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(CIDRAP News) – The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has released a 68-page report on its plan for expanding research on "Category A" bioterrorism agents: anthrax, smallpox, plague, tularemia, viral hemorrhagic fevers, and botulism.

(CIDRAP News) – Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, yesterday introduced a bill to restore the US Department of Agriculture's powerto shut down meatpacking plants whose products exceed the federal Salmonella standard.

A Texas laboratory worker who was analyzing environmental samples collected during last fall's anthrax outbreak has been treated for cutaneous anthrax, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

(CIDRAP News) – Data on more than 300,000 proteins that may have potential as treatments for anthrax—the fruits of a project in which thousands of personal computers were used to analyze billions of molecules—have been turned over to the US and United Kingdom governments.

Science article says more than twice as many cases of inhalational anthrax could have occurred last fall if workers had not been given prophylactic antibiotics.

(CIDRAP News) – Tularemia, one of the six diseases considered most likely to be spread by bioterrorists, remains uncommon in the United States, with 1,368 cases reported between 1990 and 2000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

(CIDRAP News) – A committee of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) has concluded after 17 months of study that the existing anthrax vaccine is effective and "acceptably safe," but a new vaccine that requires fewer doses and that causes fewer reactions is needed.

Note: This story was updated Mar 6, 2002, with the addition of information about comments from a group that opposes the proposed legislation.

(CIDRAP News) — To slow the growth of bacterial resistance to drugs, Rep. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, has introduced a bill to ban the use of eight types of antibiotics in healthy food animals and halt all use of fluoroquinolones in poultry.

An NEJM article reports that an outbreak of eosinophilic meningitis in a group of Americans who dined at a Jamaican restaurant marked the first known outbreak of infection with the rat lungworm in the Western Hemisphere.

Note: This story was updated March 1, 2002, to include additional information about recent federal actions to prevent mad cow disease.

(CIDRAP News) – There is no complete fix for the problem of foodborne illness, but a comprehensive, farm-to-table approach with specific targets for limiting pathogenic contamination would improve food safety, according to a new report by the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT).

(CIDRAP News) – Nearly a year and a half after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) first proposed to stop the use of enrofloxacin (Baytril, a fluoroquinolone antibiotic) in poultry because of safety concerns, the agency says it plans to hold a public hearing on the proposal. The date of the hearing will be set at a prehearing conference on April 8.

(CIDRAP News) – Jeffrey P. Koplan, MD, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) since 1998, has announced he will leave the position March 31.

(CIDRAP News) – Three case reports from the recent anthrax outbreak published in the February 20 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association demonstrate that even patients without obvious anthrax exposure may be at risk, pointing up the need for heightened public health surveillance and increased public awareness.

(CIDRAP News) – A report that paved the way for the World Health Organization's (WHO's) recent recommendation to keep intact the two known collections of smallpox virus cites a wide range of ongoing research on smallpox, including genome sequencing, molecular diagnostic techniques, antiviral drugs, and new vaccines.

(CIDRAP News) – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says it will take several months to determine if women in the US military who received anthrax vaccine in the first trimester of pregnancy had a greater risk of bearing children with birth defects.

(CIDRAP News) – An anthrax vaccine made by combining a component of the anthrax toxin with killed anthrax spores has been tested successfully in animals, according to a report in the February issue of Infection and Immunity. The report suggests that a similar vaccine for humans could be safer and more effective than the acellular vaccine now in use.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has set up a new Web site to help food scientists develop and use mathematical models to predict how pathogenic bacteria in food will behave under varying environmental conditions.

(CIDRAP News) – A study from Taiwan shows a rapid increase in fluoroquinolone resistance in Salmonella enterica serotype choleraesuis in humans over the past 2 years and suggests that the resistant strain spread from pigs. The findings prompted the researchers to urge a ban on fluoroquinoline use in food animals.