Campylobacter Poultry Combo Ranks High

Posted on April 30, 2011 by PritzkerLaw

Campylobacter in chickens and turkeys is the riskiest food contamination based on the public health impact found in a study by the University of Florida's Emerging Pathogens Institute. The study said Campylobacter bacteria sicken 600,000 Americans every year because of inadequate oversight.

Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS)  is a  feared complication of Campylobacter. There are several forms of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), making the range of symptoms wide as well, but some of the more commonly encountered effects are limb and respiratory weakness, and loss of reflexes. Miller Fisher syndrome is a subtype of GBS.

In essence, study authors make a case for regulators to focus food safety oversight on the 10 riskiest pairs of bacteria and food.  It found that the 10 combinations cost the economy $8 billion a year and 37,000 Quality-Adjusted Life Years, a measure of disease burden that factors in pain, suffering and a disease's impact on normal activities.

"The number of hazards and scale of the food system make for a critical challenge for consumers and government alike," lead author Michael Batz said in a statement. "Government agencies must work together to effectively target their efforts. If we don't identify which pairs of foods and microbes present the greatest burden, we'll waste time and resources and put even more people at risk."

 After Campylobacter-infected poultry, the riskiest combinations according to the study are toxoplasma in pork, listeria in deli meats and  Salmonella in poultry. Salmonella is linked with four foods among the Top 10.
 
Strangely, the study doesn't count shiga toxin E. coli and ground beef as one of the most dangerous food combinations. Deadly outbreaks of ground beef E. coli prompted the federal government years ago to declare E. coli O157:H7 an adulterant in ground beef -- banning it from the ground beef food supply. The law hasn't stopped outbreaks, but it has added many levels of protection for consumers -- including industry and government testing of ground beef and the primal cuts of beef used to grind hamburger at stores.
 
More than 100,000 people are hospitalized and 3,000 die every year in the U.S. because of contaminated food. The study faults a fragmented oversight system and proposes specific remedies for different types of contaminations, including a recommendation that the Food and Drug Administration and the USDA coordinate efforts to track and tackle Salmonella outbreaks.
 
"The lack of a unified strategy," says a summary of the study, "has impaired the government's ability to appreciably reduce Salmonella risks."

 

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