Foodborne Disease

(CIDRAP News) – The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) is urging Bayer Corp. to comply with a proposed federal regulatory action and withdraw enrofloxacin (Baytril) from the market because of the concern that its use in poultry promotes drug-resistant bacteria.

(CIDRAP News) – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is delaying the implementation of food security rules that would require most food businesses to keep detailed records on their handling of food products and would allow the FDA to hold potentially contaminated food.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) yesterday announced it has certified seven state laboratories to help test cattle samples for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in the agency's expanded BSE surveillance program.

(CIDRAP News) – Researchers report that they have mapped the complete genome of the intestinal parasite Cryptosporidium parvum, an achievement that they hope will lead to new strategies for battling a hard-to-treat illness.

(CIDRAP News) – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) moved a step closer this week to banning the use of a fluoroquinolone antibiotic in poultry on the ground that the drug promotes the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that can harm human health.

(CIDRAP News) – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this week approved use of a spray containing the active ingredient in mouth rinses and throat lozenges as a way of reducing poultry-related foodborne illnesses. The chemical, cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC), will soon be marketed as a spray under the name Cecure for poultry processing companies to apply to raw poultry.

(CIDRAP News) – Dr. Garry L. McKee is leaving his post as administrator of the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) to take a position at the FSIS Technical Service Center in Omaha, Neb., USDA officials announced yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – An unusual intestinal infection that is often mistaken for appendicitis has been traced to a specific food source, iceberg lettuce, for the first time, according to a report in the Mar 1 Journal of Infectious Diseases (JID).

(CIDRAP News) – The inspector general of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is investigating allegations that the nation's first cow with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was not a "downer" when it arrived at a slaughter plant in December.

(CIDRAP News) – Italian researchers this week reported a new form of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, that resembles sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), a human brain disease that has not previously been linked to BSE.