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People who consumed salads from McDonald’s restaurants continue to suffer from Cyclospora infections, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta reports.  As of Thursday (Aug. 23), CDC said there was a total of 507 laboratory-confirmed cases of Cyclospora infections in people who consumed salads from McDonald’s restaurants.

The cases were reported by 15 states and New York City.  Connecticut, New York City, Tennessee, and Virginia case-patients purchased McDonald’s salads while traveling in Illinois, and the Florida case-patient purchased a salad while traveling in Kentucky. A list of the states and the number of cases reported from each state can be found on the Case Count Maps page.

Illnesses started on or after May 20, 2018. The median illness onset date is June 29, 2018 (range: May 20 to July 21). Ill people range in age from 14 to 91 years old, with a median age of 52. Sixty-six percent (66 percent) are female. At least 24 people have been hospitalized. No deaths have been reported.

CDC reports that Illnesses that started after July 12, 2018, might not have been reported yet due to the time it takes between when a person becomes ill and when the illness is reported. For Cyclospora infections, this can take up to six weeks.

Investigation of the Outbreak

According to CDC’s epidemiologic evidence, salads purchased from McDonald’s restaurants are one “likely source” of these infections. The investigation is ongoing, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)  is working to determine the sources of the ingredients that were in common to the salads served at McDonald’s.

At the present time, there is no evidence to suggest that this cluster of illnesses is related to the  Cyclospora outbreak linked to Del Monte fresh produce vegetable trays.

Another 31 confirmed cases were added to the outbreak totals since CDC’s last report on Aug. 16. The number of states involved did not change.  

The public first learned of the outbreak on July 13.   On July 26, FDA  completed an analysis of an unused package of romaine lettuce and carrot mix distributed to McDonald’s by the Fresh Express processor in Streamwood, IL. 

The analysis confirmed the presence of Cyclospora in that mix. 

Cyclospora cayetanensis is a parasite composed of one cell, too small to be seen without a microscope. This parasite causes an intestinal infection called cyclosporiasis.

The time between becoming infected and becoming sick is usually about 1 week. Cyclospora infects the small intestine (bowel) and usually causes watery diarrhea, with frequent, sometimes explosive, bowel movements. Other common symptoms include loss of appetite, weight loss, stomach cramps/pain, bloating, increased gas, nausea, and fatigue. Vomiting, body aches, headache, fever, and other flu-like symptoms may be noted. Some people who are infected with Cyclospora do not have any symptoms.

If not treated, the illness may last from a few days to a month or longer. Symptoms may seem to go away and then return one or more times (relapse). It’s common to feel very tired.

Unrelated illnesses reported in New York State

Separately, the McDonald’s in Jamestown, NY is the center of a state and local investigation of multiple illnesses.   

According to the New York State Department of Health and Chautauqua County Health Department, 22 people became Ill between Aug. 4 and 21 with common symptoms of nausea, vomiting or diarrhea.   All reported eating various breakfast sandwiches from the Jamestown McDonald’s.

Tests to find out the cause of the illnesses are underway at the Wadsworth Center, New York State’s Public Health Laboratory in Albany,

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In the past week, another 41 people were confirmed infected by Cyclospora parasites in an outbreak traced to Fresh Express salad mix used in salads sold by McDonald’s.

Of the 436 sick people, 20 have had such severe symptoms that they had to be admitted to hospitals, according to this week’s update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. State health departments have not reported any deaths in the 15-state outbreak.

State health officials will likely report additional cases in the weeks to come because there is up to a six-week lag between when a person becomes sick with cyclosporiasis symptoms and when the infection is lab-confirmed and added to the CDC’s count.

To see a larger version of this graphic, please click on the image.

The most recent person confirmed with the parasitic infection became ill on July 20, the CDC reported.  

“Exact date of illness onset is not available for six cases,” according to the update. “Data are preliminary and subject to change. Illnesses that began after June 28 might not have been reported yet…”

The confirmed victims started getting sick on May 20. In the CDC’s July 13 outbreak update, which was the first one to name McDonald’s, the agency reported 61 confirmed infections across seven states.

McDonald’s stopped serving salads made with the Fresh Express product at the implicated restaurants on July 13, according to the Food and Drug Administration’s outbreak report on that date. The FDA did not publicly name Fresh Express as the salad mix supplier until Aug. 1. Officials with the fast food icon reported they have found another supplier. Fresh Express is a subsidiary of Chiquita Brands.

The confirmed outbreak victims range in age from 14 to 91 years old, with a median age of 53. They are from 15 states, but the sick people in Connecticut, Tennessee, and Virginia purchased salads while traveling in Illinois. The Florida patient purchased a salad while traveling in Kentucky, according to the CDC.

Illinois has been hardest hit, reporting 219 confirmed illnesses, followed by Iowa with 95 and Missouri with 52. Other states that have reported outbreak patients are Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota, Montana, North Dakota, Kentucky and West Virginia.

Advice to consumers
Anyone who has eaten a McDonald’s salad and developed symptoms of cyclosporiasis should seek medical attention and tell their doctors about their possible exposure to Cyclospora parasites.

Symptoms usually include diarrhea, with frequent, sometimes explosive, bowel movements. Other common symptoms include loss of appetite, weight loss, stomach cramps/pain, bloating, increased gas, nausea, and fatigue. Vomiting, body aches, headache, fever, and other flu-like symptoms may be noted.

Some people who are infected with Cyclospora parasites do not have any symptoms. If not treated, the illness may last from a few days to a month or longer. Symptoms may seem to go away and then return one or more times, making diagnosis difficult.

“The Cyclospora parasite needs time — days to weeks — after being passed in a bowel movement to become infectious for another person,” according to the Food and Drug Administration. “Therefore, it is unlikely that cyclosporiasis is passed directly from one person to another.”

Cyclospora parasites can contaminate foods or beverages, but in the United States they are most often found on fresh produce, according to federal officials.

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UPDATED: Illnesses are not limited to restaurant customers. People with whom the customers have had close contact have also reported illnesses.

Human transmission of norovirus is likely what made dozens, possibly hundreds, of people in Transylvania County, NC, sick in an outbreak among customers of a McDonald’s restaurant.

Samples collected from patients by their health care providers tested positive for norovirus. Those results were confirmed by the North Carolina State Laboratory of Public Health, according to the Transylvania County Public Health Department. Illnesses have been reported from customers of the restaurant and people with whom they have had close contact.

“Based on our current evidence, we believe it was due to human contamination rather than any one particular food or drink item,” Tara Rybka, public health educator with the county, told Food Safety News.

Rybka did not specifically say whether the person or people responsible for the contamination are employees at the restaurant. People can spread the virus to others and contaminate foods and other items before they begin to feel symptoms. 

The highly contagious norovirus is difficult to kill with sanitizers and can easily contaminate foods, beverages, surfaces such as counters, food containers and utensils. The virus can live on surfaces for long periods of time. 

Health care providers reported more than 70 cases of suspected foodborne illnesses to the county this past week. More than 200 other people called the health department themselves to report severe nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Many of the sick people reported having consumed food and or beverages from a McDonald’s restaurant in Brevard, NC, on Asheville Highway.

Public health officials say there is no evidence that the outbreak in Transylvania County is related to the ongoing nationwide outbreak of cyclosporiasis related to McDonald’s salads containing salad mix from Fresh Express. Fresh Express, which is a subsidiary of the multi-national icon Chiquita Brands. That outbreak has sickened almost 400 people in 16 states with infections caused by the Cyclospora parasite. 

The operators of the McDonald’s in Brevard, NC, voluntarily closed the restaurant for a couple of days this past week to deep clean it. They reopened the location on Friday.

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Federal officials have confirmed parasites in salad mix that Fresh Express sold to McDonald’s and other unnamed companies. Almost 400 people in 15 states, are confirmed infected.

The Food and Drug Administration is relying on Fresh Express, which is a subsidiary of Chiquita Brands LLC, to make sure other companies that bought its salad mix are no longer using it. Those companies have not been revealed to the public. 

“Fresh Express reported to FDA that the romaine from the same lot as the positive sample was not packaged for direct retail sale by Fresh Express and had already expired,” the FDA reported Wednesday. 

“Fresh Express committed to using recall procedures to inform companies that received additional products of concern about the sample result. Fresh Express also reported that the carrots in the sampled salad mix only went to McDonald’s.”

The implicated salad mix, which included romaine lettuce and carrots, was marked with an expiration date of July 19.

Symptom onset dates for the confirmed victims range from May 20 to July 12, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency reports that as of July 26, there were 395 laboratory-confirmed cases of Cyclospora infection reported in people who had eaten “a variety” of salads from McDonald’s restaurants. At least 11 people have required hospitalization.

People whose symptoms began after June 14 are likely not all included in the case count yet, according to the CDC. It can take up to six weeks for confirmed reports of Cyclospora infections to reach federal officials. It usually takes two days to two weeks after exposure for symptoms to develop.

A processing plant operated by Fresh Express in Streamwood, IL, produced the salad mix, according to the FDA. The agency tested an unused package of the Fresh Express salad mix from that production plant and confirmed Cyclospora parasite contamination. 

The FDA finished its final analysis of the salad mix on July 26 and notified Fresh Express of the results on July 27, instructing the company to determine whether potentially contaminated product may still be on the market.

McDonald’s issued a statement in mid-July reporting the chain had stopped using the Fresh Express salad mix at implicated restaurants in Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota, Montana, North Dakota, Kentucky, West Virginia and Missouri on July 13. The company has since reported that it has replaced the supplier of salads in those states, according to the FDA.

Other outbreaks
It was unknown Wednesday night whether a foodborne illness outbreak this week among customers of a McDonald’s restaurant in Transylvania County, NC, is related to the Fresh Express salad. Local public health officials told The Transylvania Times newspaper that there were “lots” of reports Monday and Tuesday. Additional reports were coming in Wednesday.

The Times reported many people were reporting they had eaten at a McDonald’s restaurant in Brevard. The newspaper reported the restaurant was closed as of Wednesday afternoon.

Another outbreak, which federal officials say is not related to the Fresh Express salad mix, involves pre-cut vegetable and dip trays sold by Del Monte Fresh Produce. As of the most recent update from CDC, 237 people across four states had been confirmed with Cyclospora infections in that outbreak.

Advice to consumers
Anyone who has eaten a McDonald’s salad — or items from recalled Del Monte vegetable-dip trays — and developed symptoms of cyclosporiasis should seek medical attention and tell their doctors about their possible exposure to Cyclospora parasites.

Symptoms usually include diarrhea, with frequent, sometimes explosive, bowel movements. Other common symptoms include loss of appetite, weight loss, stomach cramps/pain, bloating, increased gas, nausea, and fatigue. Vomiting, body aches, headache, fever, and other flu-like symptoms may be noted.

Some people who are infected with Cyclospora parasites do not have any symptoms. If not treated, the illness may last from a few days to a month or longer. Symptoms may seem to go away and then return one or more times, making diagnosis difficult.

“The Cyclospora parasite needs time — days to weeks — after being passed in a bowel movement to become infectious for another person,” according to the Food and Drug Administration. “Therefore, it is unlikely that cyclosporiasis is passed directly from one person to another.”

Cyclospora parasites can contaminate foods or beverages, but in the United States they are most often found on fresh produce, according to federal officials.

(To sign up for a free subscription to Food Safety News, click here.)

McDonald’s officials decided to pull salads from 3,000 of their U.S. restaurants while they work with federal and state investigators to find the specific source of Cyclospora parasites that have infected more than 100 people.

The outbreak of cyclosporiasis linked to the McDonald’s salads is not thought to be related to another ongoing outbreak of the parasitic infections associated with pre-cut vegetable and dip trays marketed under the Del Monte brand, according to federal officials. 

Investigators from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in recent days that the implicated salads were pulled from McDonald’s restaurants in 14 states.

“Many ill people reported eating salads from McDonald’s restaurants located in the Midwest. People reported eating a variety of McDonald’s salads,” according to the CDC.

A statement from the multi-national fast food chain reported the states where the implicated salad was distributed as Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

“McDonald’s has been in contact with public health authorities from Iowa and Illinois about an increase in Cyclospora infections in those states,” according to the McDonald’s statement. “In addition, the CDC also has received reports of people who became sick in Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wisconsin who ate salads sold at McDonald’s locations in those states.

“… we voluntarily stopped selling salads at impacted restaurants until we can switch to another lettuce blend supplier.”

As of Friday the CDC was reporting 61 confirmed infections from Cyclospora parasites in people across seven states — Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wisconsin. However, Illinois officials have reported 90 confirmed cases in their state alone.

The discrepancy is not unusual, though, especially with Cyclospora. There can be up to six weeks lag time between when a person becomes ill from the parasite and when their confirmed lab tests are reported to federal officials. The CDC says Cyclospora illnesses that began after June 1 likely have not yet been added to the federal case count. 

Illnesses in the parasitic outbreak linked to the McDonald’s salads started on or after May 1. The most recent person known to have been infected became ill on July 10. The sick people range in age from 16 to 79 years old. Two  people have been hospitalized. No deaths have been reported.

To view the full sized graphic about the transmission and life cycle of Cyclospora parasites, please click on the image.

“If you have eaten a salad from a McDonald’s restaurant in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, or Wisconsin since mid-May — on or after May 14 — and you developed diarrhea, see a healthcare provider to be tested for Cyclospora infection and to be treated if you are sick,” the CDC advised consumers.

“Do not eat leftover salads from McDonald’s restaurants that were purchased in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, or Wisconsin. Throw them away.”

The FDA reports it has not identified which salad ingredient could be the source of the microscopic Cyclospora parasite. The agency is working with McDonald’s officials to trace all of the salad ingredients back through the supply chain. 

“… multiple components of these salads are under consideration. The investigation is ongoing and the FDA is currently reviewing distribution and supplier information,” according to the agency’s outbreak report.

Anyone who has eaten a McDonald’s salad in any of the 14 states where the salad blend was distributed and developed symptoms of cyclosporiasis should seek medical attention. Specific laboratory tests are needed to diagnose cyclosporiasis, which sometimes mimics symptoms of flu and other illnesses. 

It takes Cyclospora parasites days to weeks after being passed in a person’s bowel movement to become infectious for another person. Therefore, it is unlikely that cyclosporiasis is passed directly from one person to another. It is commonly spread via fresh produce. Washing and rinsing food does not remove or kill the parasite, according to the CDC and FDA.

Some people infected with the parasite do not develop symptoms, but they can infect others.

“Most people infected with Cyclospora develop diarrhea, with frequent, sometimes explosive, bowel movements. Other common symptoms include loss of appetite, weight loss, stomach cramps/pain, bloating, increased gas, nausea, and fatigue. Vomiting, body aches, headache, fever, and other flu-like symptoms may be noted,” according to the FDA notice on the outbreak.

“If not treated, the illness may last from a few days to a month or longer. Symptoms may seem to go away and then return one or more times.”

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New York Times columnist Nicolas Kristof wrote a powerful piece on the chicken industry in December 2014. It detailed a whistleblower chicken farmer named Craig Watts who risked everything to call attention to the inherent inhumane practices within his own industry. Kristof concluded: “Torture a single chicken and you risk arrest. Abuse hundreds of thousands of chickens for their entire lives? That’s agribusiness.”

Since then, the changes within the food corporations and producers have been astounding. 

Photo illustration

Jim Perdue, once the villain of the very video that Kristof refers to, took the path of reformed sinner.  A year after the article, he was quoted saying “We need happier birds.”

Since then Perdue Farms, the country’s third largest chicken company, has announced a series of improvements. These include installing windows for natural light in 25 percent of their chicken houses, and working on better breeds of birds. 

Major companies like Compass Foods, Aramark, Subway and Burger King have all committed to switching to better breeds of birds and giving them more space. In fact, nearly 90 national chains have stepped up to improve the lives of chickens. 

But one company is glaringly absent from the list of leaders. McDonald’s insists  they need to ‘study’ the issue more. With a wealth of scientific studies already conducted on higher chicken welfare, McDonald’s study approach seems the hallmark of a corporation avoiding a necessary decision. 

The breed of bird currently used by McDonald’s is nothing short of a genetic monster. She’s been selectively bred to grow so big, so fast, that she can suffer from heart attacks and leg pain. Most of the birds just sit, only getting up to eat or drink out of necessity, but otherwise find it too uncomfortable or even painful to walk. Some can’t walk at all, and have to be euthanized even before they reach their slaughter date. 

Yet a solution exists. It might require hard work, grit, and commitment because of the sheer size of the industry, but McDonalds is not usually shy of such things. Afterall, McDonald’s led the way on committing to 100 percent cage free eggs, reducing calories in  kids meals, and environmental responsibility. Their resistance to improving the lives of chickens in a meaningful way remains an anomaly.

The finish line has already been set by consumers. The public will not accept a company turning a blind eye to poor animal welfare when there is a known solution.  A case in point is Chicago mom ShaRhonda Dawson. She was so frustrated  with McDonald’s and their refusal to do better for chickens that she started a change.org petition that now has over 100,000 signatures.

In addition, the leading animal protection organizations in the country are organized and unified in asking McDonald’s to say goodbye to badly bred birds. 

Every day Mcdonald’s avoids that decision further alienates them from their informed and compassionate consumers. And that is never a good thing for any business. The question for McDonald’s is not what will it cost them to improve the lives of the chickens in their supply chain, but rather, what will it cost them not to? 

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Another foodservice worker in Kentucky has been confirmed infected with the hepatitis A virus, but this time a McDonald’s location is implicated and the customers who ate and drank there are not the only people at risk. The fast food giant’s shareholders saw their stock dip with the news.

Madison County (Kentucky) Health Department officials say only people who ate or drank anything from the McDonald’s on Glades Road in Berea, KY, on March 23 were potentially exposed to the virus by the infected employee. 

It is beyond the window of opportunity for those McDonald’s customers to receive post-exposure treatment, which must be administered within two weeks of exposure. Therefore, public health officials are urging the customers from March 23 to monitor themselves and their children for signs of infection through May 12. It can take up to 50 days after exposure for hepatitis A symptoms to develop.

News of the confirmed infection in the McDonald’s employee was picked up by media including local newspapers, regional broadcast outlets, and many national and international new organizations. Similar reports in recent months involving independent restaurants and lower profile chains, including Waffle House, have not generated such interest.

McDonald’s stock began Thursday in positive territory with an early gain of more than 1.0 percent. Soon things turned negative, with the fast food giant closing out the day on the New York Stock Exchange at $1.72 less per share that at the opening bell. That amounted to a 0.62 percent drop. 

Despite Wall Street’s reaction, county health officials reported high marks for the McDonald’s in Berea, KY.

“It should be noted that McDonalds is fully cooperating with local and state health officials to investigate this case,” according to a statement from the Madison County Health Department. 

“It should also be noted that this McDonalds received a score of 100 percent on their most recent health department inspection in February.”

For the 12 to 18 months cities, counties and states across the country have been fighting the highly contagious virus. The majority of the cases are from a strain of hepatitis A identified in California, which was the first state to declare the outbreak.

While the majority of victims so far have been homeless, substance abusers or both, infections are increasingly being identified in people who are neither homeless nor substance abusers. 

Also, foodservice workers are increasingly becoming infected, which has the potential of exposing large numbers of people to the virus. People are contagious before they show signs of illness, which makes it difficult to identify infected food handlers. Some infected people, especially children, never develop symptoms, but they can transmit the virus to others. 

Advice to consumers
Anyone who consumed foods or beverages from the McDonald’s on Glades Road in Berea, KY, should monitor themselves and their children for symptoms of hepatitis A infection through May 12.

Symptoms can include fever, jaundice, grey-colored stools, dark urine, abdominal pain, vomiting, fatigue, loss of appetite, nausea and joint pain. Symptoms usually resolve in two months but can last six months or longer. Generally few people require hospitalization, but the ongoing multi-state outbreak has had an unusually high percentage of victims admitted to hospitals.

Hepatitis A can be spread when an infected person does not wash his or her hands properly after going to the bathroom and then touches objects or food. Also, caregivers who do not properly wash their hands after changing diapers or cleaning up the stool of an infected person can transmit the virus to others. Sexual contact and other close personal contact with an infected person can result in infections in people who have not been vaccinated.

The hepatitis A vaccine, which is given in two injections six months apart, is more than 95 percent effective in preventing the infection, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

OSIChina_406x250Before the trial of two of its Shanghai facilities and 10 employees, officials with OSI Group expressed “confidence in China’s legal system,” and said they believed the local court would “come to a fair and reasonable judgement with full respect to the facts and laws.” But Monday, after a Shanghai court convicted the two Husi Food Co. processing plants and 10 of their employees for producing and selling substandard products in 2014, OSI officials at the company’s world headquarters near Chicago reacted by saying “…we can no longer accept injustices against our people and our reputation.” The Shanghai court fined the two processing plants 2.4 million yuan, which is about $365,000 U.S., and sentenced Australian Yang Liqun, an OSI general manager in China, to three years in prison to be followed by deportation. The manager was also separately fined 100,000 yuan. Nine other employees, including an OSI operations director, received sentences ranging from 19 to 32 months. In a statement, the court said Husi Food’s Hebei and Shanghai units produced substandard food for fast food chains, including Yum Brands and McDonald’s from March 2013 to July 2014. That’s when the units came in for government scrutiny after Shanghai ’s Dragon TV aired a report purporting to show OSI reselling expired meat. After the court verdicts, OSI called the Dragon TV report “sensationalized” and accused it of presenting “false and incomplete accusations that ignored the facts and Chinese law.” The OSI statement said: “After an actual investigation was completed, all authorities have recognized that this case has never been about food safety.” “The distortion of facts and evidence by Dragon TV and the general media clearly influenced the verdict released today,” the OSI statement said. OSI says it is now “forced to consider an appeal” of the criminal case and may sue Dragon TV “for its role in harming the reputation and business operations of the company through intentional falsification of press reports.” One problem, which was called out a year ago by OSI, was that all the meat in question was destroyed prior to trial by Shanghai food safety authorities. Husi is a subsidiary of OSI, which has done business in China for 25 years. It was supplying McDonald’s, KFC’s, Pizza Huts, and other Asian fast-food outlets, but the expired meat controversy led to the loss of those  customers who did not want to be part of a scandal. According to China’s official press agency, the Xinhua News Agency, the nation’s food safety law does forbid the use of recycled and expired in ingredients in food products. It reported the defense argued food returned was not recycled and the dates were for guidance only. Xinhua said the court found the products were being recycled as defined by China’s law and expiration dates once set cannot be changed. Xu Wei was the presiding judge in the Shanghai Jiading District People’s Court. A few family members were admitted to the court room, which was reported to be too small to admit foreign reporters or even some of the lawyers. The proceeding was not televised and there was no overflow space for anyone wanting to monitor the trial. The judge told Xinhua that those responsible broke China’s food safety law and needed to be held responsible. OSI Group is a privately owned, American holding company of meat processors that service worldwide  retail and food service industries.  Forbes lists OSI as the nation’s 60th largest private company for 2015 with sales of $6.1 billion.   (To sign up for a free subscription to Food Safety News, click here.)

The Seneca County Health Department has confirmed a case of Hepatitis A in a food service worker employed at the McDonald’s outlet at 2500 Mound Rd. in Waterloo, NY. McDonald's in Waterloo, NYThis individual worked while they may have been shedding the Hepatitis A virus and before being diagnosed with the illness, the department stated. Because of how Hepatitis A is spread, this may have put customers and coworkers at that McDonald’s at risk of acquiring the virus. While public health officials are stressing there is a low risk of contracting illness, people who have not been previously vaccinated for Hepatitis A and who consumed food/drink from the Waterloo McDonald’s on the following dates should consider treatment.

  • If you ate at the McDonald’s at 2500 Mound Rd. in Waterloo, NY, on Oct. 31, you should attend the Nov. 14, 2015, clinic.
  • If you ate at the McDonald’s at 2500 Mound Rd., in Waterloo, NY, on any of the following dates, you should attend either the Nov. 14 or Nov. 15 clinic: Monday, Nov. 2; Tuesday, Nov. 3; Thursday, Nov. 5; Friday, Nov. 6; Sunday, Nov. 8, 2015.

If you were recently exposed to Hepatitis A virus and have not been vaccinated against Hepatitis A, you might benefit from an injection of either immune globulin or Hepatitis A vaccine. However, the vaccine or immune globulin must be given within the first two weeks after exposure to be effective. To this end, the Seneca County Health Department is setting up clinics to provide preventive treatment to individuals who visited the Waterloo McDonald’s. (For those getting vaccine, a second vaccine in six months will result in maximum protection.) Clinics offering the Hepatitis A vaccine are scheduled on Saturday, Nov. 14, from 1-8 p.m. EST, and on Sunday, Nov. 15, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. EST, at the Mynderse Academy Gymnasium, 105 Troy St., Seneca, NY. You can preregister here. There is no cost for the clinics. For other additional questions, call the New York State Department of Health Hotline at 1-844-364-6397. Hepatitis A is a contagious liver disease that results from infection with the Hepatitis A virus. It can range in severity from a mild illness lasting a few weeks to a severe illness lasting several months. Hepatitis A is usually spread when a person ingests fecal matter — even in microscopic amounts — from contact with objects, food, or drinks contaminated by the feces, or stool, of an infected person. Some people with Hepatitis A do not have any symptoms. Children in particular may not show symptoms. If you do have symptoms, they may include the following: fever, fatigue, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, dark-colored urine, clay-colored bowel movements, joint pain and jaundice (yellowing of the skin or eyes).

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Two major food corporations with well-known brands to protect have cut ties with a Tennessee chicken farm that finds itself the latest target of an animal abuse investigation by Los Angeles-based Mercy for Animals. First Tyson Foods Inc., which contracted with the Tennessee farm to raise chickens, and then McDonald’s, which is supplied with chicken by Tyson, announced they would have no more to do with T&S Farm in Dukedom, TN. TandSFarm_405x250That’s where an undercover video produced for Mercy for Animals shows a man clubbing and stabbing chickens using a wooden pole with a large spike attached to the end before standing on the birds’ heads and pulling their bodies to break their necks. The video also shows thousands of chicks bred to grow so fast they became crippled under their own weight, sick and injured animals left to suffer without proper veterinary care, and workers carelessly grabbing fistfuls of chickens and violently slamming them into transport crates — often breaking the birds’ bones in the process. Local law enforcement officials have opened their own investigation of animal abuse at T&S Farm after being provided with the video evidence by Mercy for Animals. In announcing it was cutting business ties with the farm, Tyson spokesman Gary Mickelson said the company will not tolerate “the unacceptable animal treatment shown in this video.” Michelson said Tyson believes the abusive handling shown in the video is not typical of its poultry suppliers. With the termination of T&S’s contract with Tyson, no chickens reportedly remain on the farm. McDonald’s also issued a statement supporting Tyson’s decision to terminate T&S, which stated, “We believe treating animals with care and respect is an integral part of a responsible supply chain and find the behavior depicted in this video to be completely unacceptable.” McDonald’s said it would work with Tyson on a follow-up investigation “and reinforce our expectations around animal health and welfare at the farm level.” Mercy for Animals had an undercover investigator working at T&S for about four weeks during July and August. T&S did raise chickens for a Tyson poultry processing plant in Union City, TN, which supplies meat for McDonald’s McNuggets. The animal rights group called on McDonald’s to “swiftly adopt meaningful animal welfare policies to end many of the worst forms of animal abuse and neglect in its supply chain.” “The secret ingredient in McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets is brutal animal abuse,” said MFA President Nathan Runkle. “They are crammed into filthy, windowless sheds, thrown, kicked, and tortured by careless workers, and bred to grow so fast they suffer from painful leg deformities and heart attacks. This is sickening animal abuse no company with morals should support. McDonald’s has not only the power, but also the ethical responsibility, to end the worst forms of cruelty to animals in its supply chain.”

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