A federal review of laboratories handling many of the most dangerous pathogens on the planet, including some that can be foodborne such as Brucella and bacterium that cause botulism poisoning, shows room for improvement.
The “high-containment laboratories” are overseen by the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services via
Continue Reading GAO says USDA needs to tighten up policies at certain labs
The next time Texas fights an outbreak of infectious disease, it won’t be using the rule book it followed when Ebola came to Dallas. At least that’s if the House of Representatives goes along with a state Senate-passed bill and Gov. Greg Abbott signs the measure, which is based in
Continue Reading Texas Rewrites Rules for Managing Infectious Diseases
Raw foods that legally reach Europe, including plants, fruits, and vegetables, pose no risk of Ebola virus transmission, according to a new report by scientists with the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). And no human has ever been known to become infected with the Ebola virus from consumption of legally
Continue Reading EFSA: No Ebola Virus Threat From Legally Imported African Foods
Food-safety messengers need to “hit home, hit the heart and hit hard,” Dana Pitts told attendees of the Consumer Food Safety Education Conference in early December. Until very recently, Pitts was associate director of communications for the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID) at the Centers for
Continue Reading What it Takes to be a ‘Meaningful Messenger’ for Food Safety
Your faithful scribes here at Food Safety News deal daily with many federal and state food safety agencies. How we are able to interact with these organizations is a big factor in how effective we are in keeping you up to date on food safety. Among these agencies, none is
Continue Reading Letter From the Editor: CDC
On Sunday, the World Health Organization released an information note regarding Ebola and food safety. A serious, ongoing outbreak of Ebola virus disease in Africa has killed more than 1,400 people in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria, and another is potentially emerging in Central Africa. Ebola viruses are
Continue Reading In Light of Ebola Outbreak, WHO Issues Food Safety Reminders
We did, as reported in this space last week, make a transition to a new publishing platform. It did require more of some of us than others.
I should confess that of all of those who participated in the move to the new system, I was the most resistant to
Continue Reading Letter From The Editor: The Outbreak Express
“There’s a live animal caught in a poacher’s snare!” yelled Isaac Maina as he took off running through the bush to reach it. Maina leads the African Network for Animal Welfare’s monthly “desnaring” operations, removing snares in areas of Kenya where poaching is rampant. Guns are illegal for most people
Continue Reading Deadly African Ebola Virus Linked to Bushmeat
PROVIDENCE–It’s highly unlikely, but if high in an African mango tree a bat dropped its guano on fruit and it was harvested and went unwashed on a 747 to America, you could end up with a deadly tropical foodborne illness characterized by bleeding through the eye socket. These are the
Continue Reading Might Food Become a Vehicle for Tropical Disease?
