Salmonella – Infinite Unknown

The Antibiotics That Could Kill You

April 27, 2014April 27, 2014 by Infinite

– The antibiotics that could kill you (CNN, April 22, 2014):

Editor’s note: Dr. Martin J. Blaser is the Singer Professor of Medicine and director of the Human Microbiome Program at New York University. He was previously the president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and is the author of a new book, “Missing Microbes: How the Overuse of Antibiotics is Fueling Our Modern Plagues” (Henry Holt). The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

(CNN) — In 2010, Americans were prescribed 258 million courses of antibiotics, a rate of 833 per thousand people. Such massive usage, billions of doses, has been going on year after year.

We have few clues about the consequences of our cumulative exposures. We do know that widespread antibiotic treatments make us more susceptible to invaders by selecting for resistant bacteria.

These risks are now well-known, but I want to lay out a new concern: that antibiotic use over the years has been depleting the pool of our friendly bacteria — in each of us — and this is lowering our resistance to infections. In today’s hyperconnected globe, that means that we are at high risk of future plagues that could spread without natural boundaries from person to person and that we could not stop. I call this “antibiotic winter.”

To explain: In the early 1950’s, scientists conducted experiments to determine whether our resident microbes — the huge number of bacteria that live in and on our bodies, now called our “microbiome” — help in fending off invading bacteria. They fed mice a species of a typical invader, disease-causing salmonella. It took about 100,000 organisms to infect half of the normal mice. But when they first gave mice an antibiotic, which kills both good and bad bacteria, and then several days later gave them salmonella, it took only three organisms to infect them. This isn’t a 10 or 20% difference; it’s a 30,000-fold difference.

Read moreThe Antibiotics That Could Kill You

New York Lawmakers Want To Force Farmers To Vaccinate Chickens

August 30, 2010 by Infinite

Related articles:

– FDA exploits salmonella eggs recall to pursue food sterilization agenda (Natural News):

What they’re not telling you is that more than 80 percent of the chicken meat bought at grocery stores is consistently contaminated with the exact same salmonella (http://www.naturalnews.com/021258.html). A more recent study conducted by Consumers Union found that two-thirds of grocery store chickens are contaminated every day! (http://www.naturalnews.com/028661_c…)

But you don’t hear warnings to “take your chicken back to the store!” or “it’s unsafe to eat your chicken!” Ever wonder why?

Or to phrase the question another way, why is salmonella so dangerous on your eggs, but completely safe on your chicken?

The answer is it’s not. It’s the exact same risk in both cases: Cook either one and you destroy salmonella entirely. Infected eggs are no more dangerous than infected chicken, and infected chicken is apparently so safe that it’s sold every single day at your neighborhood grocery store (without any warnings or alarms, I might add). Nobody at the FDA has even mentioned it is recent memory. Salmonella contaminated chicken is apparently a non-issue.

– What’s really in your burger? E.coli and chicken feces both allowed by USDA

Now it looks like a vaccine agenda!

(NEWSCHANNEL 3) – Two state lawmakers in New York say they have a plan to keep people from getting sick.

They want their state to start forcing farmers to vaccinate chickens against salmonella.

The legislators say the vaccinations would only cost a penny per dozen eggs and could eliminate more than 100,000 salmonella cases each year if all US states passed this law.

As many as 1,500 people have gotten sick in the latest salmonella outbreak and more than half-a-billion eggs have been recalled.

Those health concerns are leading some shoppers to spend more to get organic eggs.

“You wouldn’t know that you were eating the same thing. It’s that different. It’s so much all I can say is more vibrant,” said Patti Rindy.

228 Million Eggs Recalled Following Salmonella Outbreak

August 19, 2010August 19, 2010 by Infinite

WASHINGTON – An Iowa egg producer is recalling 228 million eggs after being linked to an outbreak of salmonella poisoning.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said eggs from Wright County Egg in Galt, Iowa, were linked to several illnesses in Colorado, California and Minnesota. The CDC said about 200 cases of the strain of salmonella linked to the eggs were reported weekly during June and July, four times the normal number of such occurrences.

State health officials say tainted eggs have sickened at least 266 Californians and seven in Minnesota.

The eggs were distributed around the country and packaged under the names Lucerne, Albertson, Mountain Dairy, Ralph’s, Boomsma’s, Sunshine, Hillandale, Trafficanda, Farm Fresh, Shoreland, Lund, Dutch Farms and Kemp.

The Food and Drug Administration is investigating.

Injecting Beef With Ammonia; Safety of Beef Processing Method Is Questioned

January 2, 2010 by Infinite

Carl S. Custer, a former U.S.D.A. microbiologist, said he and other scientists were concerned that the department had approved the treated beef for sale without obtaining independent validation of the potential safety risk. Another department microbiologist, Gerald Zirnstein, called the processed beef “pink slime” in a 2002 e-mail message to colleagues and said, “I do not consider the stuff to be ground beef, and I consider allowing it in ground beef to be a form of fraudulent labeling.”

Toxic zombie food!

A Beef Products Inc. processing plant in South Sioux City, Neb. The company injects fatty beef trimmings with ammonia to remove E. coli and salmonella.

Both McDonald’s and Burger King use Beef Products’ processed beef as a component in ground beef.

Eight years ago, federal officials were struggling to remove potentially deadly E. coli from hamburgers when an entrepreneurial company from South Dakota came up with a novel idea: injecting beef with ammonia.

The company, Beef Products Inc., had been looking to expand into the hamburger business with a product made from beef that included fatty trimmings the industry once relegated to pet food and cooking oil. The trimmings were particularly susceptible to contamination, but a study commissioned by the company showed that the ammonia process would kill E. coli as well as salmonella.

Officials at the United States Department of Agriculture endorsed the company’s ammonia treatment, and have said it destroys E. coli “to an undetectable level.” They decided it was so effective that in 2007, when the department began routine testing of meat used in hamburger sold to the general public, they exempted Beef Products.

With the U.S.D.A.’s stamp of approval, the company’s processed beef has become a mainstay in America’s hamburgers. McDonald’s, Burger King and other fast-food giants use it as a component in ground beef, as do grocery chains. The federal school lunch program used an estimated 5.5 million pounds of the processed beef last year alone.

But government and industry records obtained by The New York Times show that in testing for the school lunch program, E. coli and salmonella pathogens have been found dozens of times in Beef Products meat, challenging claims by the company and the U.S.D.A. about the effectiveness of the treatment. Since 2005, E. coli has been found 3 times and salmonella 48 times, including back-to-back incidents in August in which two 27,000-pound batches were found to be contaminated. The meat was caught before reaching lunch-rooms trays.

California raw almonds must be treated, judge rules

March 10, 2009 by Infinite

WASHINGTON — A federal judge Monday upheld requirements that raw California almonds be treated to protect consumers from salmonella poisoning.

In a blow to organic almond producers and handlers, the Washington, D.C.-based judge rejected challenges to pasteurization requirements designed by the Almond Board of California. The Agriculture Department formally imposed the rules in March 2007, setting off sparks.

Food banks report 30% increase in demand

February 15, 2009 by Infinite

Food banks toss out food linked to peanut recall

CHICAGO – Food banks nationwide are chucking thousands of pounds of food containing peanut products recalled in the salmonella outbreak — a particularly painful process as those same pantries struggle to meet a growing demand to feed families in a floundering economy.

Foods like granola bars, cereals, cookies, nut mixes and peanut butter have long been a mainstay of pantries because of their durability and long shelf life.

“It’s just been rotten. It’s just been a problem for us,” said Betsy Ballard, spokeswoman for the Houston Food Bank, which already has discarded 3,000 pounds of recalled products.

Millions of U.S. families depend on charity organizations to put food on the table, and the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization, Feeding America, says food banks across the country reported a 30 percent increase in demand in December 2008 compared with the previous year.

US firm knew nuts were tainted with salmonella – FDA

February 7, 2009 by Infinite

The outbreak was traced back to a factory in Georgia

A peanut supplier blamed for a US-wide outbreak of salmonella poisoning sold nuts it knew were infected, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says.

The FDA was revising an earlier report it had issued saying the Georgia-based firm Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) had waited for negative results.

A criminal inquiry was launched last month. The corporation denies any wrongdoing and says it is co-operating.

The outbreak has been linked to eight deaths and more than 500 illnesses.

The FDA carried out an inspection of the corporation’s plant in the town of Blakely in January, after it was identified as a possible source of the contamination.

The inspection found that the factory was “not compliant with Current Good Manufacturing Practices required by the FDA”.

Hold the Spinach, Hold the Lettuce – the FDA Wants to Nuke Our Veggies

September 5, 2008 by Infinite

(NaturalNews) The FDA has just announced that food producers may now start zapping lettuce and spinach with just enough ionizing radiation to kill E. coli. The muckety-mucks at the FDA have decided, in their infinite wisdom, to use the American public as guinea pigs in an ongoing human experiment to find out the long-term effects of the consumption of irradiated food.

In spite of the FDA’s insistence that eating food treated with just a wee bit of ionizing radiation is safe, Public Citizen (a consumer watchdog group founded by Ralph Nader in 1971 for the purpose of protecting health, safety, and democracy) believes otherwise (understatement) and is trying to get the word out to consumers about the lies that are being told to the trusting American public.

Pre-packed salad will lead to increased food poisoning

September 3, 2008 by Infinite

The increasing popularity of supermarket sold pre-packed salad could lead to a rise in food poisoning, scientists warned today.

Prof Frankel said just because some labels claimed food was pre-washed did not necessarily make it safe to eat Photo: JOHN TAYLOR

Researchers have discovered how salmonella and E.coli germs – more commonly associated with chicken and bovine products – can spread to salad and vegetable leaves.

A salmonella outbreak in the UK last year was traced back to imported basil while an E.coli outbreak in America in 2006 was linked back to pre-packed baby spinach.

Professor Gadi Frankel, from Imperial College, said consumers needed to be aware of the risk of contaminated salad to avoid potential food poisoning.

US outbreak of salmonella spreads

July 10, 2008July 10, 2008 by Infinite

Officials have warned against Roma, round and plum tomatoes from some sources

More than 1,000 people in more than 40 US states are now confirmed to have become ill with salmonella since April, officials say.

The US health authorities suspect the bacteria to be present in some raw tomatoes, chilli peppers and the coriander used in salsa.

The outbreak is deemed to be the worst one of a food-borne illness in the US for more than a decade.

Two people are said to have died, and 200 people have been taken to hospital.

There have also been several cases in Canada.

Investigators say they think there are several sources for the outbreak as many of those ill say they did not eat hot peppers or foods like salsa that contain them, Dr Robert Tauxe, food safety chief at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We are quite sure that neither tomatoes nor jalapenos explain the entire outbreak at this point… We’re presuming that both of them have caused illness,” he told the Associated Press.

“We really are working as hard and as fast as we can to sort out this complicated situation and protect the health of the American people.”

(“Suspect”, “They Think”,“Quite Sure”, “Really Working Hard”, “As Fast As We Can”, that says it all.
They have not the foggiest idea. – The Infinite Unknown)

High-risk population