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(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) says the prevalence of Listeria monocytogenes in tested samples of ready-to-eat (RTE) meat and poultry products is down 25% for the first 9 months of this year compared with last year.

(CIDRAP News) – Chinese investigators have found that animal traders in Guangdong Province were more likely to carry an antibody to the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) coronavirus than other local groups were, supporting the belief that the virus might have come from animals.

(CIDRAP News) – The recent finding of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in a 23-month-old bull in Japan suggests that Japan may have more cases of the disease than previously suspected, according to a University of Minnesota expert on the disease.

(CIDRAP News) – Mexico closed its border to livestock from the United States last week because of concern that a herd of US cattle bound for Mexico had foot-and-mouth disease, but the border was quickly reopened when the disease was found to be a relatively harmless look-alike.

(CIDRAP News) – Some of the world's leading experts on biological weapons and public health will meet in Geneva, Switzerland, Oct 21 and 22 for an international conference on the threat of a bioterrorist attack involving smallpox.

(CIDRAP News) – A recent cluster of Yersinia enterocolitica infections in Chicago infants illustrates the risks associated with preparing and eating chitterlings (pork intestines), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

(CIDRAP News) – Air monitoring devices in Houston recently picked up fragments of the bacteria that cause tularemia, but no human cases of the disease have been found, Houston health officials reported yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – The National Research Council (NRC) this week proposed a plan to expand and formalize the system for screening research proposals in order to keep biotechnology from playing into the hands of terrorists.

(CIDRAP News) – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today announced final rules designed to make the nation's food supply more secure by requiring food companies to register with the FDA and to give advance notice of imported food shipments.

(CIDRAP News) – Preparations for the possible return of SARS should include establishment of a national stockpile of equipment to protect healthcare workers from the disease, a Minnesota official said at a Senate field hearing today.

(CIDRAP News) – Brucellosis was detected in a Texas cattle herd recently, ending a 13-month stretch with no new Texas cases and postponing the day when the state can be declared free of the once widespread disease, according to the Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC).

(CIDRAP News) – A study of 25 children who were hospitalized in Toronto for possible SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) suggests that the disease is generally milder in children than in teens and adults.

(CIDRAP News) – New York City health records show no increase in cardiac deaths after a citywide smallpox vaccination campaign in 1947, which supports the view that cardiac events in 16 people vaccinated recently were unrelated to the vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

(CIDRAP News) – A New Mexico firm has recalled 22,000 pounds of beef jerky in the wake of an outbreak of Salmonella infections that have been linked with the firm's products, according to New Mexico and federal officials.

(CIDRAP News) – A report by the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) inspector general blames both federal meat inspectors and ConAgra Beef Co. for errors that led to a multistate outbreak of Escherichia coli O157:H7 infections and an 18 million–pound ground beef recall last year.

(CIDRAP News) – The federal government awarded two contracts totaling more than $150 million this week for further testing and initial production of new anthrax vaccines designed to be safer and require fewer doses than the existing vaccine.

(CIDRAP News) – While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) supports widespread influenza vaccination, the CDC doesn't think that measure will be very helpful for limiting unnecessary worries about SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome).

(CIDRAP News) – Federal health officials yesterday announced grants to build 11 new biodefense laboratories around the country, including two that will be authorized to study the most dangerous pathogens.

(CIDRAP News) – The consensus of a group of veteran health workers who helped eradicate smallpox in developing countries is that vaccination within 3 days after exposure to smallpox would protect most people from the disease, according to a report in Emerging Infectious Diseases.

(CIDRAP News) – Federal health officials yesterday released a 37-page report that they say demonstrates "tremendous progress" in developing countermeasures for bioterrorism through federally funded research since early 2002.