for one type that only infects humans.

“These Gram-negative bacteria cause a variety of problems–most commonly gastrointestinal disease and diarrhea,” says Peek. “Salmonella can also cause abortion, but not as often in horses as cattle. The infection can cause septicemia; in foals it can cause generalized sepsis–bacteria in the blood spreading to multiple organs. In adult horses, bacteria are more likely to be confined to the GI tract, particularly the colon. It is much rarer in mature horses for bacteria to get out of the GI tract and into the bloodstream.”

A foal with septicemia is dull and depressed, with high fever, and can die within 24 to 48 hours. Acute enteritis is the most common sign in adults, with fever and severe diarrhea. The watery diarrhea has a rotten smell and often contains mucus, and sometimes blood. Severe dehydration and toxemia occur; the animal can become very weak. Salmonella can also cause localized infections.

Shedders

“Some horses shed the organism without showing signs of disease; this is why it can become a problem at an equine hospital or referral institution,” notes Peek. “A horse brought in for some other problem may be shedding bacteria in feces, perhaps intermittently.”

Horses do not exhibit true carrier status, which occurs in cattle and some other animals, says Peek. He notes that certain types of Salmonella that affect species like cattle can cause an animal to be infected for life. “This does not happen in horses with the Salmonella types encountered in the U.S.,” says Peek.

Most horses infected with Salmonella clear the organism from the body within days or weeks, or perhaps a few months, he notes. Yet some “silent but deadly” horses that shed the organism, but don’t show any clinical signs. “They won’t do that, however, for the rest of their lives,” he notes.

“The sicker a horse becomes (with clinical illness), the more likely he’ll be shedding the organism in large numbers,” advises Peek. “If a horse is fairly healthy, he’ll probably be shedding low numbers that might not be enough to cause clinical disease in another healthy horse. The problem in hospitals is that we are not dealing with healthy horses. In horses being treated with antibiotics, or that have an upset in the digestive system, or that had colic surgery, the dose of Salmonella bacteria necessary to cause clinical disease is a lot less.”

The short version: If a horse’s immune system is compromised when he is exposed to Salmonella, he is at higher risk.

“These horses may acquire the infection while in the hospital,” says Peek. “There are also situations in which horses come down with clinical salmonellosis while in a hospital; they may have had the organism before they came in, but their immune system was strong enough to keep it at bay. Then they had colic surgery, or some other stressful procedure that allowed it to become a more rampant infection. Some hospitals and referral institutions take fecal samples for culture when a horse first comes in to identify horses with Salmonella organisms, and to protect themselves.”

Hospitals sample incoming horses to find the ones shedding that could be a source of infection for other animals, and horses that are likely to get sick because they are harboring the organism in the intestines.

“Studies at teaching hospitals in the last decade show that the proportion of horses coming to equine hospitals that are shedding Salmonella in feces may be as high as one in 20,” notes Peek. “In a busy hospital, that’s a lot of horses; 5% of hospitalized horses appear normal, but may be shedding organisms even though they are there for a lameness, a throat surgery, or some other elective process.”

This makes the problem much more complicated, and is one reason some hospitals culture horses as soon as they walk in the door, and intermittently during their stay.

Antibiotic Resistance

Peek says one concern that has recently surfaced in veterinary and human medicine is the number of Salmonella isolates that have developed multiple antibiotic resistance patterns, making them hard to treat with antibiotics. “This has raised considerable public health concerns about antibiotic use in livestock,” he says.

“This has become quite controversial,” Peek continues. “Our human medicine colleagues would prefer us to be extremely judicious about use of antibiotics for treating salmonella and other bacterial infections. The fear is that broad and indiscriminate use of antibiotics in animals will further promote resistance, making it more difficult to effectively treat human patients.”

Spread of the Disease

Salmonella is feco-orally spread between animals by manure that contaminates feed or water. A foal might pick it up when nursing a mare or nuzzling her flank if she has lain on dirty bedding or her tail has flicked feces onto her body (if she’s a shedder). A foal will also eat manure and can pick it up that way.

“Normal adult horses in a field rarely eat manure, but mares and foals often eat one another’s feces,” says Peek. “Thus, salmonella can be a bigger problem to control on a breeding farm. Breeders fear this disease because it can be a potentially lethal infection in foals, due to their naïve immune systems. It can get into the bloodstream and cause multiple organ failure.”

Roberta Dwyer, DVM, MS, Dipl. ACVPM (epidemiology specialty) of the Gluck Equine Research Center at the University of Kentucky, says that when a farm has a salmonella outbreak, it’s often little things that derail a good plan for containment. “One of the first things I ask at a farm is whether they have a rodent problem or if they feed on the ground. Mice droppings in hay or grain can be a significant source of Salmonella. Barn cats, bait, and traps are helpful, but if there’s a serious mouse problem, you should contact professional rodent control people,” she says.

Prevention

The best way a farm can protect against salmonella is to pay strict attention to cleanliness, prevent overcrowding, and limit possible exposure. “Getting rid of feces is important, along with isolation of animals that have diarrhea or are recovering from it,” says Peek.

Dwyer says that if a horse develops diarrhea, isolate that animal immediately. “This means putting it in a stall or pen away from other horses until a diagnosis can be made or the diarrhea clears up,” she says. “The exception is foal heat diarrhea, if you are sure that’s what it is. Buy a box of latex gloves and wear a new pair every time you handle an animal or take its temperature.”

Take care to not touch something another person might touch. “If you’ve been touching the sick horse and then go answer the phone, the phone is contaminated,” Dwyer states. “Another person can get bacteria off the phone and go check capillary refill time on another horse, and salmonella is transmitted to that horse.”

If you aren’t careful about your feet, you may track bacteria (from watery feces on the ground or floor where you might not see it) to a clean area, potentially contaminating feed put on the ground or the hair coat of a horse that lies there. If that horse licks himself or a foal nuzzles a dam with a dirty flank, the disease is transmitted.

“People often move horses that were in contact with the sick one, taking them to different pens or pastures, but this is usually a big mistake,” Dwyer advises. “They can be incubating the disease. There is an incubation time in which the organism is multiplying in the body, but the animal is still normal. If you move that exposed animal, you may put other horses at risk.”

The ideal situation is to move the sick horse to a separate quarantine barn; only sick animals with the same disease go there, notes Dwyer. “Some big farms have a barn on the back 40 that is not used except for the occasional sick, contagious animal–and whoever takes care of the animal doesn’t handle other horses,” says Dwyer. After the animal is moved to the sick barn, the stall or pen it was in should be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected.

If a horse gets salmonellosis, other horses should be closely monitored. “If the one that came up positive is in a stall, get the other horses out of stalls, if possible,” says Dwyer. “Even in some cases of undiagnosed foal diarrhea in Kentucky when we couldn’t pinpoint the cause, we finally recommended all the mares foal outside.”

If a farm has a high concentration of animals (and a lot of foot traffic, muck wagons, and hay/straw wagons going through the barn), this is a highly contaminated area in an outbreak. If other horses are currently healthy and have lived in the same pasture together, the safest place for them is on pasture, not in the barn, says Dwyer.

Keep groups together; don’t mix horses that have not lived together. For a big group, put temporary fencing in the pasture they lived in, segregating them into smaller groups. If you’ve divided them and a horse is incubating the disease, he might potentially infect only three or four others instead of the whole herd, she explains.

“Horses should be grouped (in pasture or barn) according to age and use. All horses that go out for trail rides every weekend should be together, for instance, and not mixed with other horses,” says Dwyer. “They should be in a separate pasture, away from the broodmares.”

Il Center for Foodborne Illness Research & Prevention (CFI), ha pubblicato un rapporto che documenta ciò che è attualmente conosciuto sui risultati a lungo termine per la salute, associata con diverse patologie di origine alimentare.

“Le MTA Malattie a trasmissione alimentare sono un grave problema di salute pubblica nel 21° secolo,” dice il Dott. Tanya Roberts, presidente del consiglio di Amministrazione di CFI e autore della relazione. “Ma la stragrande maggioranza di queste malattie non vengono mai segnalate alle agenzie di salute pubblica, il che lascia con molte domande senza risposta circa l’impatto che le malattie a trasmissione alimentare stanno avendo sulle popolazioni, i bambini in particolare i giovani e gli anziani.”

I cinque agenti patogeni di origine alimentare esaminati in questa relazione sono:

• Infezione da Campylobacter affligge milioni di persone e ne ospedalizza migliaia all’anno. È associata con la Sindrome Guillain-Barré (GBS), la causa più comune di paralisi neuromuscolare. La GBS può causare disabilità permanente e molti pazienti richiedono un’assistenza a lungo termine.
• E. coli O157: H7 può causare gravi malattie a trasmissione alimentare, in particolare nei bambini. E. coli O157: H7 può portare alla sindrome uremica emolitica (HUS), la principale causa di insufficienza renale acuta nei bambini. La HUS può portare a morte o complicazioni di salute a lungo termine come quelle legate allo stadio della malattia renale, complicazioni neurologiche e altre condizioni invalidanti.
• Listeria monocytogenes, la principale causa di decessi da malattie a trasmissione alimentare, colpisce migliaia di persone ogni anno ed è stata associata con infezioni del cervello e del midollo spinale, causando disfunzioni neurologiche gravi sul lungo termine e incapacità di vedere, ascoltare, parlare o deglutire. La maggior parte dei casi è segnalata nei bambini di età inferiore a 4 anni, ma la maggior parte delle morti sono nella popolazione anziana. Nelle donne in gravidanza, la listeriosi può causare aborto spontaneo, e nascita prematura.
• Salmonella, così come altri agenti patogeni di origine alimentare, può innescare l’artrite reattiva (REA) in alcuni individui, lasciandoli con artrite temporanea o permanente. La REA causa articolazioni dolorose e gonfie e può influenzare notevolmente la capacità di un individuo al lavoro e la qualità della vita. Oltre la Rea, la Salmonella è anche associata a molte altre complicazioni ed è la seconda causa principale di decessi per malattie a trasmissione alimentare. Quasi la metà di tutti i casi segnalati di salmonella sono bambini.
• Toxoplasma gondii è la terza causa di decessi per malattie a trasmissione alimentare. L’infezione può causare disabilità visiva o da lieve a grave ritardo mentale, nell’80% dei feti/neonati infettati, essa manifesta questa insufficienza intorno ai 17 anni.

Conclude la Roberts: “Migliorare la sorveglianza delle malattie a trasmissione alimentare, insieme al sistematico follow-up e migliore condivisione dei dati tra due o più agenzie sanitarie, statali e locali, sono i primi importanti passi per aumentare la nostra conoscenza circa la frequenza e la gravità degli esiti a lungo termine sulla salute delle malattie a trasmissione alimentare, e, a sua volta, contribuire ad individuare le priorità della sicurezza alimentare, in modo che le risorse possano essere applicate in modo adeguato per garantire il massimo beneficio della salute pubblica “.

Fonte: http://www.43zero58.com

Just finished eating a raw chicken bread, no sweat.  Looks like somebody owes me $20
You’re gonna die dude, salmonella for sure
I ate chicken, not salmon, dude.

Picture by: DFW333 Submitted by: DFW333 via Fail Uploader

If the smell of beets makes you gag but you simply can’t get enough sour crème and chive potato chips, your Mom may be to blame — and not because of what she fed you growing up. Several studies show that food preferences may be set even before you’re born, as early as 13 weeks after gestation. And those preferences derive from what your Mom ate while you were in the womb. 

Read more at Jon Barron’s Natural Health Blog

If the smell of beets makes you gag but you simply can’t get enough sour crème and chive potato chips, your Mom may be to blame — and not because of what she fed you growing up. Several studies show that food preferences may be set even before you’re born, as early as 13 weeks after gestation. And those preferences derive from what your Mom ate while you were in the womb. 

Read more at Jon Barron’s Natural Health Blog

Soft boiled eggs are oddly comforting and yet luxurious at the same time. Maybe it’s because I’ve most often encountered them while staying in a cozy bed and breakfast somewhere in Europe, run by a kind grandmotherly type. Who can resist the lady in the frilly apron asking, “would you like more toast dear?”

Recently I ran across this wonderful collection of genuine traditional Irish recipes (no green food coloring here!) which of course included soft boiled eggs. It got me thinking that I should try making this time honored breakfast at home.

How could I have waited so long? This is one of the easiest breakfasts I’ve ever made. No messy pans to clean up, and it takes a total of about 5 minutes! Better yet, the fact that the egg is still in it’s shell when served forces you to eat slowly, giving your stomach a chance to tell your brain that it is full. Surprisingly, one egg and one slice of buttered toast is very satisfying and sticks with me right through to lunch at the cost of only about 198 calories.

I know many people worry about the risk on contracting Salmonella from raw or undercooked (i.e. soft boiled) eggs. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that 1 in every 10,000 eggs may be contaminated with Salmonella and that 1 in every 50 “average consumers” could be exposed to a contaminated egg each year.

I think the best way to combat this is by not being an “average consumer.” Before factory farming, Salmonella was not a wide spread problem in this country. If you buy your eggs from farmers who raise their chickens the way your great-grandmother did, you will significantly lower your risk of being exposed to Salmonella.

I buy eggs from Tello’s Green Farm stand at at the Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket in Brooklyn. Not only are these chickens organic, they have no cages whatsoever, roaming around the Tello’s 5 acres in Red Hook, NY scratching for grubs and taking baths in the dust, just as my great-grandmother’s chickens did (yes, my great-grandmother, really did raise chickens). Not only do I feel more comfortable soft boiling these eggs, they also taste fantastic, with bright orange yolks indicating their freshness.

There is one other danger associated with soft boiled eggs. If you’re not careful you might become an inveterate egg cup collector. For more information see the Ultimate Egg Cup Resources Guide

A Soft Boiled Egg with Toast “Soldiers”

1 large egg at room temperature
water
salt
1 slice of bread
soft butter

Fill a small sauce pan half full of water and bring it to a gentle boil. Use a spoon to lower your egg carefully into the water so it doesn’t hit the bottom and crack. Boil your egg for 4 to 6 minutes depending on your taste. At 4 minutes the whites are opaque but still soft and the yolk is very runny whereas at 6 minutes the whites are all solid and the yolk is a bit runny.

Put your bread on to toast now so it will be done at about the same time as your egg. When your bread is toasted slather it nicely with butter and cut it into long narrow strips that you can dunk into the top of your soft boiled egg. These are your “soldiers.”

When the egg is finished use a spoon to remove it from the pot and gently dunk it in some cold water (or run it under the tap) to stop the cooking. Transfer it to an egg cup and serve with salt. If you don’t have an egg cup, espresso cups do quite nicely (see photo above).

PETCO stores nationwide are immediately pulling five SKUs of cow hooves treats, sold under the PETCO brand, from all of its shelves following a health alert issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The alert warns consumers not to use pig ears and beef hooves pet treats manufactured by Pet Carousel because the products may be contaminated with Salmonella.

According to the FDA statement, no illnesses associated with these products have been reported, but consumers in possession of these products are advised not to handle them or feed them to their pets.

The health and wellbeing of our customers’ pets is our topmost priority, so we’re immediately pulling any beef hooves product that originated at the Pet Carousel facility. Below is a list of the five SKUs we’re removing from shelves:

49743 – PETC-1 OZ BULK CHOO HOOVE
69957 – PETC-1LB NATRL 10PK CHOO HOOVE
447064 – PETC-1LB SMOKE 10PK CHOO HOOVE
706655 – PETC-2Z STUFFED CHOO HOOVES
706671 – PETC-2Z PB STUFFED CHOO HOOVES
Pet Carousel manufactures a number of pet treat products distributed nationwide in both bulk and retail packaging for sale in pet food and retail chain stores. While Pet Carousel does manufacture beef hooves for PETCO, it does NOT supply our company with pig ear treats, so if you’ve purchased pig ear treats at PETCO, they are not affected by this recall.

We’ve cancelled any further deliveries or shipments of the recalled products to our stores and blocked the sales of all five SKUs at cash registers in all stores and online at PETCO.com. If you believe you are in possession of any of the affected products, we advise you not to handle or feed them to your pets and welcome you to bring them back to your local PETCO store for a full refund or exchange.

PETCO does carry an 8-piece bone/body variety pack of treats that includes one cow hoof that is produced by another manufacturer and is NOT affected by this recall. That unaffected SKU is:

1229397 – PETC-10.9 OZ 8PC VARIETY PACK

The culture of dissidence is a concept that one would say that prevails over the  20th century, a period of multiple protests and bloody wars. Despite the obvious dictatorial or fake democratic authorities, individuals were prone to gather their forces and fight against the destructive politics.

The reality of the 21st century doesn’t locate the present world far from the one of the previous. We are now facing the excellence of the diplomatic manipulation of the individual who believes is well fed by the pretty companies or the individual who thinks that cyanide exploitation of the underground can only lead to a better world or the individual who thinks.

What we have become for the political and economical colossi world-wide is a mass of ignorance upon which the evil tentacles arise under the fake image of the Fairy Godmother, redeemer of all bedeviled ones. What we have become to ourselves is thinkers.

Farmers protest against the patency of the American Monsanto which attacks any of those who refuse to obey the tyranny of genetic modification. Inhabitants of the Romanian commune of Rosia Montana also followed the path of the riot but their resistance weakened along the way. The resistance of the American farmers also. And this becomes an imminent obstacle for every group that defies the miserable outbreaks of viruses of any kind, of germs bred by faithful corporations that kill for profit.

The mind really is the leader. And mass sellers (whether political ideals, agrarian benefits, enrichment utopia or the undiscovery of the treatment for cancer and HIV and all other yet lethal diseases) know it best.

.

Os 10 alimentos que mais causam intoxicação

(clique no link abaixo)

http://drauziomilagres.blogspot.com/2009/11/produtos-que-causam-intoxicacao.html

.

.

.

On the Welsh Poultry Centre web site you will find a new article about the new EU regulation regarding turkeys. These will come into effect next year, (2010). The article gives you the low down on what you may have to do next year; (read article) this blog questions the premise on which the new regulations appear to be laid. Apparently there are some 50,000 reported cases of salmonella food poisoning in the UK every year. It is estimated that there are four times this number of cases; the rest not being reported. Of that 50,000, 2000 result in time in a hospital, normally because there are some complications.

The EUs answer to this problem is to attempt to remove salmonella from poultry altogether. In 2010 the EU will be concentrating on two particular strains (in total there are between 2500-3000 strains of salmonella) but over time it is thought that this will be increased.

To put this problem into perspective, 9,000 people die in NHS hospitals every year from MRSA and C.difficile. It should also be remembered that meat properly cooked, (core temp reaches 75c) is safe.

There are two points here:
1. The only way to potentially eradicate salmonella in poultry is within the intensive, high security systems. Within this factory method of production all inputs can be controlled. Outside influences, such as wild birds and rodents can be stopped, access by poeple can be monitored and sterilised. If, as has been suggested, birds with salmonella are removed from the food chain then the organic and free-range systems are going to be hit very hard. It is therefore apparent that new regulations are effectively going to penalise free range and organic systems and encourage intensive production systems.
2. Our kids no longer get domestic science taught as a matter of course. Surely it is desirable during an education process that food science is covered because the simple fact is that poultry cooked properly is safe. It is odd that two of the most fundamental aspects of our survival, food production, and child care, are two areas of our society given very low status. Infact with BSE, foot and mouth, salmonella in eggs (it is estimated that one in every 20,000 eggs may contain salmonella) and lately ecoli on pet farms, avian flu and swine flu agriculture is almost demonised.

Why therefore, when the EU decided it needed to tackle the problem of salmonella in poultry did they decide that the best way would be through eradication. When doing the sums; the cost of salmonella to society compared with the cost of eradicating salmonella, why did they also not consider the cost of educating society to cook poultry properly?

Many things appear the same on the surface—the difference is in the details. Sourcing, processing and ingredient integrity are all factors that, though often overlooked, have a major impact on the quality of your food. Mary and family, of Mary’s Chickens, pay close attention to those details and the consumer benefits from their commitment to excellence.

The difference, in this case, is that Mary’s chickens are air chilled using a process that has been standard in Europe for over 45 years. Per USDA standards, chickens must be cooled to 4° Celsius within four hours of slaughter in order to curb the growth of harmful bacteria. In the United States, the typical cooling process for chicken is through water immersion. It’s an efficient process if you’re concerned with time, but does have drawbacks.

In immersion cooling, chickens are cooled by multiple dips into massive communal vats of chemically treated (most often chlorinated) cold water. This methodology creates the potential for cross-contamination from bacteria, such as Salmonella, and also zaps the chicken of its natural flavors by diluting it with the retained water—water you pay for when you purchase chicken at the market.

In air chilling, chickens are individually spaced out on conveyor belt racks and cooled by blasts of frigid mist until they reach the required 4° Celsius. The process takes longer, but avoids cross contamination and water retention. The end result? The chicken you serve at your table will be less likely to contain harmful bacteria and yields a perfectly crispy skin, fabulously tender meat and out-of-this-world taste that is lost through immersion cooling.

From Mary’s table and our table to yours—happy eating!

.

BATHROOM QUIZ

Last Friday there was a small recall of fresh cantaloupes in California due to potential Salmonella contamination. The cute little bugs in the photo look so innocent – like polar bears.  I assure you, they are not!

No news network has carried this story since the melons in question were sold only in northern California, and, so far, no illness has been linked to these Del Monte melons. How would you know if you’re eating a Del Monte melon? If there is no sticker on the melon, then you won’t. Before you buy, ask the produce manager the source of the melons.

Contamination in cantaloupes can be contributed to how they are grown, and the condition of the wash water used to clean them prior to shipping. Though the outer skin is rough and has the potential to hide bacteria in the deep crevices, washing the skin well with soapy water and a scrub brush should prevent bacteria from being cut into the flesh. But then, you always wash all of your produce that well, don’t you?

Be sure to wash cutting surfaces and knives before and after preparing your cantaloupe. Besides good old fashioned, hot, soapy water, there are good anti-bacterial products on the market that are free of chemicals. Grapefruit seed extract is one of them.

Grapefruit Seed Extract

You can purchase this product at your local health food store, or online at Nutribiotic

I was thinking of getting my boys a great little pet and was actually trying to choose between a turtle or a fish in a mini aquarium. This article is an interesting read.

By LINDSEY TANNER, AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner, Ap Medical Writer – 55 mins ago

CHICAGO – Two girls who swam with pet turtles in a backyard pool were among 107 people sickened in the largest salmonella outbreak blamed on turtles nationwide, researchers report.

The 2007-08 outbreak involved mostly children in 34 states; one-third of all patients had to be hospitalized. In many cases, parents didn’t know that turtles can carry salmonella.

Despite a 1975 ban on selling small turtles as pets, they continue to be sold illegally.

The American Veterinary Medical Association estimates that the number of pet turtles nationwide doubled from 950,000 in 1996 to almost 2 million in 2006.

“It’s very easy to think of turtles as being a very gentle and nice pet,” but many carry salmonella, without showing any signs, said Julie Harris, a scientist at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the report’s lead author.

Salmonella in turtle feces can end up on their shells and body, and can spread to people who handle them.

An infected turtle can spread the same strain of salmonella to others during shipping, which may be how the outbreak occurred. Turtles involved were bought at pet shops, flea markets, from street vendors and online. The Food and Drug Administration contacted retailers involved and their investigation is ongoing, the report said.

“Continued, collective efforts are needed, both on state and federal levels, to enforce the ban and protect public health,” the report said. It appears in October’s Pediatrics, released Monday.

Authorities began investigating in September 2007 after a Union County, N.C., teen swam in her backyard pool with two pet turtles and a friend from South Carolina. Both girls developed bloody diarrhea, vomiting, fever and stomach cramps; one developed kidney failure and spent eight days in the hospital.

Salmonella bacteria traced to those turtles matched salmonella later found in three other North Carolina children. Other cases turned up elsewhere, many involving direct contact with turtles, including children kissing turtles or putting them in their mouths, Harris said.

Indirect contact likely also occurred, she said. For example, children playing with turtles at school may have brought the germs home and spread them to family members, Harris said.

Illnesses from the same kind of salmonella turned up coast to coast through January 2008, including 12 people in California, 10 each in Pennsylvania and Texas, and nine in Illinois.

No one died in the outbreak but many required several days of hospital treatment, Harris said.

“Everyone from pediatricians to other public health professionals needs to really stress that reptiles and especially turtles are a source of salmonella infections,” she said.

The ban only affects turtles less than about 4 inches in diameter because of reports that young children had gotten sick after putting the small reptiles in their mouths.

David Bergmire-Sweat, a North Carolina epidemiologist who investigated the Union County case, said he’s heard of families letting turtles walk on kitchen surfaces where food is prepared, and babies being bathed in sinks where turtle cages are washed.

Because the federal ban was enacted more than 30 years ago, “many people just don’t remember,” he said.

Recent efforts to overturn the ban, backed by turtle farmers, have failed.

Veterinarian Mark Mitchell, a University of Illinois zoological medicine professor, has been working with Louisiana turtle farmers in research aimed at raising salmonella-free turtles. Initial efforts involved cleansing turtle eggs with antibiotics, but that led to strains of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Mitchell said now he’s focusing on washing eggs in disinfectants similar to chlorine. He says the industry has been unfairly saddled with harsher restrictions than producers of human foods also blamed for recent salmonella outbreaks.

___

On the Net:

Pediatrics: http://www.pediatrics.org

CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/Features/ReptilesSalmonella/

Dall’antipasto al dessert: il batterio è servito. E anche il virus o il parassita. Menù alla mano, basta ordinare: chi sceglie il «crudo», che va così di moda e sembra tanto salutare, potrebbe andare incontro a qualche brutta sorpresa. A dispetto di quello che pensano i «crudisti» (vegetariani) convinti alla Mel Gibson, Uma Thurman o Demi Moore. Ecco allora, tanto per cominciare, il classico piatto di ostriche o un più ricco plateau di coquillages con gamberi, scampi e frutti di mare.

Gli appassionati sanno che prima o poi qualche virus finisce fra i molluschi, ma sono anche disposti a sfidare il pericolo, sperando almeno di non prendersi un’epatite A. Adesso, però, la situazione si complica: i più grandi allevamenti di ostriche nel Sud-ovest della Francia sono contaminati da certi tipi di alghe che producono tossine pericolose anche per l’uomo.

E l’estate scorsa è scattato l’allarme sulla stampa francese con qualche eco persino da noi. «Tutti i cibi crudi presentano qualche rischio che le varie culture sono riuscite a superare selezionando il cibo giusto per il loro ambiente e per le loro abitudini », commenta Giovanni Ballarini, presidente dell’Accademia Italiana della Cucina: «Così in Italia si mangiano crudi gli ovuli, ma non certi altri funghi leggermente tossici che vanno cotti per inattivare quelle piccole quantità di veleno.

I giapponesi hanno individuato i pesci per il sushi, gli altri li cuociono. I guai cominciano quando importiamo i cibi, ma non la cultura che ci sta dietro». Sushi appunto. O sashimi. Si sa che molti tipi di pesci possono essere contaminati dall’anisakis, un parassita che vive nel loro intestino e finisce poi nelle carni. Il trucco per eliminarlo c’è: basta congelare il pesce per 24 ore, ma non tutti lo fanno.

Così una tartare di tonno, un carpaccio di salmone o un piatto di alici marinate (limone e aceto non hanno alcun effetto sul parassita) potrebbero risultare particolarmente «indigesti». Soprattutto se vengono consumati in quei ristoranti cinesi che di giapponese hanno soltanto l’insegna e smerciano pesce importato chissà da dove, come tanti blitz dei Nas, i nuclei anti-sofisticazione, hanno scoperto.

«In passato l’anisakis era diffuso soltanto in Oriente, adesso si trova anche nel Mediterraneo », spiega Gaetano Maria Fara, direttore dell’Istituto di Igiene all’Università La Sapienza di Roma. «Questo parassita provoca, nell’uomo, dolori addominali e disturbi gastroenterici a volte gravi».

Il tonno crudo può creare altri guai, come la cosiddetta sindrome sgombroide: «Quando il pesce non viene subito eviscerato dopo la pesca, i batteri si moltiplicano e trasformano l’istidina, un aminoacido presente nelle loro carni, in istamina che provoca disturbi simili a quelli di un’allergia: nausea, crampi addominali, mal di testa e caduta della pressione», conclude Fara.

Casi frequenti negli Stati Uniti, ma poco comuni in Europa e in Italia: l’Istituto Superiore di Sanità ne ha documentati alcuni, fra cui quelli di due studentesse che, nell’estate del 2005, avevano consumato insalata di tonno in un bar di Grosseto ed erano finite al pronto soccorso.

Dai sushi-bar ai fast food, per un hamburger veloce a mezzogiorno, fino all’happy hour serale che a volte diventa cena. Così i germi «tradizionali» come le salmonelle (ne esistono più di mille tipi fra cui quella del tifo che, almeno da noi e grazie a una maggiore igiene, non fa più tante vittime come in passato) e i colibatteri (molti sono normalmente presenti nella flora batterica intestinale) si rianimano grazie ai nuovi stili alimentari.

Il caso della studentessa americana, raccontato in prima pagina dal New York Times nei giorni scorsi, è emblematico e richiama alla memoria Sindrome fatale, uno dei più azzeccati romanzi di Robin Cook, autore di decine di medical thriller. La ventiduenne americana è rimasta paralizzata dopo essere entrata in coma per un’intossicazione da hamburger poco cotto.

La polpetta di carne tritata era un impasto di scarti, che venivano da macelli di tutta l’America, e per di più era «al sangue». Risultato: i colibatteri non sono stati distrutti dal calore e hanno provocato l’infezione.

Vedi: http://paoblog.wordpress.com/2009/10/07/nutrirsi-in-america/

Così era capitato anche alla protagonista del libro di Cook che, nel 1999, denunciava i rischi legati a un’industria alimentare troppo disinvolta e molto poco rispettosa delle leggi: anche la figlia del dottor Regis viene avvelenata dall’E.coli dell’hamburger e muore.

Lo stesso batterio, l’E.coli O157:H7, si è anche rivelato colpevole di una misteriosa epidemia di tossinfezioni che, nel 2006, aveva colpito quasi duecento persone in 26 Stati americani, con due morti: quella volta il germe si era nascosto negli spinaci freschi. In un altro caso, che aveva coinvolto la catena di fast food Taco Bell, si trovava, invece, nella lattuga preconfezionata.

Da noi, per fortuna, la diffusione di questo germe è bassissima, mentre sono più comuni altri tipi di colibatteri, meno pericolosi, e le salmonelle. Primo indiziato, nel caso di una tossinfezione alimentare da salmonelle, è sempre l’uovo crudo che si ritrova dappertutto: nella maionese delle tartine servite con l’aperitivo e, per finire, nel tiramisù.

Adriana Bazzi

Fonte: www.corriere.it

One of my first posts informed y’all that I had salmonella…well as of last Monday (5 October), I am salmonella FREE!! I hadn’t been to the gym in two months…so you can bet as soon as I got that call that I was right back at the gym!! Hallelujah! I started going with Court & Anne…it’s always good to have accountability buddies!

Friday was our last Lost Son practice until next Sunday. : ( which may not seem like a whole long time…but it is. I’m definitely not an actor…but I love being in it! (plus the songs we sing and the vocal parts I get are phenomenal!) Kudos to Brent Grosvenor for being a musical genius.

So this weekend, I took off from choir. Just because I needed a break. Yesterday I watched the original Rocky with my brother, then the original Dirty Dancing with my sister. This morning, Cait and I went to church and got to see our favorite little guy! Then to our dismay, Caity saw on Twitter that Green River Ordiance had cancelled their show at the Webster!! Tragic, I know. : (  [because Josh, the lead singer, was sick] So after some talk, we decided to go anyway…get our $24 worth! (plus I had FB msged them, and they said that some of the guys would be there chillin’). And it was most definitely worth it!! : ) The headliner was Kate Voegel…but I didn’t really care for her. Whatevs.  We chatted it up with GRO, then listened to Kevin Hammond (who according to Denton has an other worldly voice…I’d have to concur). Like I said, totally worth that $24!  We listened to a little bit of Miss Voegel, then went and chatted it up with Kevin Hammond (pictured above) and had a pretty crazy photoshoot. : ) So all in all…a good weekend. : D

Love ‘n Hugs!

^“Teach these things and insist that everyone learn them. Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity.” – 1 Timothy 4:11-12