USDA Announces Recall of 36 Million Pounds of Tainted Ground Turkey

[Ringel05]

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced Wednesday a recall of 36 million pounds of Cargill ground turkey linked to a salmonella outbreak that caused at least 76 illnesses and one death.

Government officials say contaminated turkey is safe to eat if it is cooked to 165 degrees Fahrenheit and handled properly before cooking.

USDA Announces Recall of 36 Million Pounds of Tainted Ground Turkey - FoxNews.com

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Must be named after Kentucky `cause its so tough to kill...

Salmonella superbug on the rise
3 August 2011 - A strain of Salmonella resistant to the most powerful antibiotics has been found in the UK, France and Denmark.

The outbreak emerged in Africa then spread to Europe, picking up antibiotic resistance along the way, says a team of international researchers. They are calling on health officials to step up monitoring to stop the "superbug" spreading globally. Cases have grown from a handful in 2002 to 500 worldwide in 2008, they report in The Journal of Infectious Diseases.

Co-researcher Dr Simon Le Hello of Institut Pasteur in Paris, France, said: "We hope that this publication might stir awareness among national and international health, food, and agricultural authorities so that they take the necessary measures to control and stop the dissemination of this strain before it spreads globally, as did another multidrug-resistant strain of Salmonella, Typhimurium DT104, starting in the 1990s."

Most of the millions of Salmonella infections a year are not serious, causing only mild stomach upsets. Occasionally, however, particularly in the elderly or in people with weakened immune systems, they can be life-threatening and may need treatment with antibiotics. The strain, known as S. Kentucky, has developed resistance to the antibiotic Ciprofloxacin, often used for treating severe Salmonella cases. French researchers started monitoring the strain after noticing a handful of cases in travellers returning from Egypt, Kenya and Tanzania.

Data from other countries suggests S. Kentucky arose in poultry in Egypt in the 1990s, and then spread to farm animals in various parts of Africa and the Middle East. Although the first infections outside Africa seem to be in international travellers, more recent cases seem to have been acquired in Europe, perhaps through contaminated food, say the researchers. Cases have been seen in England, Wales, Denmark and France.

Hygiene care

 

[uscitizen]

Bigger is better?

 

[Mr Natural]

And what would have become of those 36 million pounds of turkey had there been no USDA?

 

[uscitizen]

And had it not been a mega corp would it have been 36 million pounds?

 

[JWBooth]

And what would have become of those 36 million pounds of turkey had there been no USDA?

Properly cooked?
Not much.

 

[waltky]

Somethin' else to thank gays for...

HIV 'made' new deadly Salmonella - study
30 September 2012: A new strain of deadly Salmonella may have emerged in the wake of HIV

An epidemic of a deadly strain of Salmonella has swept across the whole of Africa by "taking advantage" of the spread of HIV, according to an international team of researchers. Their study, published in Nature Genetics, is the first to identify the separate cases as a single epidemic. One in four people in Africa infected with the strain died. It is thought to be the first time a single strain of an infection has spread so widely in the wake of HIV. Cases of this form of invasive non-typhoidal Salmonella have been recognised in Africa for more than a decade. It causes fever, headaches, respiratory problems and sometimes death.

The research team analysed the genetic code of 179 batches of Salmonella from different parts of Africa and the rest of the globe. Using techniques similar to a large-scale DNA paternity test, they were able to construct the strain's "family tree" and then how it spread. It happened in two waves. The first started in south-eastern Africa about 52 years ago and the second wave started 35 years ago from the Congo Basin. Prof Gordon Dougan, from the Sanger Institute in Cambridge in the UK, told the BBC: "It quite clearly parallels the emergence of HIV in Africa." HIV attacks the immune system and leaves people more vulnerable to other infections. It is thought the strain of Salmonella Typhimurium took advantage of this weakness and spread. The research team said the bacterium was given the chance to "enter, adapt, circulate and thrive".

There is poor monitoring data for the disease across the whole of the continent, but Prof Dougan said it was affecting "thousands and thousands" of people and that 98% of adult cases were in people with HIV. He said this spread of Salmonella Typhimurium had been different to that of other infections commonly associated with HIV, as it had been a single epidemic "people were completely unaware" of and there "were not really any other examples" of that happening. Dr Melita Gordon, a gastro-enterologist at the University of Liverpool, said: "It's the first time this has been described right across a continent in such an obvious way." She added: "The highest mortality associated with the disease is 80%. What's happened over the years is mortality has fallen down and down and down to between 20% and 25% as doctors inside Africa recognise it." The genetic analysis also showed the strain was resistant to the first choice antibiotic, chloramphenicol, which means more expensive drugs would be needed to treat the infection.

It is thought that improving HIV treatment across Africa could reduce the prevalence of the Salmonella infection, as it would reduce the number of people with vulnerable immune systems. However, the researchers urged "vigilance" in case the Salmonella strain mutated again to become able to infect people with healthy immune systems. Commenting on the study, Prof Brendan Wren, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told the BBC: "It's actually quite a huge problem and it seems to be getting worse because there are many susceptible people, it's got a grip in Africa. "HIV, I think it's fair to say, provided a springboard for it to take off." However, he thought the disease was "near its peak" as HIV was more controlled in other continents giving it little room to spread.

BBC News - HIV 'made' new deadly Salmonella - study