Subsections

• Introduction:
  • Bacterial infections
    • French Cheese under safety concern:
    • Listeria monocitogenes in US milk
    • Milk pasteurisation and Listeria
    • USDA measures to close recent food safety loopholes
    • German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) warn about pink duck breast
    • Antimocrobial-resistant bacteria draft opinion of the European Food Safety Authority
  • Cholera
    • Contaminated water and food are the main cause of cholera in Zimbabwe
    • Transmission of Cholera through contaminated food and water
    • How to reduce cholera risk in epidemic regions
  • Staphylococcus aureus
  • Moulds
  • Prevention and reduction of mycotoxin contamination in cereals
  • Viral infections
    • The name of viruses:
    • Influenza viruses:
  • Avian influenza A and Newcastle disease:
    • WHO urges consumer to maintain precautions against avian flu
    • New cases in China in January 2009:
    • Precasution:
    • New case in Egypt:
    • Vaccination against avian influenza of H5 and H7 subtypes in domestic poultry and captive birds
    • Reassortment or point mutations of H9N2 influenza virus is predicted to become a new pandemic, says University of Maryland researcher
  • WHO Recommendations Regarding Avian Influenza
  • Avian Influenza and food safety
    • New outbreak of avian flue in Bavaria, Germany:
    • Avian influenza in Brandenburg, near Berlin
    • Influenza H5N1 virus confirmed in wild birds in Dorset
  • Still human death cases caused by H5N1 avian flue virus [2648]
    • Intensive animal food production systems
    • Pigs and poultry:
    • Swine Influenza A (H1N1) virus mutation is resistant to antiviral drugs
    • Recommendations:
    • Antiviral drugs resistance
    • Oseltamivirn (Tamiflu):
    • Amantidine (Symmetrel):
    • Zanamivir [Relenza]:
    • Rimatidine (Flumadine):
    • Doubts on the effect on Tamiflu to treat swine flu
    • H1N1 influenza may present atypical Symptoms
    • Two groups of H1 virus have evolved from the 1918 pandemic influenza virus
    • WHO Increases Pandemic Alert Level to Phase 6
    • Phase 6:
    • Travel restrictions immediately needed:
    • Origin of the swine flu virus described
    • Influenza threat of the North American swine
    • Collecting specimen for H1N1 swine influenza testing
    • Laboratory testing:
    • Laboratory safety precautions:
    • Safety precautions during specimen collection:
    • Egypt culls swines to prevent swine influenza pandemic
    • The UN food experts say pork meat is safe:
    • Canadian swine herd infected with H1N1 by farme worker returning from Mexico
    • Import restrictions on pork:
    • German IT company "ExploSYS" developed an Influenza-Pandemic-Planning-Simulator InfluSim
    • Influenza A H1N1 avian flu virus continues to spread
    • The blue ear disease
    • Human infectivity of blue ear disease
    • Symptomatic:
    • Rules for pig slaughterhouses in China:
    • Transmission:
    • The blue ear disease virus not to be compared with the avian flue H5N1 and H7N1 virus.
    • Evolution of drug resistance in H5N1 avian flue
    • China increases blue-ear vaccine production in 2008
  • Norovirus
    • Rapid Concentration and Detection of Enteric Viruses
    • Bottled water: Attachment of Enteric Viruses to Bottles
    • Food poisoning from mussels, oysters and clams
    • Hepatitis A - virus
    • Hepatitis E - virus
    • Definition of virus
    • Groups of viruses
    • Newcastle Disease in pigeons in Germany
    • R-ray crystallography:
    • Icosahedral symmetry:
    • Helical symmetry:
    • Enveloped virus:
    • Complex virus particles:
    • Poxviruses:
    • Phages
    • Genetic variations of viruses
    • Antigenic drifts
    • Antigenic shifts of viruses
    • Virus infection due to contaminated water
  • Reoviruses
    • Report on Epidemiological analysis of the 2006 bluetongue virus serotype 8 epidemic in north-western Europe updated in June 2007.
    • The main findings reported by the EFSA bluetongue working group:
    • Blutongue virus serotype 8 reemerges in Germany
    • Monitoring:
    • Culicoides as a vector of BTV:
  • Rotaviruses
  • Astroviruses
  • Adenoviruses
  • Parvoviruses
  • SARS Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
  • Vaccine against H5N1 for humans
    • EFSA Advises on the Safety of Aluminium in Food
    • Aluminium in infant formulae
  • Disaster plans
  • Avian influenza and industry
  • Review of pathogens heat-resistance
    • HACCP plans for fresh produce
    • Strategies to reduce person-to-person transmission during epidemics
    • Public Health Implications:
    • Pathogens on raw produces
    • Pathogens on lettuce, tomatoes and herbs:
    • Safety of fresh-cut produces
    • Farming:
    • Transport:
    • Processing facilities:
    • Ultrasound cleaning of equipment
    • Rapid microbe removal:
    • Nitrogen fertilizers may increase risk of pathogens on lettuce
    • Washing and ultrasound
    • Irradiation of spinach and lettuce
    • Manure:
    • Water:
    • Hygiene:
    • Traceback:
    • Modified atmosphere and temperature may alter bacterial resistance to gastric juice
  • Improved sanitation of large food systems
    • Sanitation Performance Standards Compliance Guide
    • Construction problems with stainless tubes, tanks and vessels
    • Sanitizing chemicals ozone and chlorine:
    • Bonamia ostreae oyster parasite in UK
  • Researches on HIV and antiretroviral drugs strategies, the HPTN 035 Study
    • Genetic engineered plant production of a complex HIV drug unites efficiency and low production cost
    • Microbicide gel to prevent HIV infection of women
    • Mathematical models predict higher protection rate in men than women using vaginal microbicides

Food-borne diseases

Introduction:

Search for food has always been a struggle to survive. The discovery of fire by the cave man was an important step in food handling. Spices triggered the great voyages looking for a new way to the spices from India.

Nowadays the rarest of dishes are available everywhere and there are no restrictions as to the seasons. Global trade of food has made it possible.

These modern achievements, however, bear the danger to destruct the economic, ecological and cultural isolated units destabilising the economy of a region because manpower and products of other regions, with lower production costs, compete with high cost regions. Ecology is endangered, due to increase of traffic, and last but not least, the culture and beliefs of isolated regions are washed out.

Growing international business leads to ever growing food batches, spreading them over great areas. The control of hazards in food production, transportation and handling and even the menace of terrorist actions are getting high priority in the concern of industry, commerce and food health departments of every nation and is subject of many international standards.

Food producers (agriculture, breeders, fishery, processing factories) are concerned about these hazards which may cause tremendous costs, loss of crops, and even lead to bankruptcy.

Catering service establishments and restaurants are liable to recourse in case of harmful food.

The loss of confidence of their customers due to headlines involving a recall of a spoiled brand is a nightmare for every manager of discount stores or global food trade business.

Food health departments and government ministry of consumer safety, such as Minister Kynast in Germany in the case of BSE scandal are top headlines.

Bacterial infections

Zoonotic disease in humans within the EU [2616]
Zoonoses are diseases or infections, which are transmissible from animals to humans. The infection can be acquired directly from animals, or through ingestion of contaminated foodstuffs.

The European Food Safety Authority analysed the data from 2005 and published a report on zoonotic diseases in humans in December 2006.

EFSA found campylobacteriosis as the most frequently reported zoonotic disease in humans within the EU. Reported Campylobacter cases increased by 7.8% compared to the previous year. Fresh poultry meat was found to have the highest contamination rate with Campylobacter with 66% of samples positive and was also commonly detected from live poultry, pigs and cattle. The largest Campylobacter outbreaks were caused by contaminated drinking water.

Salmonellosis remained the second most frequent zoonosis despite the fall of 9.5% compared to 2004.Salmonella was most often reported from fresh poultry and pig meat where proportions of positive samples up to 18% were detected. In table eggs, findings of positive samples ranged from 0% to 6%, but over the past 5 years an overall decreasing trend in occurrence of Salmonella in eggs was observed. In animal populations, Salmonella was most frequently detected in poultry flocks.

Egg and bakery products were the most common sources of Salmonella outbreaks, whereas broiler meat was an important source for both Salmonella and Campylobacter outbreaks. Foodborne virus outbreaks were most often caused by drinking water, fruit and vegetables.

For Verotoxigenic Escherichia coli (VTEC) infections and yersiniosis more informations are needed concerning the serotypes and other virulence factors related to human pathogenic serotypes. The authors of the Report call for a harmonisation of the analytical methodology.

	Incidence	Number of
Disease	100,000 people	reported cases
Campylobacteriosis	51.6	197.363
Salmonellosis	38.2	176.395
Yersiniosis	2.6	9.630
Verotoxigenic Escherichia coli VTEC	1.2	3.314
Listeriosis	0.3	1.439
Brucellosis	0.2	1.218
Echinococcosis	$<$0.01	320
Trichinellosis	$<$0.01	175
Tuberculosis due to M. bovis	$<$0.01	119
Rabies	$<$0.01	4
	Incidence	Number of
Disease	100,000 people	reported cases

Survey on the prevalence of Salmonella in EU poultry in 2006 [2618]
European Community legislation foresees setting of Salmonella reduction targets for animal population including broiler flocks.

The survey was the second of several baseline surveys to be conducted in the Community. The sampling of the broiler flocks took place between October 2005 and September 2006.

A total of 11.0% of the broiler flocks was estimated to be positive for Salmonella Enteritidis and/or Salmonella Typhimurium, the two most common serovars found in Salmonella infection cases in humans. The Member State-specific observed flock prevalence of S. Enteritidis and/or S. Typhimurium varied also greatly, from 0% to 39.3%. The number of positive samples in a Salmonella positive flock ranged between one and five but at European Union level 42% of the positive flocks was found positive for all the five samples taken.

The five most frequently isolated Salmonella serovars from broiler flocks in the European Union were respectively in decreasing order S. Enteritidis, S. Infantis, S. Mbandaka, S. Typhimurium and S. Hadar. All these serovars, with the exception of S. Mbandaka, are frequent causes of Salmonella infections in humans within the European Union. S. Enteritidis was the most common serovar and it was detected in 37% of the Salmonella positive flocks. S. Infantis accounted also for an important proportion of positive flocks (20%). The serovar distribution varied amongst the Member States, many of them having a specific distribution pattern of their own.

While the Community reduction target will most likely be set for a transitional period only for S. Enteritidis and S. Typhimurium, it is recommended that Member States would address in their national Salmonella control programmes also other serovars when these serovars are of public health importance in their country.

Verotoxigenic Escherichia coli (VTEC) in foods: The majority of the data derives from food of bovine origin (bovine meat, raw milk, cheese and dairy products, other or mixed meat). The report also contains information about Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, Avian Influenza, Cysticerci and Sarcocystis parasites and Q fever in animal populations. [2616]

Germany reported the highest number of tuberculosis due to Mycobacterium bovis in 2005, followed by The United Kingdom

Bovine tuberculosis and bovine or caprine/ovine brucellosis is still present in 3-4% in bovine/sheep/goat populations.The highest incidences of human brucellosis have been recorded in Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain, mostly Brucella melitensis were responsible for the disease.

Yersinia enterocolitica 0:3 serotype was the dominant type found in the EU. Germany had the highest number of human infections. Y. enterocolitica is found in meat and milk, especially pig meat.

French Cheese under safety concern:

Various types of French cheese are prepared from raw milk. The definition of Camembert dated December 1986, says that temperatures not higher than 37$^{o}C$ may be used during production process and only milk from cattle which tuberculosis and brucellosis free may be used. [2619]

Safety concern which were nourished by a series of cheese poisoning by Listeria monocitogenes and salmonella made some producers like Lactalis to apply a mild heat of 60$^{o}C$ (thermised milk), which may inactivate these pathogens. The AOC do not approve this safety measure claiming that quality and flavour of the camembert will be compromised. The AOC members voted to keep the definition of 1986 unaltered. It is expected that official ruling will forbid the use of raw milk for cheese production in France. [2620]

Raw milk [2621]
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are reminding consumers of the dangers of drinking milk that has not been pasteurized, known as raw milk. Raw milk potentially contains a wide variety of harmful bacteria - including Salmonella, E. coli O157:H7, Listeria, Campylobacter and Brucella - that may cause illness and possibly death.

Since 1987 FDA has required all milk packaged for human consumption be pasteurized before being delivered for introduction into interstate commerce. This also applies to other milk products, with the exception of a few aged cheeses.

According to FDA, proponents of drinking raw milk often claim that raw milk is more nutritious than pasteurized milk and that raw milk is inherently antimicrobial, thus making pasteurization unnecessary. Research has shown that these claims are myths. There is no meaningful nutritional difference between pasteurized and raw milk, and raw milk does not contain compounds that will kill harmful bacteria. In fact, raw milk, no matter how carefully produced, may be unsafe.

Listeria monocitogenes in US milk

[2622]
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health located the source of the outbreak at the beginning of January 2007. after four people had become ill, two of whom fatally, The bacteria is believed to have entered the dairy's milk supply after it was pasteurized.

Milk pasteurisation and Listeria

[2623] Current state and local regulations throughout the United States specify time and temperature conditions for pasteurization. These regulations call for milk to be heated to at least 71.7$^{o}$ C for 15 seconds (i.e., high-temperature short-time (HTST) process) or to 62.8 C for 30 minutes.
Viable L. monocytogenes could berecovered after minimum HTST treatment (71.7$^{o}$ C for 15 seconds), although not after treatment at 76.4 C-77.8$^{o}$ C for 15 seconds. This survival was attributed in part to protection of L. monocytogenes within leukocytes in milk (intracellular L. monocytogenes organisms are found in milk from infected cows but not in artificially inoculated milk), but these findings may not be applicable to usual production conditions.

In another study in which investigators identified cows that had been naturally infected with L. monocytogenes, proper pasteurization was found to inactivate L. monocytogenes in milk contaminated through natural infection as well as in artificially inoculated milk.

World Health Organization Working Group on foodborne listeriosis recently concluded that "pasteurization is a safe process which reduces the number of L. monocytogenes occurring in raw milk to levels that do not pose an appreciable risk to human health"

CDC concludes that improperly performedpasteurization and the occurrence of contamination after pasteurization are the most likely explanations for the presence of L. monocytogenes in pasteurized milk.

Efforts to ensure that milk is safe from L. monocytogenes contamination should focus on promoting proper methods of pasteurization and on identifying and eliminating sources of postpasteurization contamination.

This risk is heightened in food processing environments, where Listeria bacteria tend to thrive, particularly in floor drains and other cool, damp areas. According to health officials, they suspect the Whittier Farms pasteurized milk was contaminated after the pasteurization process.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) is recommending that consumers do not consume Whittier Farms milk products. Because the incubation period for Listeria can be as long as 70 days, anyone who has consumed the milk should watch for Listeria symptoms, including fever, muscle aches and sometimes gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea or diarrhea. In pregnant women, the symptoms may be mild, but an infection can cause miscarriage, stillbirth or early delivery.

USDA measures to close recent food safety loopholes

[2624]
In November 2007 the USDA launched a new Food Protection Plan, combining science and information technology to identify potential hazards before they have an impact. The Food Protection Plan comprises:
Prevention of foodborne contamination: This aims to increase corporate responsibility to prevent illness. It seeks to identify and assess vulnerabilities and expand understanding and use of mitigation measures.

Intervention at critical stages in the food supply chain: This includes inspections and risk-based sampling, risk-based surveillance, and better detection of signals that indicate contamination has occurred.

FDA more rapide respond to problems: This reduces the impact, and improve its communication on risks to the public, industry, and other stakeholders.

Growing resistance to antimicrobials
Relatively high proportions of Campylobacter and Salmonella isolates from animals and food were resistant to antimicrobials commonly used in treatment of human diseases. This is especially the case of resistance to fluoroquinolones in Campylobacter isolates from poultry, where up to 94% of isolates were reported resistant to ciprofloxacin. Foodborne infections caused by these resistant bacteria pose a particular risk to humans due to possible treatment failure. [2616]

German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) warn about pink duck breast

[2625] High temperatures during preparation prevent Campylobacter infections
Examinations by the German official food control authorities of the federal states detected Campylobacter in around one-third of the poultry meat samples. Duck meat is also frequently involved.

Campylobacter infections in humans are frequently caused by poultry meat, including duck breast. Campylobacter bacteria are heat-sensitive and die when meat is cooked through. As duck breast in traditional recipes is often not cooked through ("pink duck breast"), its consumption can lead to unpleasant gastrointestinal disorders caused by Campylobacter bacteria. This risk, including Salmonella, Listeria, noroviruses and hepatitis viruses, can be completely ruled out when the internal temperature of the meat during preparation on the stove or in the oven is 74 degrees Celsius or higher for more than 10 minutes.
Basic hygiene rules for handling poultry: Kitchen hygiene and sufficient cooking
Thaw water and packaging should be disposed of appropriately.
All kitchen utensils and surfaces, which have been in contact with the meat, should be thoroughly cleaned.
Hands should be washed thoroughly after each stage of preparation.
During preparation internal temperature of 74 degrees Celsius or higher must be attained. The use of a meat thermometer is highly recommendated.

Antimocrobial-resistant bacteria draft opinion of the European Food Safety Authority

[2617]
According to a draft opinion of the European Food Safety Authority's BIOHAZ Panel the use of antimicrobial agents produced resistant bacteria such as Meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus which can be found in foods such as poultry meat, eggs, pork or beef and foods of plant origin like salads.

The panel cites some transmission ways to human:

• Direct transfer of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria from food originated from animals carrying resistant bacteria.
• Transfer of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria on fresh produce from land recently irrigated with water contaminated by farm slurry or municipal sewage.
• Transfer of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria caused by contamination of food during the handling and preparation process.

The Panel also said that bacteria deliberately introduced into the food and feed chain for manufacturing and preservation processes, such as fermentation cultures, and also probiotics, have on occasion exhibited antimicrobial resistance and should also be considered as a possible route for the transfer of antimicrobial resistance through food.

Escherichia coli
Escherichia coli is indicator of fecal pollution of drinking water supplies, swimming beaches, foods, etc. A few strains of Escherichia coli are pathogenic such as the strain 0157:H7 in raw hamburgers (Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) O157 ).

Reduction of E. coli O157:H7 in cattle with feed strategy
Changing grain to forage[2626]
Callaway and colleagues found that feeding cattle with large grain rations, some starch escapes ruminal microbial degradation and passes to the hindgut where it is fermented to sugars. EHEC can use these sugars for their grow. The authors say that this may be the reason of E. coli O157:H7 shedding in barley fed cattle.

Changing high grain (corn) diet to a forage diet, generic E. coli populations declined 1000-fold within 5 d, and the ability of the faecal generic E. coli population to survive an acid shock similar to the human gastric stomach decreased, but this has not been observed in other studies. The authors conclude that switching cattle from grain to forage could potentially reduce EHEC populations in cattle prior to slaughter, but the economic impact should be taken into consideration.

Lactobacillus acidophilus in feed to counter E.coli O157:H7 [2627]
According to Reillyl the prevention of outbreaks of E. coli O157:H7 should begin with a proper cattle management system together with a supplementation of cattle feed with probiotics such as Lactobacillus acidophilus as a possible antagonist to several pathogens in the intestine.

Escherichia coli and enterococci in water
Recent epidemiological studies indicate that E.coli and enterococci show a direct correlation with swimming-associated gastrointestinal illness rates, while fecal coliforms do not. As the concentration of E. coli and/or enterococci increase(s), the illness rates also increase.

These indicators are used as part of the bacterial water quality criteria and standards to enhance the protection of human health and the environment.

Enterococci

Enterococci, which include Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus faecium, are enteric bacteria used to indicate faecal contamination and the possible presence of pathogens, in water. Total and faecal coliform bacteria currently have been included in many water quality standards as indicators of bacterial contamination.

Salmonella
The enteric group also includes some other intestinal pathogens of human beings such as Shigella dysenteriae, cause of bacillary dysentery, and Salmonella typhimurium, cause of gastroenteritis.

Typhoid fever is an acute, life-threatening febrile illness caused by the bacterium Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi.

Old nomenclature:
Bergy's Manual: "The names given to salmonellae do not follow the usual rules of nomenclature

Because of their importance in pathology, the first salmonellae were given names which indicated the disease and/or the animal from which the organism was isolated, and names of this kind (such as S. typhy, S. paratyphy-A, S. choleraesuis, S. typhymurium, S. abortusovis) continue to be used in clinical bacteriology.

Scientifically, none of the present methods of nomenclature of salmonellae is satisfactory. Nomenclature changes will be needed in order to account to new DNA findings."

New nomenclature according to DNA findings: The new nomenclature comprises only two species:

Salmonella enterica meaning all human pathogens subdivided into serovars using the old genus names.
Example: Salmonella typhy = Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi, Abbreviation S. Typhi. Salmonella enteritidis = Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis, Abbreviation S.Enteritidis

Salmonella bongori: Associated with cold-blood animals. Most of human infections are due to contact with reptiles.
Basics of Salmonella prophylaxis: Never eat undercooked ground beef and poultry, raw eggs, not pasteurised dairy products. and raw shellfish.

Medical inspection of all people handling food is to be periodic repeated and documented.

This includes clinical inspection, bacteriological examination of faeces with regard to Salmonella bacteria, daily control of the personal to avoid purulent wounds, persons with diarrhoea and other problems to come in contact with food.

These persons should be transferred to areas were they cannot come in contact with unpacked food.

Salmonellosis:
Salmonellosis ranges clinically from the common Salmonellae diarrhoea abdominal cramps, and fever to enteric fevers such as typhoid fever caused by Salmonella Typhi. The most common form of salmonellosis is a self-limited, uncomplicated gastroenteritis.

Non-typhoid salmonellosis:

It is caused by any serotype of Salmonella other than Salmonella Typhi. It is a worldwide disease of humans and animals. Animals are the main reservoir, and the disease is usually food borne, although it can also be spread from person to person.

Typhoid fever: ( Synonym: Enteric fever) is caused by Salmonella Typhi.

Incubation can last up to two months. It is therefore difficult to remember the food which might have been the source of infection. Hosts are humans, which became carriers after an infection. Several negative microbiological tests should be made, to let a food worker go back to his working place after a salmonellosis.

Should this not be a demand of the local medical regulations, auditing should try to get it listed as additional HACCP item.

Typhoid fever spread mainly from person to person via the fecal-oral route and have no significant animal reservoirs. Asymptomatic human carriers may spread the disease. Paratyphoid fever is caused by Salmonella paratyphi and is milder than typhoid fever. Host are humans, which became carriers after an infection.

Typhoid Mary: Here name was Marry Mallone. She was an Irish immigrant. She was a healthy carrier of typhoid fever. From 1900 to 1907 she worked as a cook, infecting many people.

Being caught after a long search, she was put in reclusion on North Brother Island and released in 1910 telling her not to work as cook again. In 1915 she was found working as cook in an Hospital infecting people there too. She was sent back to confinement where she died in 1938.

Other carrier such as Tony Labellaand Alphonse Cotils both handling foods remained free, being an inconsequent attitude of the health authorities managing the epidemic in NY. Please remember this, otherwise you will have typhoid Mary on your suppliers-list.

The major reservoir of Salmonella is poultry and livestock, ground meat and eggs.

Measures to reduce salmonellosis in poultry: All animal feed should be salmonellae free. Feed was the main cause of large distribution of Salmonella in poultry.

Slaughtering practices with reduced cross-contamination of carcasses.

Avoid cross-contamination of processed and raw food.

Training in hygienic practices for all food-handling personnel.

Cooking and refrigerating food adequately.

Radiation of poultry to reduce contamination by pathogenic bacteria, such as Salmonella and Campylobacter. Irradiation of food is, however, not much in use.

Shigella
Infection with Shigella is often cause of bloody diarrhoea, and stomach cramps starting a day or two after exposure to the bacterium, usually resolving in 5 to 7 days. Some persons who are infected may have no symptoms at all and pass the Shigella bacteria to others.

They are a menace in food production when basic hygiene, hand washing and disinfection habits are not observed. Contaminated food is the result.

Different kinds of Shigella bacteria:
Shigella sonnei, also known as "Group D" Shigella
Shigella flexneri,Shigella flexneri or "group B" Shigella, accounts for almost all of the rest.
Shigella dysenteriae type 1 causes deadly epidemics in the developing world.
Shigella boydii.

Common causes of food contamination with Shigella
Infected food workers who forget to wash their hands with soap and do not use disinfectant after using bathroom and before preparing food or beverages.
Vegetables which were contaminated with sewage.
Flies living on infected feces can contaminate food.
Drinking or swimming in contaminated water with sewage or sick person swimming in it.

Improvements in hygiene for vegetables and fruit picking, water used to rinse vegetable, appropriate packing may prevent shigellosis caused by contaminated products.

Other bacteria related to food born diseases: Listeria monocytogenes:Outbreaks in cheese and meat.
Yersinia enterocolitica: Causes enterocolitis in children.
Cryptosporidium parvum: Infects many herd animals (cows, goats, sheep among domesticated animals, and deer and elk among wild animals) and humans.
Cyclospora cayetanensis: Watery diarrhoea.
Campylobacter jejuni: It produces diarrhoea bloody stool, fever, lasting seven to ten days. It produces a heat-labile toxin that may cause diarrhoea.

Many chicken flocks are silently infected with Campylobacter jejuni, which can be easily spread through a common water source or contact with infected feces.

On occasion of slaughter it can be transferred from the intestines to the meat and giblets, especially the liver.

Not pasteurised milk can become contaminated if the cow has an infection in her udder or the milk is contaminated with manure. Surface water and mountain streams can become contaminated from infected feces from cows or wild birds.

It is often isolated from healthy cattle, chickens, birds and even flies. There are pathogenic and nonpathogenic strains.

Cooking chicken, pasteurising milk, and chlorinating drinking water will avoid the bacteria to spread.

Not pasteurised milk is therefore a possible source of bacteria such as Campylobacter and tuberculosis. Pasteurisation time/temperature standards should be 145F for 30 minutes (63C for 30 minutes).

Bacteria Rapid Detection Using Optical Scattering Technology [2628] Arun K. Bhunia and colleagues developed an identification process using an imaging approach, analysing bacterial colonies grown on solid surfaces. Using a laser scatterometer, the system classifies scatter patterns formed by Listeria monocytogenes colonies. Different strains and pathogenic of Listeria can be recognised with a low error rate. It is based on Zernike moment invariants. The detection of other pathogenic bacteria may also be included in the system. The authors point out the feasibility of image-based biodetection systems.

Cholera

Vibrios (which have a curved rod morphology or comma shape) are very common bacteria in aquatic environments. Pseudomonads favour fresh water and vibrios prefer salt water. The genus Vibrio contains an important human pathogen.

Vibrio cholerae, the cause of Asiatic cholera. Cholera is an intestinal disease with a pathology related diarrhoeal diseases caused by the enteric bacteria. The source of the contamination is usually the feces of an infected person. Incubation is one to two days.

The cholera bacteria produces a toxin that inhibits the absorption of liquids by the body. It kills because it dehydrates the body.

The disease can spread rapidly in areas with inadequate treatment of sewage and drinking water, brackish rivers and coastal waters, raw or undercooked shellfish from the Gulf of Mexico.

In 1991 Cholera was present in coastal areas of Peru. The disease spread rapidly throughout Peru and into other countries in South, Central and North America.

The Minister of Fishery of Peru wanting to restore public confidence on marine food ate in a TV-show an undercooked fish. The day after he was hospitalised with cholera.

Cholera is a disease associated with poverty, inadequate sanitation and low medical care. The key to effective control is environmental sanitation. Whenever these conditions are present in a region from where food and raw materials are imported, auditing should keep this in mind.

Contaminated water and food are the main cause of cholera in Zimbabwe

[2629]
Cholera is a disease associated with poverty, inadequate sanitation and low medical care. The key to effective control is environmental sanitation.

The cholera bacteria (Vibrio cholerae) produces a toxin that inhibits the absorption of liquids by the body. It kills because it dehydrates the body.

Zimbabwe's cholera outbreak, one of the world's largest ever recorded, is far from being brought under control. An enhanced response is needed to urgently reverse an epidemic that has so far infected more than 60,000 people and killed more than 3,100 since August 2008. Former Cholera outbreaks took place in Gorna in 1994 affecting Rwandan refugees and killed 50,000 people within 3 weeks. The outbreak in 2006 killed 2.700 persons in Angola.

Transmission of Cholera through contaminated food and water

[2630]
Cholera is mainly transmitted through contaminated water and food and is closely linked to inadequate environmental management. Recent interruptions to the water supplies, together with overcrowding, are aggravating factors in this epidemic.
Communities are being encouraged to protect themselves against cholera by adhering to proper food safety practices as well as to good personal hygiene. Early rehydration at home by using oral rehydration salts is paramount to diminishing mortality.

Mass chemoprophylaxis with antibiotics is strongly discouraged, as it has no effect on the spread of cholera, can have adverse effects by increasing antimicrobial resistance and provides a false sense of security.

How to reduce cholera risk in epidemic regions

[2631] [2632]
- Drink water that you have boiled for at least one minute or treated with chlorine or iodine. Other safe beverages include tea and coffee made with boiled or treated water, as well as drinks that have been bottled and sealed (such as bottled water, carbonated drinks, and sports drinks).

-Do not put ice in drinks, unless the ice is made from boiled or treated water.
- Eat only foods that have been thoroughly cooked and are still hot, or fruit that you have peeled yourself.
- Do not eat undercooked or raw fish or shellfish, including ceviche.
- Make sure all vegetables are cooked. Do not eat salads or other raw vegetables.
- Do not eat foods and drink beverages from street vendors.

Staphylococcus aureus

Staphylococcus aureus causes suppurative infections in animals and man. It can form toxins which cause food poisoning. The contamination of food with Staphylococcus aureus occurs due to contact with infected wounds of animals or hands of food workers. That is why gloves are indispensable.

Contaminated fish caused intoxication with staphylotoxin which is resistant to heat. The fish had been left for hours without cooling, the bacteria produced the toxin which can be present in deep frozen fish and its products.

Other bacteria producing toxins: Powerful toxins are also known from Bacillus anthracis causing Anthrax, a disease of cattle, sheep and humans. Clostridium botulinum causes food poisoning, mainly in low acidic foods.

Clostridium perfringens also produces an enterotoxin and is an important cause of food poisoning and infections such as gas gangrene. (Ernest Hemingway describes a case of gas gangrene in his book " The snows of Kilimanjaro ").

Botulism: Many human deaths have also been attributed to the consumption of food or water containing the toxin.

Clostridium botulinum is widely dispersed in soils. Ingestion of the organism is not harmful. It becomes dangerous only when conditions are favourable for its growth and subsequent toxin formation. The organism in an environment containing decaying plant or animal organic material. Stagnant pools or damp areas with buried decaying matter are danger areas for toxin development Decaying carcasses are a frequent source of the toxin, as are many insects feeding in the same tissue.

The insects may contain enough toxin to cause the disease in any bird and chicken that ingests it. Since the toxin is water soluble, water sources may become contaminated and provide a reservoir for the disease.Keeping the environment clean is important to avoid botulic poisoning of birds and water contamination.

There are different types of the toxin; types A and C cause the disease in birds while type B frequently produces the disease in man.

Moulds

Some strains of moulds produce mycotoxins. Mycotoxins in eggs and meat is mainly influenced by the concentration of mycotoxins in fodder. Auditing should always look after fodder quality of breeding stations.
Bad hygienic condition during harvest, drying, transport of figs and weather conditions such as high humidity and high temperatures are the cause of rising mould spoilage. Consumer should look inside the figs and discard those which are dark.

Several brands of dried figs with origin from Turkey and Greece have high amount of aflatoxin B1,B2, G1 and G from Aspergillus flavus. The aflatoxins which are found on these samples are located in the interior of the fruits.

As spoiled figs are detected under UV light when they are packed, only the fruits with mould contamination from inside are not removed and are often eaten despite a high level up to 900 microgram/kg of aflatoxin B1. (Only 2 micrograms are allowed).

It is estimated that 25 per cent of all agricultural crops worldwide are contaminated by molds that produce mycotoxins. The toxins are mostly found in cereals, nuts, cocoa and coffee beans and other foods like dried fruits and meat, particularly when the water content/activity and the temperature are poorly controlled. The EC Scientific Committee for Food endorsed in 2004 a provisional maximum TDI (Tolerable Daily Intake) for:

Patulin 0.4 $\mu$g/kg bw/day
Ochratoxin A 5 ng/kg bw/day

Prevention and reduction of mycotoxin contamination in cereals

The complete elimination of mycotoxin such as Ochratoxin, Zearalenone, Fumonisis and tricothecenes is not achievable at this time, according to Codex CAC/RCP- 2003.

Good agricultural practices (GAP) represent the measures against contamination of cereals with mycotoxins during handling, storage, processing, and distribution of cereals for human food and animal feed.

Wheat and maize are hosts to Fusarium. A crop rotation using potato, other vegetables, clover and alfalfa can reduce the spores of the mold in the field. Old seed heads should be removed, destroyed or plowing under. Make soil tests to ensure adequate soil pH and optimal fertilisation. Seed varieties particularly resistant to molds and pests should be used.

Moisture boosts mould infections. Irrigation during flowering and during the ripening of the normal crops, specifically wheat, barley, and rye, should, therefore, be avoided.

If the crop is harvested with a water activity higher than 0.70, the grain must be dried immediately to less than 14% moisture content in small grain.

Moisture levels of the crop during storage should be less than 15%. Kernels containing symptomless infections cannot be removed by standard cleaning methods. Seed cleaning procedures, such as gravity tables, may remove some infected kernels.

A temperature rise of 2-3C may indicate microbial growth and/or insect infestation in stored grains.

Intermediate storage: Buffer storage resulting from low drying capacity should only be made when the moisture is less than 16%, the storage time is less than 10 days, and the temperature is less than 20 C.

Organic acids, like propionic acid may be used as preservatives. These acids are effective in killing various fungi and thus prevent the production of mycotoxins in grains intended only for animal feed. The salts of the acids are usually more effective for long-term storage. Care must be taken because these compounds can negatively affect the taste and odour of the grain.

Small, shriveled grain may contain more zearalenone than healthy normal grain. Winnowing grains at harvest or later will remove shriveled grain.

Mature grains should not remain in the field for extended periods of time, particularly in cold, wet weather. T-2 and HT-2 toxins are not usually found in grains at harvest, but can result from grains that are water-damaged in the field or grains that become wet at harvest or during storage.

Candida albicans as example of microorganism which can act as opportunists: Candida albicans can cause infections of mouth and digestive tract by persons with weak immunological system. Yeasts being found in food should be controlled on regard of the presence of Candida albicans.

Viral infections

The cause of infectious diarrhoea were usually told to be bacterial or parasitic. Only recently, beginning with the 70 decade of 2000 better diagnostic methods have proved that food-borne diseases caused by virus are very frequent.
The most important agents of these diseases are:
Mouth and foot disease virus: is present in all kind of tissues of cattle and swine (Hepatitis A-virus, Hepatitis E-virus phage).

The name of viruses:

Animal viruses: Viruses which attack animals were named based on the disease which they caused followed by the word virus, such as influenza virus,poliovirus, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
Viruses living on plants:They are named according to the plant they live on, followed by the main symptoms of the disease which they cause, such as tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) tomato bushy stunt virus (TBSV), raspberry ringspot virus. However, plant viruses may infect a variety of other plants, such as the cucumber mosaic virus (CMV)may cause up to 80 sets of symptomn in various host plants.
Bacterial viruses: Bacterial viruses are named by code letters or by a system of letters such as phage $\lambda$, Q$\beta$, T2, $\phi$X174. These names of bacterial viruses do not follow any rules, and were given by the laboratories which were studying the virus such as the virus MS2 so called because it was the second isolate of a virus infecting male specific strains of E. coli.

Influenza viruses:

They can be divided in three types: A, B and C.
Especially the type A undergoes genetic variation. That is the reason why often new strains of influenza arise. These strains are called serotypes because they can be distinguished by serological agglutination tests. Influenza-A-virus: is found in lung of swine. It is the most common type of influenza outbreaks in humans.

Avian influenza A and Newcastle disease:

Both affect avian species.Criteria for contengy plans in case of both diseases are found Annexe IV of Council Directive 92/40/EEC of 19.5.1992 and Directive 92/66/EEC introducing Community measures for the control of both diseases, involving poultry producers,operators of slaughterhouses and rendering plants,veterinarians, and diagnostic laboratories.
The Directive 92/40/EEC lays down Community measures to eradicate and prevent the spread of avian influenza on poultry farms should an outbreak occur and prohibits removal of the poultry and poultry products from specified areas such as protection or surveillance zones.
Avian influenza has a high mortality and a rapid spread. Infection occurs through direct contact between the animals or vectors such as man,birds, utensils,transport devices such as packaging materials such as egg trays. Avian influenza (Subtype H7N7)which has caused an epidemic spread in the Netherlands in February 2003 is not infectious to mankind.
There are 15 influenza virus A subtypes that can infect poultry. Vaccination is therefore not possible as there is no cross-immunity. Influenza vaccination is not effective against H5N1 virus. It is intended to avoid H5N1 to cross with human influenza types and become highly infective for humans.

The Incubation period is 8 days and quarantine 21 days.

WHO urges consumer to maintain precautions against avian flu

[2633] [2634]

New cases in China in January 2009:

Chinese health authorities are worried with a third case of bird flu. No abnormality was found in poultry farms or agriculture markets where the child where the last case had been in contact with.

Health officials say if there is no avian flu outbreak in poultry and yet there are human cases, a change in the virus might have happened, so that chicken do not get sick, but the H5N1 virus remains deadly to humans.
Another possibility of "silently infected chickens" carrying the virus or transmitting the disease without bird flu-like symptoms.

Precasution:

WHO urges consumer to maintain normal precaution against avian influenza, such as ensuring all poultry is well cooked and always washing hands after contact with raw meat.

New case in Egypt:

A new human case of avian influenza A(H5N1) virus infection was hospitalized on 10 January 2009 and is currently in a stable condition. The patient had contact with sick and dead poultry. Of the 52 cases confirmed to date in Egypt, 23 have been fatal. [2635]

Vaccination against avian influenza of H5 and H7 subtypes in domestic poultry and captive birds

[2636]
Control measures of the HPAI strain of H5N1 are based on eradication of infected flocks, but increasingly more countries supplement these measures by the use of vaccination which is becoming important to control and prevent the propagation of the disease.

The opinion of the European Scientific Panel on Animal Health and Welfare is intended to support the Commission in the further developments of a vaccination policy and was adopted on 11 May 2007.

According to this opinion, the current EU authorised AI vaccines for poultry such as chickens and ducks meet the relevant quality standards and are thus, safe and effective to be used. However, for other poultry and captive bird species the level of effectiveness of current AI vaccination is not sufficiently known and therefore additional data on the immunogenicity and effectiveness of current and future AI vaccines should be generated.

In general, the use of AI vaccines in poultry should be defined in advance dependant on the epidemiological situation, geographical area and overall risk perception as a preventive, emergency or in endemic situations.

Vaccination may also reduce transmission of AI virus amongst captive and wild birds, having also major benefits for animal welfare as vaccination will prevent them from contracting the disease, death and from being culled during eradication measures.

Silent spread of AI viruses can occur after vaccination, and therefore serological monitoring with DIVA based strategies will be required to detect AI virus transmission after vaccination (shedding of the virus without presenting symptoms of the disease).

Vaccination programmes using vaccines authorised by the competent authority may reduce the potential for human and other mammalian cases of HPAI, where the disease may become endemic. The use of EU authorised vaccines per se is recommended because is safe and has no negative effect on poultry products for consumers.

On the evaluation of laboratory testing methods for surveillance of vaccinated flocks (in particular DIVA strategy), it is concluded that to date only conventional inactivated and recombinant live-vectored vaccines are available for use and can be coupled with a suitable companion diagnostic test.

An intrinsic problem of the DIVA principle is that infections with all AI subtypes (including non H5 and H7) may interfere.

The "DIVA" (Differentiating Infected from Vaccinated Animals) a control strategy for avian influenza infections in poultry is based on the use of an inactivated oil emulsion vaccine containing the same haemagglutinin (H) subtype as the challenge virus, but a different neuraminidase (N). [2637]

The "ad hoc" serological test based on the detection of specific anti-N1 antibodies. "DIVA" control strategy may represent a tool for the control of avian influenza infections in poultry to differentiate between vaccinated and naturally infected birds. [2637]

Reassortment or point mutations of H9N2 influenza virus is predicted to become a new pandemic, says University of Maryland researcher

[2638] [2639]
The avian N9N2 is endemic and presents occasional transmission to humans and pigs Perez and colleagues 2009 in an article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America report how the current swine influenza strain formed. The authors write that avian, swine, and human-like viruses combined in a pig to make the new virus. It then mutated to be able to spread by human respiratory. The infection of avian influenza viruses from birds to humans may cause a serious disease, however, the spread from human to human is rare.

A pig can host both avian and human-like viruses where they can combine and form hybrid avian-human viruse. These viruses can infect humans. The immune system is not prepared to fight them because the surface proteins are new. This type of virus can easily mutate to spread quickly and potentially cause a human pandemic.

The authors reverse genetics mutated the H9N2 influenza virus, creating a hybrid human-avian virus. The new hybrid had internal human flu genes and surface avian flu genes from the H9N2 virus. The combination avian and human influenza virus under laboratory conditions was similar to the origin of the swine flu virus H1N1 of the actual outbreak. Ferrets were infected with the virus created by the researchers. The mutated virus was able to spread by respiratory droplets.

Only two mutations were necessary to make the hybrid H9N2 transmissible. A human pandemic of this virus is predictable. Perez suggests that the H1N1 swine flu virus mutated in a similar form as shown with the H9N2 in his research.

The two genetic mutations took place in the lab strain, one on the HA surface protein enabled respiratory transmission between mammals and the other mutation was the site where human antibodies would bind but is different from actual vaccine stocks. The H9N2 is therefore a new candidate for a pandemic.

The authors concluded that the reassortant virus expressing only the hemaglutinin HA and the neuraminidase (NA) of the ferret-adapted virus was able to account for the transmissibility. The currently circulating avian H9N2 viruses require little adaptation to turn pandemic. Aerosolized respiratory transmission may also be caused by others then by the current human H1, H2, and H3 influenza subtypes.

Newcastle disease or infectious bronchitis: It is caused by a Virus of the family Paramyxoviridae, genus Rubulavirus. The disease does not pose a risk to human health. Poultry and egg products are safe to consume. Human infection with Newcastle disease virus is extremely rare, and usually occurs only in people who have close direct contact with infected birds The virus causes only mild, short-term conjunctivitis or influenza-like symptoms. The use of Newcastle disease virus as a treatment for cancer has been suggested.

Avian influenza virus infections are widespread in wild birds, especially ducks, migrating waterfowl are a significant source of avian influenza viruses. That is why poultry should not be kept outdoors to avoid contact with wild birds in epidemic regions.
Disinfection with normal detergents and disinfectants is sufficient. Heating and drying inactivates the virus. Heating of contaminated houses for several days is effective. Organic material and manure must be disposed properly as it can protect the virus from disinfectants allowing them to survive for over 100 days.

To date, a large number of human infections with the H5N1 virus have been linked to the home slaughter and subsequent handling of diseased or dead birds prior to cooking. These practices represent the highest risk of human infection and are the most important to avoid.

People working or living in close contact with poultry, such as poultry farm workers, or family with household poultry breeding are at high risk if diseased animals are present. The virus is found in secretions of the respiratory tract, and most of all in manure.

Human infection occurs mainly by inspiration of dust particles containing viruses, and handling infected animals omitting handwashing.
Avian influenza A viruses infecting humans since 1997

Virus	Occurrence)	Cases
H5N1	Hong Kong, 1997	Infection occurred in both poultry and humans. It was
		the first detected direct avian influenza
		transmission from birds to humans.Six persons died.
		18 cases were reported. 1.5 million chickens were
		killed in order to control the epidemic
H9N2	China and Hong Kong, 1999	Two children were infected. They recovered.Several
		human H9N2 infections from mainland China
		were reported in 1998-99
H7N2	Virginia,USA, 2002	One person had positive serological reaction
		to H7N2 following an outbrake of H7N2 in the
		Shenandoah Valley area
H5N1	China and Hong Kong, 2003	Two case occurred among travellers from Hong Kong
		to China. One Person died. Another death due to
		respiratory illness from the travellers group was not
		serologicallyly cleared.
H7N7	Netherlands, 2003	Outbrakes of influenza A (H7N7) in poultry pigs
		and humans. 89 were infected by H7N7in association
		with the poultry outbrake. One death of a veterinarian
		who visited an infected far was reported. Three possible
		transmissions from poultry workers to family members
		occurreded. Since that time no other infection was reported
H9N2	Hong Kong, 2003	One child was infected by H9N2. It recovered.
H7N2	New York, 2003	One patient was medicated in relation to
		an infection with H1N1. In March 2004 further tests
		has showned that it had been H7N2
H5N1	Thailand and Vietnam, 2003	Highly pathogenic influenza A
		(H5N1) was reported. Human cases are still happening there.
H7N3	Canada, 2004	Human infections among poultry workers
		were due to an outbreak of H7N3 in poultry.The
		illness consists of eye infections.
H5N1	Asia,Thailand	Avian influenza in Turkey,Romania and Russia

The signs of avian influenza: Detectable antibody titre to AI. AI, respiratory, enteric, reproductive or nervous system disease, decreased food consumption and drops in egg production, coughing, sneezing, ruffled feathers, swollen heads, nervous signs like depression, and diarrhoea.
There are three pathotypes of Newcastle disease viruses (NDV's)known:lentogenic, mesogenic, and velogenic.
The Velogenic Newcastle disease is the most severe of Newcastle Diseases.

Clinical signs: Respiratory and/or nervous signs: gasping and coughing,drooping wings, dragging legs, twisting of the head and neck, circling, depression, inappetence, complete paralysis. Partial or complete cessation of egg production. Greenish watery diarrhoea. Swelling of the tissues around the eyes and in the neck.

Clinical signs of human infection: Symptom may appear up to two weeks after infection. They are similar to a serious cold: Fever head- and throat pain, cough, respiratory complaints, pneumonia, additional stomach and gut complaints, and abnormal liver test results, bloodcells and platelets count decreases. Some patients kidney failure.

WHO Recommendations Regarding Avian Influenza

WHO recommends that travellers to areas experiencing outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N1 in poultry should avoid contact with live animal markets and poultry farms. Large amounts of the virus are known to be excreted in the droppings from infected birds. Populations in affected countries are advised to avoid contact with dead migratory birds or wild birds showing signs of disease.
Direct contact with infected poultry, or surfaces and objects contaminated by their droppings, is considered the main route of human infection. Exposure risk is considered highest during slaughter, defeathering, butchering, and preparation of poultry for cooking. There is no evidence that properly cooked poultry or poultry products can be a source of infection.
Countries located along migratory routes need to be vigilant for signs of disease in wild and domestic birds. Recent events make it likely that some migratory birds are now implicated in the direct spread of the H5N1 virus in its highly pathogenic form.[2640]
To avoid any contact of poultry with wildlife birds all poultry farms must keep their poultry indoors.
In animals, avian influenza is most commonly transmitted through direct contact with wild birds, especially asymptomatic waterfowl, and contacts with infected poultry and poultry products. There are also common indirect routes, e.g. through contaminated clothing, footwear, vehicles and equipment, as well as contaminated feed, water, manure and litter. Insects, rodents, cats and dogs can also act as vectors and transmit the disease.[2641]
In several countries in Asia, rural families keep small free-range flocks and up to 80% of poultry are raised at small-household village level. This poses a challenge for controlling outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in poultry.
Poultry and humans often share the same environment in Asia. Poultry are present in almost all villages and are generally marketed as live animals. In these conditions, the disease can spread quickly between the many small flocks.
The practice of home slaughtering means that human exposure to the virus can easily occur in affected areas.
Outbreaks in Hong Kong and the Neatherlands in 2003 could be controlled by culling of infected flocks, quarantine, bans on the movement of animals, and compensation schemes for affected farmers because the affected areas were characterised by industrial production conditions.

Avian Influenza and food safety

According to WHO, there is a recent concern over the possibility that the avian influenza in addition to direct contact with live infected animals could spread through contact with contaminated poultry products. To date there is no epidemiological information to suggest that the disease can be transmitted through contaminated food or that products shipped from affected areas have been source of infection in humans.
Reports indicate that in addition to chicken, pigs and ducks have also been infected. Infected chicken flocks rapidly develop symptoms and should be destroyed before having any possibility to enter the food-chain. Ducks have been reported to be asymptomatic carriers and duck products such as frozen duck meat could be contaminated with the H5N1 virus.
The further processing would inactivate the virus. In general, good hygiene practices during handling of raw poultry meat and usual recommended cooking practices for poultry products would lower any potential risk to insignificant levels.
Eggs from infected poultry could also be contaminated with the virus and therefore care should be taken in handling shell eggs or raw egg products.
Freezing and refrigeration does not substantially reduce the concentration or virulence of viruses on contaminated meat. Proper cooking kills such viruses. In general, WHO recommends that food s should be cooked to reach an internal temperature of 70$^0$ C.[2641] Nutraceuticals as preventatives of H5N1 virus infection [2642][2643]
Professor Edzard Ernst, professor of complimentary medicine at the University of Exeter, said in February 2006 that olive leaf extract, garlic, oregano oil, bee pollen, cayenne pepper, garlic colloidal silver, aloe vera, Echinacea, kimchi (Korean sauerkraut), cranberry juice, honeysuckle and green tea present no scientific evidence to support claims such as to protect against avian flu.

Dr. Damien Downing, president of the British Society for Ecological Medicine, and medical director of the Alliance for Natural Health called the statement of Professor Ernst irresponsible and a danger to public health. He pointed out the importance of zinc and vitamin C when it comes to fight infections being then essential for the immune system. However, less than ten per cent of adults in the UK have sufficient levels of zinc in their diet.

The point of view of Dr. Dowing was countered by Dr. Ron Cutler from the School of Biosciences at the University of East London saying that the H5N1 virus is said to stimulate the immune system, fillilng the lungs with blood causing death. Any supplement boosting the body's immune system would be of no help at that time.

New outbreak of avian flue in Bavaria, Germany:

The H5N1 virus has been confirmed at a poultry farm at Wachenroth, Erlangen-Höchstadt in Erlangen, Bavaria, Germany. According to Ursula Huber from the German agricultural ministry, 160.000 animals were culled, and the farm was sealed off. About 400 geese had died on the 24.of August 2007. Farmers are ordered to keep poultry indoors.

The health officials advice the public not to eat food products containing raw eggs, as already 190 death were caused worldwide by the virus H5N1 since 2003. With this new outbreak in Germany heavy financial losses come over the poultry business.

Avian influenza in Brandenburg, near Berlin

[2644]
New cases of avian influenza by H5N1 virus were confirmed in various locations in Brandenburg,. in 27.12.2007, near Berlin. Health officials disposed a quarantine zone around the affected farms. All birds were culled. Cats and dogs should be kept indoor to avoid contact dead wild bird bearing H5N1 virus.

The European Union's Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health issued the following recommendations for areas where H5N1 has been confirmed in wild birds:

- Sick or dead cats and dogs should not be touched and the veterinary authorities should be informed, so that post-mortem examination and further testing can be performed.
- Contacts between domestic pets, particularly cats, and wild birds should be prevented, i.e. cats should be kept indoors and dogs should be kept on a leash or otherwise restrained, and kept under control by the owner.
- All pet owners are advised to stay alert to reports of H5N1 infections in either migratory waterfowl or domestic poultry in their local area and the possible need to quarantine dogs and cats accordingly.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is offering a guidebook for families and households to plan for infectious disease. HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt released Pandemic Influenza Planning: A Guide for Individuals and Families January 6. [2645]

A specific vaccine for humans that is effective against avian influenza has not yet been approved. Based upon limited data, the Centers for Disease Control ave suggested that the anti-viral medication Oseltamavir (brand name-Tamiflu) may be effective in preventing or treating avian influenza.

Please see the State Department's publication "Meeting the Challenge of Bird Flu" for more background on the U.S. commitment, the science and response to bird flu. [2646]

New outbreak2007 of H5N1 virus in UK
In UK a new outbreak of H5N1 virus avian flue was noted on the 27.01.07 and confirmed on the 03.02.07 in the English, province of Suffolk, Upper Holton in a farm for turkeys for meat production.

Three zones were declared around the Infected Premises to reduce the spread of disease. These are the Protection Zone (3km), the Surveillance Zone (10km) and a wider Restricted Zone, encompassing wider areas of Suffolk and Norfolk.

UK loses its status as "disease free" country (06-02-07) and Ireland, Russia, Hong Kong, South Africa, South Korea and Japan and India impose ban on UK poultry meat, live birds and hatching eggs. The chief veterinary officer in charge, Fred Landeg, confirmed that about 159,000 turkeys have been culled.

10.02.07: The H5N1 virus of the farm is identical to the virus of recent outbreaks in Hungary according to a statement on 10.02.2007 of the official veterinary officer in charge. The company has poultry farms and production sites all over UK Germany and Hungary and transports fresh meat from one side to another. The veterinary investigators believe that the virus was on this way imported from Hungary.

Influenza H5N1 virus confirmed in wild birds in Dorset

[2647]
According to UK Defra laboratory test has confirmed highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza in wild swans in Dorset. A 3km Control Area and a 10 km Monitoring Area has been established around the location.

UK, Poland, Hungary, Germany and the Czech Republic are European countries where bird flue outbreaks took place.

Still human death cases caused by H5N1 avian flue virus [2648]

Egypt: One teenage girl tested positive for the H5N1 avian flu died on April 10, 2007 at a hospital in Cairo despite Tamiflu medication. The total number of H5N1 deaths in Egypt are 14.

Nigeria: In the city of Lagos, Nigeria, 11 contact persons were tested for H5N1 virus, having symptoms of the disease in early April 2007. One women died on February after slaughtering a chicken without wearing gloves or a mask and probably spread the virus to their contacts.

Reported deaths due to H5N1 virus
(WHO 11.04.2007) [2649]

Azerbaijan	5
Cambodia	7
China	15
Egypt	14
Indonesia	63
Iraq	2
Laos	2
Nigeria	1
Thailand	17
Turkey	4
Viet Nam	42
Total	172

Preparedness plans for a global flu epidemic
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services gives advices and preparedness plans for a global epidemic.
Please look at http://www.avianflu.gov/plan/individual/index.html

Intensive animal food production systems

[2666]
According to Food and Agriculture Organization of th United Nations (FAO), global animal food production is undergoing a major transformation that could lead to a higher risk of disease transmission from animals to humans.

The risk of disease transmission from animals to humans will increase in the future due to human and livestock population growth, dynamic changes in livestock production, the emergence of worldwide agro-food networks and a significant increase in the mobility of people and goods.

Excessive concentration of animals in large scale industrial production units should be avoided and adequate investments should be made in heightened biosecurity and improved disease monitoring to safeguard public health.

Pigs and poultry:

Globally, pig and poultry production are the fastest growing and industrializing livestock sub-sectors. As a consequence, in the industrialized countries, the vast majority of chickens and turkeys are now produced in houses with 15 000 to 50 000 birds. This business is being introduced in Asia, South America and Africa.

Industrial pig and poultry production relies on a significant movement of live animals. In 2005, for example, nearly 25 million pigs, more than two million pigs per month, were traded internationally.

According to FAO the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus is currently of major global concern, however, the "silent" circulation of influenza A viruses (IAVs) in poultry and swine should also be closely monitored internationally. A number of IAVs are now fairly widespread in commercial poultry and to a lesser extent in pigs and could also lead to emergence of a human influenza pandemic.

FAO called upon meat producers to apply basic biosecurity measures. Production sites should not be built close to human settlements or wild bird populations; farms should be regularly cleaned and disinfected; the movements of staff and vehicles should be controlled and employees should be trained in biosecurity.

Swine Influenza A (H1N1) virus mutation is resistant to antiviral drugs

[2650]
The virus found in pigs infected humans. Now the subtype of the influenza virus which caused the death of 20 to 50 million people in 1918 can travel from person to person. [2651]

In 2005 a virus laboratory regained the plasmid of the 1918 epidemic using samples of human corpses which had been buried in Arctic permafrost.

About 1000 are hospitalized in Mexico city and 18 already died. California report 6 cases of the new H1N1 virus which is resistant to Tamiflu antiviral drug. In California 6 persons and two in Texas were tested positive for H1N1.

Recommendations:

CDC recommends: There are everyday actions people can take to stay healthy.
- Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.
- Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hands cleaners are also effective.
- Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread that way.
Try to avoid close contact with sick people.
- Influenza is thought to spread mainly person-to-person through coughing or sneezing of infected people.
- If you get sick, CDC recommends that you stay home from work or school and limit contact with others to keep from infecting them.
Other effective measures to avoid infection:
Avoid handshaking
Avoid kissing
Use surgical mask

Antiviral drugs resistance

[2652]

Oseltamivirn (Tamiflu):

Concern about H5N1 bird flu caused the development of the Tamiflu drug the new flu causing concern is a pig virus, of a family known as H1N1. The antiviral drug Tamiflu, also known as Oseltamivir blocks the H5N1 enzyme Neuraminidase, and was known to be efficient against influenza viruses A and B. The H1N1 mutated the expression of the enzyme and became resistant to these antiviral drugs. Health official advice, therefore, not to use Oseltamivir any more, or when, give it together with Amantadine (Relenza), which is an uncoating inhibitor.

Amantidine (Symmetrel):

In Europe infections with H1N1 are about 10% of flue cases, and H3N2-Viruses are more common. H3N2 viruses are resistant to Amantadine, but sensitive to Oseltamivir, which is also efficient against influenza B viruses.

Zanamivir [Relenza]:

According to Patrick Hollstein 2009 there is no resistance of H1N1 to the second neuraminidase inhibitor Zanamivir (Relenza ) reported. It is useful against influenza viruse A and B.

Rimatidine (Flumadine):

It is active only against influenza A viruses.

Doubts on the effect on Tamiflu to treat swine flu

[2653]
Prof. Bernd Mühlbauer, director of the Institute of Pharmacology at the Clinical Centre Bremen, Germany calls for human studies on the effectiveness of Tamiflu before million of Euro are being spent to built a stock sufficient for 20 percent of the population, as demanded by the German National Pandemic Plan.

Up to date only laboratory studies were conducted to verify the effect of the drug on swine influenza virus. Mühlbauer says that other influenza drugs reduce flu only by the average of one day. He fears that the drug is prescribed too often in an irresponsible manner.

The German pharmacology expert says that the drug should be stocked only for risk patients, medical personal, police and fireman. Only such groups should receive prophylactic drugs in case of a pandemic.

H1N1 influenza may present atypical Symptoms

[2654]
According to Fatima S. Dawood the H1N1 virus causes common influenza signs of fever, cough, and sore throat, additional diarrhea and vomiting may also occur in one fourth of cases. The CDC recommends, therefore, to look after an association of signs of seasonal influenza and atypical gastrointestinal signs. A wide clinical spectrum similar to that seen among persons infected with earlier strains of swine-origin influenza viruses are reported.

Two groups of H1 virus have evolved from the 1918 pandemic influenza virus

[2655] [2656]
The present H1 viruses is derived from Eurasian rather than North American swine flu lineages.

Other sporadic human influenza cases caused by triple-reassortant viruses occurred before the current outbreak and appeared to be transmitted from pigs to humans. CDC cautions that sporadic cases of triple-assortment influenza infections in humans who have had contact with pigs may be sentinels for a larger outbreak.

The 2 groups of viruses differ in their infective potential. They evolved from viruses from 1918 and have subsequently evolved. Dr. Robert Beshe says that infections are caused by remnants of the 1918 pandemic influenza virus.

In case of flu signs the CDC stresses to consider recent history of exposure to pigs, domesticated fowl, or wild birds, especially when human flu viruses are not in circulation in the community.

WHO Increases Pandemic Alert Level to Phase 6

[2657] [2658]
On 11 June 2009 The World Health Organisation's director-general Dr. Margaret Chan has officially declared the swine flu to have entered the pandemic phase 6.

Phase 6:

the pandemic phase, is characterized by community level outbreaks in at least one other country in a different WHO region. Designation of this phase will indicate that a global pandemic is under way.

Dr. Chan pointed to the fact that actually the swine flu pandemic coexists with the H5N1 avian flu in phase 3 pandemic alert status. This is considered to be an extremely unusual situation. She pointed out that pregnant women are at increased risk for complications, and the virus preferentially infects younger age groups, under age 25 years.

Although there have not been large numbers of severe cases in USA so far, severity may increase toward fall. H1N1 immunization campaign should therefore start in late September.

Swine Flu virus A/1H1N is a super flu that consists of 3 known swine flu strains, 3 known bird flu strains and a human flu virus. The combination of these strains makes the A/1H1N Swine Flu an unusual strain of the flu with unknown outcomes.

If you had contact with persons which may be suffering from this new hybrid strain of Swine Flu, in special travellers from USA and Mexico, seek immediate medical advice.

WHO recommends a measured fever over 100, along with either cough or sore throat an also has an underlying condition, whether you have asthma, diabetes, or are pregnant, or an infant under the age of 2, see your doctor right away to see if you should be treated for influenza with antiviral medication.

Travel restrictions immediately needed:

The WHO says that it continues to put no restrictions on travel. The reason of WHO hesitation to impose travel restrictions may result from pressure of USA who fears economic losses. However, the pandemic spreads worldwide by travellers coming from USA and Mexico. WHO must undergo criticism for the lapse of not imposing travel restrictions. There are worldwide about 300.000 cases of swine flu human infection known of which 13.000 in USA.

Origin of the swine flu virus described

[2659]
Andrew Rambaut and colleagues 2009 showed that the H1N1 virus is a mixture of other viruses that had been circulating in pigs and includes human and avian-like genetic sequences. The initial transmission to humans occurred several months before recognition of the outbreak.

The authors say that movement of live pigs between Eurasia and North America seems to have facilitated the mixing of diverse swine influenza viruses and the lack of systematic swine surveillance allowed for the undetected evolution for many years.

Analysing the molecular structure of the virus, the authors dated their appearance between 9.2 and 17.2 years ago and remained undetected for about a decade.

The pork industry protested against the use of the term "swine flu" and exerted pressure on the WHO to use the generic designation of "influenza A(H1N1)" fearing pork prices to be affected,

Influenza threat of the North American swine

[2660]
Gerardo Nava and colleagues 2009 reported that their genetic analysis also pointed to North American swine as a potential source of the new virus. The researchers call for a systemic surveillance system which integrates phylogenetic information of influenza viruses circulating in humans and livestock.

Meanwhile entire poultry flocks are slaughtered to control outbreaks of avian influenza, no action is take in face of outbreaks of swine flu. Pork farmers wait out outbreaks among their flocks because the infection rarely kills the animals. According to Nava and colleagues this may permit the virus to recombine in the pig and elaborate new sequences, new genes.

Nava and colleagues said that officials focused on avian flu and ignored the new threat coming from pigs and the people who work with them.

The authors point to the fact that the United States invested 3.8 billion dollars to prevent and contain the foreign threat of Asian avian flu, neglecting the influenza threat that the North American swine population presents. Protecting itself from foreign avian flu USA neglected to protect the world from the swine flu whose origin is now being tracked to be the North American swine.

Collecting specimen for H1N1 swine influenza testing

[2661]
Nasopharyngeal swab as respiratory specimes, sera for cases or contacts of cases with confirmed swine influenza.

Specimens should be collected within the first 24-72 hours of onset of symptoms and no later than 5 days after onset of symptoms. The specimens should be kept refrigerated at 4$^{0}C$ and sent on cold packs if they can be received by the laboratory within five days of the date collected. If samples cannot be received by the laboratory within five days, they should be frozen at -70$^{0}C$ or below and shipped on dry ice.

Laboratory testing:

Throat smear taken by health officials are sent to a lab performing the tests:
1 - The US Flu Rapid Antigen testing: This test is not specific. Its sensitivity is unknown. A negative result does not exclude a diagnosis of swine influenza A and should be submitted to PCR and subtyping.
2 - The CDC under the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) procedure authorized diagnostic tests called "diagnostica reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) swine influenza panel", the "rapid influenza antigen" and the "immunofluroscence". All three can detect the new swine influenza virus, but they only identify probable cases because they cannot distinguish between seasonal influenza A and swine influenza, which is a subtype of A.
3 - The RT-PCR can conclusively confirm a case of swine influenza.
4 - Culture of the virus in cell cultures and chicken eggs. This takes much time. Active infection with swine influenza can only be confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays, including subtyping and further characterization by other special PCR assays

Laboratory safety precautions:

Rapid antigen testing or PCR) can be performed under BSL-2 conditions. All sample manipulations should be done inside a biosafety cabinet. (BSC). Viral isolation on clinical specimens from patients who are suspected cases of swine influenza A (H1N1) virus infection should be performed in a BSL2 laboratory with BSL3 practices (enhanced BSL2 conditions).

Safety precautions during specimen collection:

Personnel collecting clinical specimens should wear a fit-tested N95 respirator, goggles, disposable gown, and disposable gloves. When completed, place all personal protective equipment in a biohazard bag for appropriate disposal. Wash hands thoroughly with soap and water or alcohol-based hand gel.

Egypt culls swines to prevent swine influenza pandemic

[2662]
The Health Minister of Egypt ordered the culling of Egypt's 400,000 pigs. Pigs are seen as unclean, Haram by muslims.

The culling should help to protect against swine flu. Egypt had been hit by the last H5N1 avian influenza and fears another flu pandemic. There are no infections of swine flu reported yet, a pandemic flu strain could, however, spread quickly through the heavy crowded region. A member of the Cabinet called the conditions of the swine farms in Egypt as unhealthy, being a hazard in themselves, even without the swine flu.

A compensation of £120 per pig were offered, but the farmers doubt that the money will ever be payed and they claim the loss of their livelihood. They say that the pigs are feeding from 6,000 tonnes of organic rubbish produced in he region every day and they do not know how the food scraps should be handled otherwise.

The UN food experts say pork meat is safe:

The UN food experts call the culling decision a mistake, stressing that the newly mutated H1N1 virus is not found in pigs. The animals can be the vessels for the "genetic reassortment" that produces new strains, but pork meat is safe to eat, because it must be cooked anyhow.

Canadian swine herd infected with H1N1 by farme worker returning from Mexico

[2663]
Pigs in Alberta were infected with H1N1 by a farm worker who fell ill after returning from Mexico. Pigs can be infected by flu virus from human and avian virus. The pig is able to mix its own flu virus with the human and the avian type. The result is a dangerous pandemic form of influenza.

Import restrictions on pork:

Russia and China imposed an import ban of pork from USA, Canada and Mexico.

German IT company "ExploSYS" developed an Influenza-Pandemic-Planning-Simulator InfluSim

[2667] [2668] []
The epidemiologist Prof Dr. Martin Eichner, from the German city Tübingen, together with the mathematician Markus Schwehm developed an "Influenza-Pandemic-Planning-Simulator InfluSim" which will support decision makers at airports, medical centres, health departments and governments to find the best measures to counter pandemics.

The simulator received input from the German Robert Koch Virus institute and will be distributed by ExploSYS. The developers say that simulation shows that even closing the borders to a country with disease cases, the pandemic will get through, because no border can be absolutely leak proof. For such events the pandemic simulator shows where the first cases are expected to turn up.

Influenza A H1N1 avian flu virus continues to spread

[2670] [2671]
The WHO on its report of May 4, 2009 sees the virus moving south, but no community-level transmission is being reported right now.

WHO pandemic alert level is being maintained at phase 5. An increase to phase 6 will take place when community-level transmission is occurring in more than 1 WHO region. Currently, such outbreaks are taking place only in North America.

The spectrum of illness varies from very mild to fatal cases occurring in young, healthy people infected by the influenza viruis H1N1. Severe pneumonia, 40% to 50% of patients developing diarrhoea are some signs of the disease.

WHO says that the incubation of a regular influenza is about 5 days. With H1N1 there is uncertainty about whether it is 6, 7, or 8 days. Dr. Besser from the CDC expects all states to have confirmed cases, ongoing hospitalizations and additional deaths.

The blue ear disease

[2664]
Chinese officials say million pigs are dying in China killed by the epidemic on Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS), or blue ear disease, which is caused by a virus in the arterivirus family. This disease is known as post-weaning multisystemic wasting syndrome PMWS in Europe, and as the porcine circovirus associated disease PCVAD in USA.

It is a very common pig disease known for many years in Europe and USA in the mid 80s, from were it spread to other countries, such as to the Cape. China is being seriously hit by the disease, because pork is a staple food and meat is lacking on the markets and the government wants to release frozen stocks. [2665]

The mortality is known to be up to 50% caused by the porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV-2), but has declined now to 1-2% in the nursery due to hygiene strategy and the porcine circovirus type 2 vaccine, but it is still up to 9% in finisher.

Human infectivity of blue ear disease

[2672] According to Albert Osterhaus, a virology expert at the Erasmus University Medical Centre in Rotterdam, an international centre for blue ear disease, there are no indications that spread to humans can happen. Many viral infections that do occur in certain animal species are restricted to that particular species. A mutation to a variety which could be infectious to human, so as feared about the H2N5 virus of avian influenza, however, is highly unlikely.

Symptomatic:

The virus causes still-births, fever, loss of appetite, diarrhoea, redness of the skin and mortality rates of up to 50 percent on some farms.

The ears of affected pigs turn blue. The virus invades and multiplies in the white blood cells which die later on in the lung tissue of the pigs. Up to 40% of the macrophages are destroyed reducing the defence mechanism and allows bacteria and other viruses to proliferate. The virus mutates quickly turning the production of vaccines difficult, but vaccination in Guangdong will start soon.

Rules for pig slaughterhouses in China:

According to China's Ministry of Commerce the draft rules for pig slaughterhouses demands for a slaughterhouse to be licensed and approved by local governments and environmental bureaux, and must be located away from drinking water supplies, residential districts and public areas, the said on its Web site.

Transmission:

Direct pig to pig transfer is not common; the transmitting agent is Hematopinus suis, the swine louse. The diagnosis is the Virus isolation The control of the disease is the elimination of lice and hygiene measures.

Chinese officials believe that carcasses thrown into rivers may have been responsible for the spread of the disease to the surrounding areas. Infected pigs were raised by individual rural farmers applying poor hygiene measures rather than industrialized pig farms.

Endemic areas include Africa (South of the Sahara), Spain, and Portugal. The outbreaks in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Cuba have beenn reported. In China the desease appeared in the mid-90s, and actually in the Cape Flats.

The blue ear disease virus not to be compared with the avian flue H5N1 and H7N1 virus.

[2673]
Despite the economical impact, the blue ear virus does not menace mankind so as the H5N1 virus of the avian influenza does. China reports a new case of human infection with the H5N1 virus which was confirmed on the 30.05.2007. There had been no contact with sick birds prior to becoming unwell. Close contacts have been placed under medical observation and all remain well. Of the 25 cases confirmed to date in China, 15 have been fatal. In UK two human infections with the less deadly variant of H7N1 were reported.

Evolution of drug resistance in H5N1 avian flue

[2674]
Governments and organizations stockpile antiviral drugs such as oseltamivir (Tamiflu) to be prepared to control a possible influenza A H5N1 pandemic. Hill and colleagues 2008, however, warn that lineages of H5N1 are becoming resistant to adamantane derivatives, and a few lineages are resistant to oseltamivir.

The authors stress that the rise of resistance to adamantanes, including the nonprescription drugs amantadine and rimantadane, is linked to Chinese farmers adding the drugs to chicken feed as a flu preventative. If Tamiflu is ever used in the manner of adamantanes, similar drug resistance may evolve.

According to the study, H5N1 drug resistance to adamantanes arose through novel genetic mutations rather than an exchange of RNA segments within cells, a process known as re-assortment.

The authors developed phylogenetic methods, which, added to molecular evolutionary analyses, and geographic visualization using Google Earth, provided a framework for analysis of globally distributed genomic data that can be used to monitor the evolution of drug resistance.

China increases blue-ear vaccine production in 2008

According to Jia Youling, China's chief veterinary officer blue-ear pig disease also known as Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome. has been brought under "preliminary control" through vaccinations and mass culls of infected pigs. In 2007 the disease had infected 257,000 pigs in 26 Chinese provinces, of which 68,000 died and 175,000 were destroyed. The highly pathogenic disease can be fatal for pigs, but the vaccinated pigs will no longer be infected by the disease. [2675]

The Harbin Veterinary Research Institute has recently donated blue-ear disease vaccines for 800,000 pigs to five snow-hit provinces. The Institute increased its production of the vaccine in a bid to prevent the potential outbreak after the recent blizzard since spring is the season of a high occurrence in the blue-ear disease.

Blue-ear disease was first discovered in the United States in 1987 and spread to China in mid 1990s. China first spotted a more virulent form of the pig disease in the summer of 2006 and identified it as a mutated highly pathogenic strain in January of 2007. [2676]

Norovirus

Norovirus should replace the designation "flu-like", "Norwalk-like","Norwalk- and Norwalklike viruses (Caliciviruses)", "bug".

Norwalk- and Norwalklike gastroenteritis virus are leading causes of foodborn diseases:Norwalk virus is part of a family which is not well defined It causes stomach and intestinal illness. It was first identified in 1972 in the city of Norwalk ( Ohio. The group if these viruses are recently called Noroviruses. The are from the genus Norovirus, family Caliciviridae. They are single stranded RNA, nonenveloped. They spread by person-to-person contact from the stool of infected persons and its symptoms are vomiting and diarrhoea.Special care is needed to avoid spreading of the disease such as:
Avoid food or water which has been contaminated by stool from infected persons, raw shellfish, oysters, clams, ice, eggs, salads and other food contaminated by sick food handlers or water which has been contaminated by sewage of cities or disposals of boats.
Incubation is 1 to 2 days. Illness is not severe, but rehydration may be necessary. Recovery in 2 to 3 days. People with the virus are contagious skin to skin for 3 days after symptoms have disappeared. The stool remains infectious for 2 to 3 weeks after symptoms are gone. Strict handwasching and use of disinfectants are very important to avoid spreading of the virus.
People can be reinfected and have the disease several times in life because there are many strains and a strong mutagenic activity.
Food should be served in restaurants authorised persons only instead of self-serving service.
Hotels should carefully clean bed clothes and pillow cases. Refrigerators and icemachines should be thawed and cleaned periodically. As disinfectant chlorine water solution should be used.

Viral gastroenteritis outbreaks caused by caliciviruses have been associated with eating contaminated shellfish, particularly oysters (Crassostrea virginica), implicating sewage from oyster harvesting vessels as the probable cause of contaminated oysters.

Special measures: Special care is needed to avoid spreading of the disease.

• Avoid food or water which has been contaminated by stool from infected persons, raw shellfish, oysters, clams, ice, eggs, salads and other food contaminated by sick food handlers or water which has been contaminated by sewage of cities or disposals of boats.
• Strict hand washing and use of disinfectants are very important to avoid spreading of the virus.
• Only authorised persons should be allowed to serve food instead of self-serving service in restaurants.
• Hotels should carefully clean bed clothes and pillow cases.
• Refrigerators and ice machines should be thawed and cleaned periodically.
• Chlorine water solution should be used as disinfectant
• Paper towels should be used instead of textile towels.
• Sterilise hands with sterilisation solution after drying hands.
• Cutting boards and knives must be washed with hot water and soap when changing food.
• Fruits and vegetables must be washed carefully before processing.
• Meat, poultry and fish must be cooked. After maximum of 2 hours after cooking all food must be refrigerated.

Norovirus in oysters: If shellfish such as fresh oysters infected with norovirus are eaten, acute gasterointestitis may occur. Vomiting, stomach ache, diarrhoea and fever may result.

Available measures to fight Norovirus in oysters is to provide sterile water and use chlorine-based germicides. However, sterile cultivation is costly and the Norovirus is resistant to chlorine-based germicide and sterilising alcohol. The use of high chlorine concentrations will make shellfish unpalatable.

Researches made by IEMT/AIST with micro-bubbles which are ultra-fine gas water bubbles (less than 50 micrometers in size) containing low concentration ozone to inactivate norovirus in live oyster under cultivation as well as unshelled oysters. These micro-bubbels are concentrated oxygen and 2 per cent ozone.
As the bubbles are suspended in water, the bubble size shrinks spontaneously to the level of nanometer inactivating the virus.
The oxygen/ozone micro-bubbles also suppress legionella bacteriain a circulating bath system as well as carp herpes virus.

Rapid Concentration and Detection of Enteric Viruses

[2677]
Butot, Putallaz and Sánchez 2006 developed a method to detect enteric viruses such as hepatitis A virus, norovirus and rotavirus from berries, vegetables and frozen products.

The viruses were extracted from the food surface by a direct elution method in a glycine-Tris (pH 9.5) buffer containing 1% beef extract and concentrated by ultrafiltration. PCR inhibitors were eliminated with pectinase treatment. The concentration method was combined with real-time reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) using specific primers. The authors write that the procedure is suitable to detect and quantify enteric viruses within 6 h and can be applied for surveillance of enteric viruses in fresh and frozen products.

Bottled water: Attachment of Enteric Viruses to Bottles

[2678]
Butot and colleagues 2007 developed an internationally accepted virus detection methods for bottled water, facing some doubts concerning its safety due to the reported finding of norovirus sequences in 33% of commercially available water samples sold in Switzerland. [2679] However, this could not be confirmed by other studies. A standard method therefore was welcome:

Storage of water that was deliberately contaminated with enteric viruses in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles led to a rapid decrease of the apparent viral load, due to adhesion adsorbed norovirus, and rotavirus on bottle walls. This was also observed with glas bottles.

The virus retention on PET bottle walls after 62 days reached an average level of up to 95% of the recovered inoculum of norovirus, hepatitis Elution of the virus from bottle walls using the described method on 294 commercially available water bottles obtained from 25 different countries did not give any positive result.

The authors concluded that the sources used for bottled water are free from enteric viruses and support the theory that bottled water is not a vehicle for viral diseases.

Reo virus: infects intestines, lung, kidneys, liver and spleen of cattle and swine.

Rotavirus: in the intestines of cattle and swine.
Rotaviruses belong to the group of the reovirus. The particles of rotavirus contain 11 segments of double-stranded RNA. They are 70 nm in diameter and resemble wheels with a central axis and radiating spokes.
Rotaviruses are the major agent of non-bacterial diarrhoeal diseases with great risk to infants and young children. Transmission occurs commonly through water.

Astro virus
Adenovirus: is found in intestines, lung, kidneys of cattle and swine

Canine parvovirus: The members of the group of the parvoviruses are roughly spherical with a diameter of about 24 nm. Canine parvovirus causes enteritis and miocarditis in dogs.

Coxsackie virus: It is found in the intestines and lung of swine.

ECHO viruses
Corona virus: infects the intestines of cattle.
Newcastle virus
Norwalk virus from infected mussels
Herpes virus: It infects lung liver spleen, milk and muscles of cattle and lung and muscles of swine

Other entero viruses
Infection occurs through fecal contamination of food, water and air. Personal hygiene, communal hygiene such as sewage treatment and isolation of diseased persons from food processing are the most important measures to avoid food born diseases.

The contamination can be of primary or secondary nature.
The primary contamination of food occurs when the animal which is going to be killed has already a virus disease. Meat and organs may then carry the virus. Fish and oysters near the estuary of sewage carrying rivers may bear hepatitis viruses.

The secondary contamination of food occurs during processing, transportation and storage through dirt and smear infections. Virus carrier of hepatitis - A virus may contaminate food handling food in restaurants.

Water which bears viruses is the most common cause of contamination when used in the production of food or used in cleaning of tools and equipment. Enteroviruses are the most important group of water-borne viruses.

Food poisoning from mussels, oysters and clams

Bivalves are important vehicles for the transmission of enteric diseases when eaten raw or undercooked.

Vibrio species, are abundant in bivalve tissue. According to Carla Pruzzofrom the University of Genova, immunity in bivalves is carried out by circulating haemocytes and soluble haemolymph factors that act in a co-ordinated way to kill microorganisms. Studying the physiology of the Mediterranean Mytilus galloprovincialis, the scientists identified a rage of factors that are important in determining the fate of vibrio cholerae within the bivalve host. These are bacterial surface ligands, soluble hemolymph components and the ability of bacteria to influence distinct signalling pathways responsible for the haemocyte immune response. [2750]

Hepatitis A - virus

The HAV is a heat resistant RNS from the family of the Picornaviridae.

Hepatitis E - virus

The HEV is supposed to be a member of the Calici - group. It is a RNS - virus, its incubation is about 40 days. It causes a high mortality between pregnant by first infection. It is very frequent in India and Mexico.

Definition of virus

Viruses are obligate intracellular parasites, they can only multiply inside living cell. Definition according to S.E. Luria and James Darnell (1967):

''Viruses are entities whose genomes are elements of nucleic acid that replicate inside living host cells using the cellular synthetic machinery and causing the synthesis of specialised elements (virus particles) that transfer the virus genome to other cells.''
This definition should be added by 5 characteristics enumerated by A. Lwoff (1957):
Viruses are extremely small microorganism ( 15 - 300 nm which can pass normal bacterial filters).

1. They contain only DNA or RNS
   
2. There is no division. Reproduction occurs by only means of nucleic acid.
   
3. There is no growth in the extracellular latent phase.
   
4. There are no metabolic enzymes
   
5. Replication by means of the ribosomes of the host cells
   

Groups of viruses

Viruses are generally divided into animal viruses, plant viruses and bacterial viruses.
The division of viruses in to groups is important as they do not cross the boundaries as they are specialised to the biology of their hosts. Only a few viruses , however can do that. This is the case of the rhabdovirus group

Animal viruses: are viruses which infect vertebrates, including human viruses of medical importance and those of veterinary importance.
The name of animal viruses are based on the disease caused on the principal host followed by the name virus.

invertebrate viruses: especially insect viruses.

Plant viruses: such as mosaic virus of tobacco and viruses of flowering plants.
The name of plant viruses are given according to the major host of plant and the main symptoms of disease caused such as tobacco mosaic virus (TMV), tomato bushy stunt virus (TBSV)raspberry ringspot virus (RRV). (On regard of the problems of classification please refer also to "Phytopathology"

Bacterial viruses: are also known as pages, bacteriophages. Well known are the phages which infect Escherichia coli.
Bacterial viruses are named by code letters or by a system of letters and numbers
Bacterial infections may be a lytic infection such as caused by phage T2 or T4 infecting Escherichia coli causing it to burst which is called lyse. The phages infection of bacteria may be lysogenic, infected cells of bacteria show no signs of infection but retain the ability to produce infective virus particles.

Nipah virus and Hendra virus[2068]
textbfciteHendra
Both viruses are member of the family of Paramyxoviridae both are included in the genus of Henipavirus. They are known to be able to infect a wide rage of hosts ( pigs, horses,cats, dogs and guinea pigs). The natural host of the Nipah virus are certain species of fruit bats (Megachiroptera such as Pteropus vampyrus) which are infected without being ill themselves.
Though Nipah and its closely related zoonotic Hendra virus ( formerly called Equine morbilli virus EMV) are not known to be transmitted by food there are cases known of transmissions from pigs and horses to mankind.So breeders and abattoir workers should take special care to avoid infection leading with sick pigs with Nipah virus infections.Sick horses with severe respiratory disease were reported to be the source of infection with Hendra virus in Australia. Once infected the death rate in humans is higher than 50%. There is no medication against the viruses. Only ribavirin can reduce the severity of the disease.
It is recommended that close contact with body fluids and infected tissues should be avoided if Nipah infection is suspected. Respiratory secretions of diseased humans and animal contain the viruses.
In an Malaysian outbreak in Nipah infected pigs were the cause of human disease. The virus carries therefore this name.
Incubation time is between 4 and 18 days in some cases up to twelve months and is in most cases sub-clinical with influenza-like symptoms, high fever and muscle pains.Inflammation of the brain,drowsiness, disorientation, convulsions and coma.

Menangle virus
Menangle virus, a member of the Paramyxovirus family causes a disease in pigs with stillborns and deformed piglets and influenza-like illness in humans. Its host are fruit bats.

Tioman virus
Tioman virus is a member of the Paramyxovirus family and of the genus Rubulavirus. It is related to Menangle virus.

Newcastle Disease in pigeons in Germany

[14]
Friedrich-Loeffler Institute in Germany confirmed the outbreak of paramyxovirus-1 Newcastle Disease in pigeons at the border of Bavaria with Austria. on 22.4.2008. The veterinarian Dr. Barbara Hohhmann reported 33 cases at a farm in Rottal-Inn Bayerbach. The applied control measures were quarantine, movement control inside the country, zoning and disinfection of infected premises.

Chickens, turkeys, pigeons and ducks may be affected. In ducks the disease is rarely diagnosed but causes production drops and fertility problems. Mammals may be occasionally affected, such as conjunctivitis in man. [2070]

Other viruses: they infect protozoa, algae,filamentous fungi and yeasts. They are not so well known.

Structure of virus particles: The structure of virus particles can be determined with electron microscopy and X-ray crystallography. In 1939 a tobacco mosaic virus TMV was seen for the first time using an electron microscope.
Virus particles are transparent in the electron beam, special staining is therefore necessary:

Shadow casting: Metals such as gold are vaporized and sprayed over the virus particle, forming a thin film over the object. The resulting shadows are used to analyse the three-dimensional structure of the particle.

Negative staining: Heavy metal salts are used as negative stains such as potassium phosphotungstate or uranyl acetate. These compound fill the gaps between particles giving rise to the image of the details of the particle against a dark background.

R-ray crystallography:

X-ray Crystallography can be used whenever the virus particles can be isolated in crystalline form. This method was used with viruses such as: Polio virus and tobacco mosaic virus.
The external morphology is made by a protein shell called capsid. Capsids are composed of subunits called capsomeres
The capsomeres may contain several proteins such as the capsomeres of the particles of poliovirus.These proteins are called virion proteins VP Polioviruses have virion proteins VP1, VP2, VP3, VP4.
According to the morphology the viruses may be classified:

Icosahedral symmetry:

They are small and infect animals such as poliovirus, plants such as turnip yellow mosaic virus (TYMV) and bacteria. Their morphology resembles an icosahedron.

• An icosahedron is a regular three-dimensional body with 20 triangular faces, 12 pointed corners called vertices and 30 edges with a special symmetry called 5:3:2 rotational symmetry:
  Fivefold axis symmetry: Has the same symmetry when the particle is rotated on-fifth of a complete rotation.
  Threefold axis symmetry: The symmetry repeats every third of a complete rotation.
  Twofold axis symmetry: The symmetry repeats every half rotation.
  

Helical symmetry:

Viruses which are rod shaped and have helical arrangement of their subunits are called helical symmetry viruses.
Rod shaped viruses can be rigid as seen by the tobacco mosaic virus or flexible as found with the potato virus X and mumps virus.

Enveloped virus:

Enveloped viruses have a lipid-rich outer coat forming a regular phospholipid bilayer similar to the cell membranes of eucariotic cells. The shape can vary, being called pleomorphic particles.
Some glycoprotein structures emerge from the lipid coat. These structures are called peplomers or spikes, such as seen in influenza virus
Some viruses have haemaglutining spikes HA which stick to the surface of red blood cells causing clumping of blood.
The envelope is essential for the infection process. Treatment with detergents or organic solvents such as chloroform or ether damages the lipoprotein layer and inactivates the virus.

Complex virus particles:

There are two types of complex virus particles known:
Poxvirus and Phages

Poxviruses:

They have a central nucleoid core of DNA covered by a lipoprotein membrane with spikes.
Poxvirus particles can be brick shaped such as smallpox or ovoid as in orf which is a poxvirus of lamb and kid goats

Phages

Are virus particles with a head of icosahedral symmetry and a tail of helical symmetry. Examples of phages are the T2, T4 and T6.

Genetic variations of viruses

Genetic variation of viruses modify their reaction to specific antibodies giving place to new strains of viruses. One distinguishes antigenic drifts and antigenic shifts.

Antigenic drifts

The mutation of the genes may be very small. They are point mutations, changing simple aminoacids of the HA and the N proteins. These small antigenic drifts explain the appearance of mild epidemics such as influenza being only of local importance.

Antigenic shifts of viruses

The changes of the genetic code is very great and new strains of viruses appear. They are responsible for world-wise influenza epidemics.

Virus infection due to contaminated water

Contaminated surface water can be the cause of virus epidemic diseases when chemical disinfectants without slow filtration through sand or flocculation is used.
Concentration of chemical disinfectants may be sufficient to destroy Escherichia coli but not enough to inactivate viruses. Despite a negative coli test contamination with viruses are still possible. Some viruses found in water are:

• Enteroviruses causing diseases of the intestines, meninges, repiratory system and heart muscle and cause poliomyelitis and infectious hepatitis
  
• Adenoviruses, causing diseases or the respiratory system and conjunctiva.
  
• Rotaviruses, causing diarrhoea, being serious diseases of infants.

The amount of virus particles in contaminated water can be very low , the water still remaining infectious for humans. New laboratory method are being applied to control virus contamination of water. These methods are DNA and RNA sondes and control of specific nucleic acid sequences with hybrid techniques as well as the polymerase chain reaction

Food may be contaminated by food preparers or handlers who have viral gastroenteritis, especially if they do not wash their hands regularly after using the bathroom. Shellfish may be contaminated by sewage, and persons who eat raw or undercooked shellfish harvested from contaminated waters may get diarrhoea. Drinking water can also be contaminated by sewage and be a source of these viruses.

Viral gastroenteritis outbreaks can occur in schools, child care facilities, nursing homes, banquet halls, cruise ships, dormitories, and campgrounds

Rotavirus infection can be diagnosed by laboratory testing of a stool specimen. Tests to detect other viruses that cause gastroenteritis were not in routine. Genetic fingerprinting technology using PCR methods, can now identify many common foodborne illnesses and find their origin with great accuracy. Infection of the most of the viruses occurs through faecal contamination of water food and air.

Measures to avoid food born viral diseases: Personal hygiene, communal hygiene such as sewage treatment, isolation of diseased persons from food processing.

The contamination can be of primary or secondary nature. The primary contamination of food occurs when the animal which is going to be killed has already a virus disease. Meat and organs may then carry the virus. Fish and oysters near the estuary of sewage carrying rivers may bear hepatitis viruses.

The secondary contamination of food occurs during processing, transportation and storage through dirt and smear infections. Virus carriers of hepatitis-A virus may contaminate food in restaurants. Water which bears viruses is the most common cause of contamination when used in the production of food or used in cleaning of tools and equipment or rinsing vegetables. Enteroviruses are the most important group of water-borne viruses.

The human pathogens in these groups have been poorly studied since for the most part, they do not grow in culture. They have been grouped on the basis of their appearance. Recently, nucleotide sequences of members of each group have been determined, allowing genome organisation to be used as a basis for future classification.

In the past, the cause of food poisoning could not be found. Health officials named a particular food product or brand not until many people became ill because of recourse.

Sometimes they acted to fast removing a product from the market which were not contaminated, damaging the reputations of innocent food growers, manufacturers, and vendors. This happened with Birkel noodle in Germany. The company was blamed to have used spoiled eggs for here products. The company proved its innocence but almost went into bankruptcy.

Reoviruses

Respiratory Enteric Orphan viruses, i.e. infect the human respiratory and intestinal tracts, usually without disease symptoms. There are 150 species in the family Reoviridae. They are a diverse group, infecting invertebrates, vertebrates and plants, but are unified by their most unique feature, the composition of their genome.

Bluetongue virus [2054]
Bluetongue is an insect transmitted, viral disease of domestic(cattle and sheep) and wild ruminants that is caused by bluetongue virus (BTV).

Human infection are unknown, and there is no risk of the disease being contracted or spread through meat or milk.
The Bluetongue virus is a member of the genus Orbivirus and Reoviridae family. There are 24 serotypes. It is transmitted by a midge Cullicoides imicola and other culicoid species. In August 2006 cases of bluetongue were found in the Netherlands, then Belgium and Germany. Major signs are high fever, excessive salivation, swelling of the face and tongue and cyanosis of the tongue. Swelling of the lips and tongue gives the tongue its typical blue appearance, though this sign is confined to a minority of the animals. Recovery is very slow.

Report on Epidemiological analysis of the 2006 bluetongue virus serotype 8 epidemic in north-western Europe updated in June 2007.

[2007]
Bluetongue (BT) is an arthropod-borne viral disease caused by the BTV-serotype 8 (BTV-8) It affects domestic and wild ruminants, particularly certain breeds of sheep. It is a severe clinical disease, including mortality which rapidly spread in north-western Europe in 2006 . It affected cattle and sheep holdings in Belgium, Germany, France, Luxembourg, and The Netherlands.

The main findings reported by the EFSA bluetongue working group:

Statistical modelling showed that the initial infection occurred in the area close to Maastricht. The source of the introduction of BTV-8 could not be identified and the exact origin and route of the introduction of BTV-8 thus far remains unknown. However, the absence of legal import of ruminants from outside the EU into the Area of First Infection and the absence of BTV-8 from southern Europe suggest that the introduction of the BTV-8 infection into north-western Europe is likely to have occurred via a other than through import of infected ruminants.

Specifically, the potential for Culicoides to be imported along with or independently of the import of animals, plants or other materials merits further study.

Blutongue virus serotype 8 reemerges in Germany

[2008]
Martin Beer and colleagues 2008 report that bluetongue virus (BTV) is a double-stranded RNA virus of the genus Orbivirus. BTV is transmitted to its hosts by the bite of Culicoides spp. midges. It causes a noncontagious, arthropod-borne disease of domestic and wild ruminants and camelids; disease can be serious, particularly in sheep. BTV had never been reported in any European country north of the Alps until August 2006, when outbreaks of BTV serotype 8 (BTV-8) were almost simultaneously discovered in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and France. In 2006, a total of 893 cases were detected in Germany, but the source of initial virus introduction remains unknown. Subsequently, BTV-8 overwintered in the region, spread over most of the country, and led to almost 21,000 new cases in 2007 in Germany. BTV-8 infections spread to additional European countries, e.g., the United Kingdom, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Denmark, and Spain.

In February 2008 bluetongue virus serotype 8 (BTV-8) was detected in Germany in an export heifer. According to the authors reemergence was confirmed by retesting the samples, experimental inoculation, fingerprinting analysis, and virus isolation. The authors stress that overwintering of BTV-8 and continuous low-level infections are assumed.

Monitoring:

Sheep flocks should be monitored by a system based on clinical signs, as PCR in affected sheep is often negative.

Cattle monitoring system based on serological surveillance is being recommended.

Culicoides as a vector of BTV:

The BTV-8 virus was found to be present in vectors (Culicoides species) which are endemic to north-western Europe. C. imicola, which is thought to be responsible for at least 90% of BTV transmission in the Mediterranean Basin, was not found in the affected region. Indigenous Culicoides found to be PCR-positive were C. dewulfi (a species breeding exclusively in the dung of cattle and horses) and C. obsoletus / C. scoticus.

In all likelihood this persistent activity of adult Culicoides owes much to the mild temperatures that have continued to prevail across northern Europe during the winter of 2006/2007.

Local spread was modelled and found to occur at a rate of about 2 km per day or approximately 15 km per week and equals the flight distances covered by Culicoides.

Wind may affect spread over long distances. In particular, the density of the observed wind events contributed, at least in part, to explaining the spread of BTV.

In conclusion, changes in climatic conditions coupled with increased worldwide traffic might increase the risk in the appearance and the establishment of diseases in parts of Europe that were thus far exotic to those regions.

Rotaviruses

Rotaviruses belong to the group of the reoviruses. They resemble wheels with a central axis and radiating spokes (Rota=Wheel)

Rotaviruses are the most common cause of severe diarrhoea worldwide. In developing countries, rotavirus infection may cause up to one million deaths each year. Clean water and improved sanitation are seldom available in developing countries. Rotavirus particles remain active on human hands for at least 4 hours, on hard dry surfaces for 10 days, and on wet areas for weeks.

Although the rotavirus and the Norwalk family of viruses are the leading causes of viral infects other viruses can also cause diarrhoea.

Astroviruses

Astroviruses are the cause of most frequent viral gastrointestinal infections and are a significant cause of diarrhoea in developing countries.

They are clinically similar to caliciviruses. Astroviruses have been isolated from birds, cats, dogs, pigs, sheep, cows and man. There are at least 7 human astrovirus serotypes. Outbreaks in UK, in Mexico and food borne astrovirus infection in Japan involving thousands of children and adults.

Adenoviruses

Adenoviruses most commonly cause respiratory illness; however, depending on the infecting serotype, they may also cause various other illnesses, such as gastroenteritis, conjunctivitis, cystitis, and rash illness.

Adenoviruses are unusually stable to chemical or physical agents and adverse pH conditions, allowing for prolonged survival outside of the body. Transmission occurs by direct contact foecal-oral transmission, and occasionally by water. Shedding can occur for months or years.

Parvoviruses

Parvoviruses are associated with human gastroenteritis. Shellfish have been implicated in illness caused by a parvo-like virus.

Although foods are not analysed in routine for these viruses, it may be possible to apply current immunological procedures to detect viruses in clinical specimens. Gene probes and PCR detection methods are currently being developed. In near future a better surveillance of these epidemics will increase food safety.

Quality assurance programs in slaughterhouses should reduce fecal contamination of carcasses and meat should be chilled rapidly.

Monitoring trends of indicator organisms, e.g. Enterobacteriaceae and Standard Plate Count should indicate deviations from quality standard A general method for E.coli detection i.e. for non-pathogenic and potentially pathogenic strains, is also useful as levels of all types of E.coli should be minimised in food production.

Any increase of normal levels or indicators should trigger an active investigation of the reasons for the increased levels.

Effective process control of all cooking / pasteurisation stages is essential to ensure that the correct heating temperatures and times are achieved.

SARS Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome

SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV) type causes an epidemic of a respiratory disease which spreads in Guangdong and other provinces of Chin, Canada, the United States. The virus may remain on hands and surfaces for several hours.

Strict hand-hygiene be enforced among food handlers and within the food processing industry. This should be done very carefully after using the restroom and after sneezing or coughing. In addition, food workers should not handle ready-to-eat foods, such as sandwiches, vegetables and cut fruits, with bare hands, but should use gloves or utensils for an extra level of protection. The SARS global outbreak of 2003 was contained; however, it is possible that the disease could re-emerge.

Proper hand washing continues to serve as a vital and necessary public health practice to eliminate the spread of food borne illnesses in retail food stores and food service. Contamination factors common in retail and food service environments inhibit the effectiveness of alcohol-based hand sanitizers when used in place of hand washing.

Corona viruses are named for their corona-like appearance. The corona or halo is due to an array of surface projections on the viral envelope, one of which is the E2 glycoprotein, the viral attachment protein. Corona viruses are second only to rhinoviruses as a cause of the common cold and pneumonia.

Infectious Laryngotracheitis in poultry: Infectious Laryngotracheitis is a viral infection of the respiratory tract of chickens, pheasants and peafowl. It can spread rapidly among birds and causes high death losses in poultry that are susceptible. The disease is not a human health risk. Turkeys, ducks and geese do not get the infection but could spread the virus.

Mycoplasmosis Mycoplasma gallisepticum is associated with chronic respiratory disease (CRD)/air sac syndrome in chickens and turkeys and infectious sinusitis of turkeys; Mycoplasma meleagridis is associated with airsacculitis in turkeys; and Mycoplasma synoviae is the cause of infectious synovitis in chickens and turkeys. Mycoplasma are bacterial-like organisms.

Mareks Disease: Mareks is a member of the herpesvirus family of viruses. It causes internal tumours. The most common Mareks in chictumoursre eye, visceral, and nerve versions. The turkevisceralon is Herpes Virus Turkey. The waterfowl version is known as Duck Virus Enteritis. All three are from the same family of viruses.

Infectious coryza: Infectious coryza is a specific respiratory disease in chickens The disease is caused by a bacterium known as Hemophilus gallinarum.

Pullorum Disease:It is caused by Salmonella pullorum and is primarily egg transmitted. It is also known as "bacillary white diarrhoea"
Fowl typhoid It is caused by Salmonella gallinarum. The transmission includes eggs. The poultry infections with Salmonella gallinarum and Salmonella pullorum killed large numbers of birds and were therefore eradicated in the 1970s. They had not cause harm in humans and were acting as a natural vaccine against Salmonella enteritidis. The chickens' immunity was lost and this opened the door for Salmonella enteritidis.

Fowl Cholera: It is an infectious disease of turkeys caused by Pasteurella multocida with watery yellowish orgreen diarrhoea.The current bird flu scenario should not cause panic and fear; instead it calls for rational and immediate action to fight the disease at its origin - that means in animals.

Avian influenza is first of all an animal disease that requires a veterinarian response.

The virus can be defeated and contained if countries and the international community work closely together and set up efficient surveillance and disease control programs. Virus outbreaks in animals need to be detected at a very early stage, infected poultry must be slaughtered and animals at risk have to be vaccinated. Reducing avian influenza in animals contributes directly to protecting people's health.

Affected countries in Southeast Asia are proving that the virus can be successfully contained. Thailand has obtained an impressive reduction of outbreaks through massive investment in controlling the disease in poultry, using slaughtering and improved surveillance and active disease search.

In Viet Nam, improved on-farm hygiene, farming practices, poultry movement controls and vaccination campaigns will reduce the frequency of bird flu outbreaks. Several countries such as Malaysia, South Korea and Japan have eliminated the disease rapidly after the occurrence of new outbreaks.

Regrettably, most of the public discussion focuses on the human-health aspects of bird flu, while the weak state of veterinary services in many poor countries is being ignored. Affected countries and the international community urgently need to invest more in support of veterinarians and animal health workers, because they represent the first line of defence against the virus. [2055]

A Swedish study leaded by Anna Thorson says that epidemiological data from a rural Area in Vietnam suggest that transmission of highly pathogenic avian influenza to humans could be more common than anticipated, though close contact seems required.

Thorson's group found that simply having sick or dead poultry in the house did not significantly increase the risk of flu-like illness; those people only showed a 14 percent higher risk of flu-like illness compared to someone without poultry. However, having direct contact with sick or dead poultry raised that increased risk to 73 percent, Thorson said. [2056]

Vaccination in China: [2057]
Using a technique called reverse genetics, scientists at the Key Laboratory of Animal Influenza, affiliated to Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, altered the genome sequence of the virus to construct a vaccine that is believed to be safe to both poultry and mammals.

The vaccine will be administered to fowls in the country's key water areas, including rivers and lakes. Laboratory tests show the vaccine enables ducks and geese to fight H5N1, the highly lethal strain of bird flu, three weeks after the flocks were vaccinated, the statement claimed. The new vaccine also provides at least 10 months of protection for chickensfour months longer than the existing bird flu preventive drugs.

China developed advanced bird flu virus test technology (RT-PCR reagent kit) last April. This can detect H5, H7 and H9 subgroups of the bird flu simultaneously in several hours.

Vaccination is a must for water fowls and poultry farms in Chinese regions at high risk, according to a national tele-conference in bird flu prevention on January 28 in Beijing.

Apart from the encouraging laboratory test results, field tests also indicate that upon receiving two shots of the vaccine, ducks and geese can each produce antibodies effective for 10 months and three months, respectively.

According to the ministry statement the vaccination thus makes it impossible for ducks and geese to become the load of H5 subgroup bird flu virus. Therefore, it can cut a key link for the highly pathogenic avian influenza to spread.

German officials , however say, vaccination is not the solution of the problem. In Italy nobody can say if poultry is free of H5N1 because some flocks were vaccinated using an attenuated virus H7N3. Imunity against all H7 (Hafez) Vaccinated poultry cannot be exported. Under European law, any vaccinated birds would face restrictions on movement which would prevent export and allow them only to be transported to a slaughterhouse.

Britain continues to oppose the vaccination programme on grounds of both cost and effectiveness, as do Germany, Austria, Denmark and Portugal.

Vaccinated birds could incubate the disease without showing symptoms, allowing low-level spread among flocks and increasing the likelihood of its mutation into a form transmissible to people.

Neuraminidase is the protein which gives the number to N. There are only two laboratories which can type the N number. One is located at the island Riems (Germany) and the other is the EU reference laboratory located in England.

In Germany researches on a vaccine is being done at the Bundesforschungsinstitutes für Tiergesundheit, Im Friedrich-Loeffler-Insitut (FLI) Thomas Mettenleiter says they are working on recombinant serum which can be sprayed instead of having to be injected on every bird. They could have a marker effect which could be easily detected. A vaccine which will take two to three years to be ready to use.

EU measures to limit the spread of avian influenza:
The European Commission measures designed to limit the disease are approve member states' individual surveillance plans for avian influenza and to provide up to 50 per cent co-funding for these programmes.

The measures include a three km "protection zone" around the place where the birds with H5 infection were found for at least 30 days along with a 10 km "surveillance zone" for the next three weeks.

Within the protection zone poultry must be kept indoors. All movement of poultry, excluding direct transportation to a slaughterhouse is banned. No meat may be transported outside the protection zone.

In both the protection and surveillance zone farm biosecurity measures must be strengthened and the hunting of wild birds is banned. All bird markets and exhibitions are banned.

Early warning measures are in place in all member states to ensure quick detection of the disease, both in domestic and wild birds. Contingency plans call for the rapid control and eradication of avian influenza should it occur in poultry farms.

Indonesia vaccinated 114 million poultry against avian flu with traditionally made vaccine in 2004. India last week confirmed the presence of avian flu and has started a mass culling of poultry.

In February 2006 the French government ordered all domestic birds indoors.

Wild birds with highly pathogenic avian influenza have been detected in France, Slovakia, Slovenia, Italy, Greece, Austria, Hungary and Germany, in addition to the accession countries Bulgaria and Romania and Turkey.

Affected EU member states are implementing strict protection and surveillance zones around the location where H5N1 infected wild birds have been found. In addition, the EU has approved the vaccination of bird flocks in certain areas of the Netherlands and France.

Vaccination is being permitted in selected southern areas of France that are believed to be at risk from avian influenza. The free-range ducks and geese in this region are not easy to put "indoors" and are therefore at risk of contact with wild birds that may be carrying the virus, according to an European Commission report.

The vaccination programme will begin immediately and will continue until 1 April 2006. Sentinel birds, which are unvaccinated control birds, will be used as part of the monitoring for avian influenza.

Vaccinated poultry, their hatching eggs and day-old chicks cannot be exported or moved to any third country, including countries in the EU. There are strict conditions on the movement of vaccinated birds within France. Fresh meat and meat products from vaccinated poultry will be able to be sold in the EU, provided the safety conditions have been complied with by the farm.

Indonesia vaccinated 114 million poultry against avian flu with traditionally made vaccine in 2004. India last week confirmed the presence of avian flu and has started a mass culling of poultry. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has warned that the virus could become entrenched in the Black Sea, Caucasus and Near East regions through trade and movement of people and animals and it could be further spread by migratory birds particularly coming from Africa in the spring.

According to FAO fighting the avian influenza virus in animals is the most effective and cost-effective way to reduce the likelihood of H5N1 mutating or reassorting to cause a human flu pandemic. Containing bird flu in domestic animals-mostly chickens and ducks-will significantly reduce the risk to humans. Avian influenza should not only be considered as a human health issue, but as a human and animal health issue.

Extraordinary collective effort to address avian flu:According to a study of Anna Thorson and colleges the verified human cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza in Vietnam may represent only a selection of the most severely ill patients.

Epidemiological data are consistent with transmission of mild, highly pathogenic avian influenza to humans and suggest that transmission could be more common than anticipated, though close contact seems required. However, the virus is more widespread than thought[2058]

According to Kofi Annan, Secretary-General, United Nations (2005), a threat like a flu pandemic cannot be addressed by one organisation, one group of countries, one sector or one profession. It presents us with an extraordinary collective challenge, and it calls for an extraordinary collective effort.

On 29 November 2005, the Commission adopted a communication calling for the strengthening of EU-wide coordination in tracking and responding to avian flu.

Vaccine against H5N1 for humans

[2059] In March 2005, Sanofi Pasteur, the French vaccine manufacturer, released the first vaccine made for humans directed against the avian influenza A H5N1 virus for testing and evaluation by virology laboratories. Tests showed it was effective, but in a much higher than usual dose. The Sanofi Pasteur H5N1 avian flu vaccine is unlikely to be of much use against the virus because the flu virus is always changing. While vaccination is our best hope of avoiding catastrophe, it is pretty certain that none will be available when the first wave of the pandemic spreads across the globe.

Low dose vaccine against H5N1: A 10 mg vaccine that contains a modified version of the whole H5N1 virus plus adjuvant was tested in China in 2006. This vaccine is effective at low doses allow more people to be immunised. [2062]

Vaccine using fertilized eggs: Vaccine production using fertilized eggs takes 6 to 8 months under the best of circumstances, it has been more difficult than usual with the H5N1 strain because it is so lethal that it kills chicken embryo before there is enough time raise a good yield of vial particles.

This type of vaccine requires two high doses, one month apart. Research is looking for a vaccine that requires much smaller doses so that manufacturers can rapidly produce more vaccine doses. For this new methods of producing vaccines are discussed:
Vaccine with aluminium adjuvant An adjuvant such as aluminium or gold particles attached to the vaccine can boost the immune response. By increasing the immune response, smaller doses of vaccine may be used, helping the manufacturers to produce more doses. The administration of the vaccine would be easier using air pistols instead of injection by needls.

EFSA Advises on the Safety of Aluminium in Food

[2063]
Europe's food safety watchdog established a Tolerable Weekly Intake (TWI) of 1 milligram of aluminium per kilogram of body weight. The mean dietary exposure of adults varied from 0.2 to 1.5 mg/kg bw/per week. In children and young people, the highest exposures ranged from 0.7 to 2.3 mg/kg bw/per week. The TWI of 1 mg/kg bw/week is therefore likely to be exceeded in a significant part of the European population.

Children generally have higher food intake than adults when expressed on a body weight basis, and therefore represent the group with the highest potential exposure to aluminium per kg body weight. Large individual variations in dietary exposure to aluminium can occur. In children and young people the potential estimated exposure at the 97.5th percentile ranged from 0.7 mg/kg bw/week for children aged 3-15 years in France to 2.3 mg/kg bw/week for toddlers (1.5-4.5 years) and 1.7 mg/kg bw/week for those aged 4-18 years in the UK. Cereals and cereal products, vegetables, and beverages appeared to be the main contributors ($>$10%) to the dietary aluminium exposure in the general population.

The major source of exposure to aluminium in foods originates from its natural occurrence, from the use of food additives containing aluminium and from the presence of aluminium in food contact materials such as pots, pans and foil. The main contributors to aluminium intake from the diet are cereals and cereal products (such as bread, cakes, biscuits and pastries) vegetables (such as mushrooms, spinach, radish and lettuce), beverages (such as tea and cocoa) and some infant formulae. Drinking water is a minor source of exposure. Additional exposure may arise from pharmaceuticals and consumer products containing aluminium compounds.

The Panel based its evaluation on the combined evidence from a number of animal studies showing adverse effects on testes, embryos and the developing and mature nervous system following dietary administration of aluminium compounds.

Aluminium has shown neurotoxicity in patients undergoing dialysis and thereby chronically exposed to high concentrations of aluminium. It has also been suggested that aluminium is associated with Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases in humans; however, based on the available scientific data, the Panel did not consider exposure to aluminium through food to present a risk for developing Alzheimer's disease.

Under normal and typical conditions the contribution of migration from food contact materials would represent only a small fraction of the total dietary intake. However, the Panel noted that in the presence of acids and salts, the use of aluminium-based pans, bowls, and foils for foods such as apple puree, rhubarb, tomato puree or salted herring could result in increased aluminium concentrations in such foods. Also, the use of aluminium vessels and trays for convenience and fast food in might moderately increase the aluminium concentrations, especially in foods that contain tomato, different types of pickles, and vinegar.

Aluminium in infant formulae

[2064]
In infants aged 0-3, 4-6, 7-9 and 10-12 months, potential dietary exposures from infant formulae and other foods manufactured specially for infants were estimated to be respectively 0.10, 0.20, 0.43 and 0.78 mg/kg bw/week.

Potential exposure to aluminium in 3-month infants from a variety of infant formulae was estimated by the Panel. At the mean it was up to 0.6 mg/kg bw/week for milk-based formulae and was 0.75 mg /kg bw/week for soya-based formulae; at high percentiles of exposure it was up to 0.9 mg/kg bw/week for milk-based formulae and was 1.1 mg /kg bw/week for soya-based formulae.

The Panel noted that in some individual brands of formulae (both milk-based and soya-based) the aluminium concentration was around 4 times higher that the mean concentrations estimated above, leading to a 4 times higher potential exposure in brand-loyal infants.

Potential exposure in breast-fed infants was estimated to be less than 0.07 mg/kg bw/week.

Reverse genetics technique: Reverse genetics uses only specific parts of the genetic code of the viruses. This enables to make a generic vaccine with all of the 15 variations from H1 to H15.

Disaster plans

Every business, especially those which are engaged in food production should develop a disaster plan. This plan should be integrated in the biological safety plan to avoid major business disruptions:
Key points of a disaster plan should be:

• Designate a group (preferably an already existing one) within the department or ministry of health responsible for coordinating the collection and dissemination of information related to the pandemic in all its phases and levels.
• Make the WHO/OHMS Checklist: Epidemic Alert and Response: WHO checklist for influenza pandemic preparedness planning WHO/CDS/CSR/GIP/2005.4 part of your disaster plan. [2065]
• Observe carefuly part 4. Preventing spread of the disease in the community of the WHO/OHMS Checklist. [2066]
• Nominate pandemic spokespersons at the national and regional levels. These persons would be responsible for all media presentations to the broader community.
• Isolate people which are in direct contact with poultry from sensible production points. Poultry contact embraces professional or private avian contact such as having pets at home.
• Depending on the type of the production the people with near contact to poultry can be kept working in sections were there is no contact with unprotected foods. If necessary these persons should be sent home.
• Mild signs of respiratory illness must report to the leading and must be isolated from production.
• Stock piling of packed products should be available in case of an outbreak of the disease in humans which could severely impact employees and their ability to operate. A shortcoming of manpower in the production area may be avoided with such stock pilings.
• Interruption of supplies due to epidemics in flocks or import bans and political instability of the producing country may result in a shortage of certain raw ware. Stock piling of raw ware and alternative addresses of possible.
• News from affected areas (countries regions or continents) should be carefully analysed and contact by telephone, fax and email with suppliers should be established and situation should be checked daily.
• Make a risk assessment of of the vulnerability of the business taking into account a high level of urbanisation, population density and a large number of foreign visitors increase the possibility of a pandemic.
• Reduced import supply pressures can cause prices rising. Feed grain and soy costs is also a factor of meat price instability. Long leading contracts of raw ware must be included in the disaster plan to avoid the effects of epidemics, political instability of the supplying country.
• Changing consumption habits should be studied to avoid excessive stock piling, such as happened in 1996 when poultry consumption overtook beef and veal because of BSE headlines. Pork holds the number one position in the EU gaining from avian influenza damaging the poutry industry.
• Brazil and the United States are supplying approximately 70 percent of global poultry trade. The largest poultry producers and exporters are the United States, Brazil and the EU. Any market fluctuation in these three economic zones produces worldwide economic changes.
• Backyard producers in many developing countries are losing income and are facing increased livelihood and food security risks. In Nigeria, for example, some producers are losing their means of livelihood as birds are culled and prices drop and employees on farms are losing their jobs.
• FAO stressed that poultry products, properly cooked at or above 70$^{o}C$ throughout the product, are safe to eat [2065]. It also noted the importance of preventing products from infected flocks to enter the food chain. All products should be heated above this temperature. This can be cited on the label to strengthen the confidence of the consumer on your product.
• Get your staff to know the food safety implications of H5N1 avian influenza virus, released by FAO: [2066]
• 1. Conventional cooking (temperatures at or above 70$^{o}C$ in all parts of a food item) will inactivate the H5N1 virus. Properly cooked poultry meat is therefore safe to consume.
• 2. The H5N1 virus, if present in poultry meat, is not killed by refrigeration or freezing.
• 3. Home slaughtering and preparation of sick or dead poultry for food is hazardous: this practice must be stopped.
• 4. Eggs can contain H5N1 virus both on the outside (shell) and the inside (whites and yolk). Eggs from areas with H5N1 outbreaks in poultry should not be consumed raw or partially cooked (runny yolk); uncooked eggs should not be used in foods that will not be cooked, baked or heat-treated in other ways.
• 5. There is no epidemiological evidence to indicate that people have been infected with the H5N1 virus following consumption of properly cooked poultry or eggs.
• 6. The greatest risk of exposure to the virus is through the handling and slaughter of live infected poultry. Good hygiene practices are essential during slaughter and post- slaughter handling to prevent exposure via raw poultry meat or cross contamination from poultry to other foods, food preparation surfaces or equipment.
• Educate workers about the importance of strict adherence to and proper use of hand hygiene after contact with infected or exposed poultry, contact with contaminated surfaces, or after removing gloves.
  
  Hand hygiene should consist of washing with soap and water for 15-20 seconds or the use of other standard hand-disinfection procedures as specified by state government, industry, or USDA outbreak-response guidelines. [2067]
• The following personal protective equipment should be worn [2067]:
  
• Disposable gloves made of lightweight nitrile or vinyl or heavy duty rubber work gloves that can be disinfected should be worn.
  
  To protect against dermatitis, which can occur from prolonged exposure of the skin to moisture in gloves caused by perspiration, a thin cotton glove can be worn inside the external glove.
  
  Gloves should be changed if torn or otherwise damaged. Remove gloves promptly after use, before touching non-contaminated items and environmental surfaces.
  
  Protective clothing, preferably disposable outer garments or coveralls, an impermeable apron or surgical gowns with long cuffed sleeves, plus an impermeable apron should be worn.
  
  Disposable protective shoe covers or rubber or polyurethane boots that can be cleaned and disinfected should be worn.
  
  Safety goggles should be worn to protect the mucous membranes of eyes.
• Disposable particulate respirators (e.g., N-95, N-99, or N-100) are the minimum level of respiratory protection that should be worn. This level or higher respiratory protection may already be in use in poultry operations due to other hazards that exist in the environment (e.g., other vapors and dusts). Workers must be fit-tested to the respirator model that they will wear and also know how to check the face-piece to face seal. Workers who cannot wear a disposable particulate respirator because of facial hair or other fit limitations should wear a loose-fitting (i.e., helmeted or hooded) powered air purifying respirator equipped with high-efficiency filters.
  
  Disposable PPE should be properly discarded, and non-disposable PPE should be cleaned and disinfected as specified in state government, industry, or USDA outbreak-response guidelines.
  Hand hygiene measures should be performed after removal of PPE.
• Affix posters with basic flu personal hygiene from the CDC at strategic places:
• Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze-throw the tissue away after you use it.
• Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. If you are not near water, use an alcohol-based hand cleaner.
• Stay away as much as you can from people who are sick.
• If you get the flu, stay home from work. If you are sick, do not go near other people so that you don't make them sick too.
• Try not to touch your eyes, nose, or mouth. Germs often spread this way.
• Keep in mind: Birds that are infected with avian influenza viruses can shed virus in saliva, nasal secretions, and feces. Contact with feces or respiratory secretions is important in the transmission of infection among poultry.
  
  Between flocks, infection usually spreads due to movement of infected birds and the actions of humans in moving feedstuff, personnel, equipment, and vehicles into and from premises that are contaminated with infected feces or respiratory secretions.
  
  The duration that these viruses can survive in the environment depends on temperature and humidity conditions, but they may survive up to weeks in cool and humid atmosphere.
  
• Surveillance and monitoring of workers:
• Instruct workers to be vigilant for the development of fever, respiratory symptoms, and/or conjunctivitis (i.e., eye infections) for 1 week after last exposure to avian influenza-infected or exposed birds or to potentially avian influenza-contaminated environmental surfaces.
• Individuals who become ill should seek medical care and, prior to arrival, notify their health care provider that they may have been exposed to avian influenza. In addition, employees should notify their health and safety representative.
• With the exception of visiting a health care provider, individuals who become ill should be advised to stay home until 24 hours after resolution of fever, unless an alternative diagnosis is established or diagnostic test results indicate the patient is not infected with influenza A virus.
• While at home, ill persons should practice good respiratory and hand hygiene to lower the risk of transmission of virus to others.
• The enterprise should plan how to get a population through one to three years of a pandemic. Transport enterprises will be forced to reduce their services. Global airline industry will be seriously reducing their service so important raw ware, products and even personal movement will be difficult. Widespread infection and economic collapse can destabilize a government.
• The staff of the enterprise should be vaccinated against seasonal influenza and a protection against pneumococcal pneumonia with a Pneumovax vaccination making it compulsory to all employees. This reduces the severity of an H5N1 infection and let the employee be back to his work earlier.
• All items of the disaster plan should be discussed with a risk assessment firm and should be revised by the local veterinary authority. It would be unrealistic for any country, unless it has a very small population with a centralized infrastructure and bureaucracy, to consider that it could prepare and implement a detailed and comprehensive pandemic plan in weeks, or even months. The two main reasons are that there is a need for a multisectoral approach and that the community should be involved.
  
  A multisectoral approach means the involvement of many levels of government, and of people with various specialties including policy development, legislative review and drafting, animal health, public health, patient care, laboratory diagnosis, laboratory test development, communication expertise and disaster management. Community involvement means making optimal use of local knowledge, expertise, resources and networks. It is a powerful way to engage people and to build the commitment needed for policy decisions.

How humans can protect themelves from bird flu
A healthy lifestyle with plenty of exercise to keep immune levels high, making sure to wash hands regularly is recommended.
Avian flu virus strains are widely distributed within the bodies of diseased chickens and turkeys, as well as in sub-clinically infected species like ducks.

Chickens, for instance, have the highest viral load at the end of the incubation period, just before the bird becomes ill. The viruses are expelled from the body in the feces during the acute stage of the disease and may end up contaminating food and water. Human infections have generally resulted from direct and intensive contact with infected poultry.

Particularly high risk has been associated with slaughtering, defeathering, butchering or preparing sick birds for consumption, with exposure to infected droplets as well as feces being possible sources of infection.

A third of the cases reported in Vietnam had no direct exposure to poultry and the source of the infection remains unknown. Two confirmed cases have followed consumption of raw duck blood pudding. Another case may have been linked to swimming in a canal frequented by infected ducks. EFSA74

According to the French Food Standards Agency keeping birds indoors will not eliminate the risk of infection, since the virus could be carried in mud containing wild bird feces, or in feathers, litter or food. The agency calls for strict biosecurity measures on farms.

Avian influenza and industry

The current bird flu scenario should not cause panic and fear; instead it calls for rational and immediate action to fight the disease at its origin - that means in animals.

Review of pathogens heat-resistance

[164] O'Bryan and colleagues summarize the heat-resistance of several strains of pathogenic bacteria The authors conclude that heat-resistance of these organism are influenced by :

• Different response to heat between strains of the same organism.
• Age of the culture
• Growth conditions
• pH
• Other factors

Processors may find useful data in this review for the validation of times and temperatures for thermal processing of meat and poultry.

They stress that under the HACCP regulations, 9 CFR 417, employees of food processing operations must validate the elements of their HACCP plans through: references to scientific publications that demonstrate pathogen reduction under laboratory conditions somewhat similar to those used in the production plant, the use of HACCP consultants who are processing authorities or they can validate their plan using experiments using surrogates, non-pathogenic organisms that can mimic pathogens killed in a process. Using data reported from laboratory inactivation of pathogens and predictive models is much more rapid and less expensive than testing surrogate organisms under actual processing operations.

However, almost all of the reported thermal inactivation has been done in a media solution under ideal single culture laboratory conditions and not in an actual food matrix under conditions approximating commercial thermal processing.

Because of USDA-FSIS Notice 25-05, it was suggested that computer modelling should not be used solely as validation of RTE products and that independent microbiology laboratories be used for complete and thorough analysis. Therefore, this thermal inactivation validation is also useful in combination with computer modelling for aid in HACCP compliance (USDA-FSIS 9 CFR 417).

The authors point out the need to know key descriptive factors should be considered such as the particular pathogen of interest, the log or stationary phase, freshness state , frozen, or cooked and fat content of the meat, or other ingredients instead of one single element, validating the lethality of thermal processes.

The authors encourage the development of surrogates able to be used in an actual environment.

Cattle ranch as source of spinach contamination with Escherichia coli 0157:H7 [141]
In September 2006 199 people in 26 US states diseased with Escherichia coli 0157:H7 strain and three died after eating contaminated spinach.

Heath officials said that the bacteria could have been transmitted by irrigation water, fertilizer, farm equipment or workers, livestock and wild animals, or it could have contaminated the spinach inside processing plants, during transport or on store shelves.

Later, in October 2006 three samples of cattle fecal matter from one ranch in California's Salinas Valley have tested positive for the same strain of E. coli bacteria which had caused the disease.

The ranch included both a beef cattle operation as well as fields where spinach and other ready-to-eat produce were grown. The fecal-matter specimens were found half a mile to a mile from the produce fields themselves. Officials said that wandering livestock, substandard worker hygiene, irrigation practices or even wild boar could have transported the bacteria to the spinach fields.

The proximity of fresh produce fields to farm animals has long been a concern to agricultural and health authorities, and a minimum distance between them must be found out.

HACCP plans for fresh produce

[142] [143]
The Fresh Produce Safety Act of 2007:
A legislation was introduced by by Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin requiring the FDA to assess farms and processing facilities on the basis of risk. Producers will be required to maintain written hazard control plans.

High-risk facilities that washes and bags salad greens would be inspected at least once a growing season instead of once every 5 or 10 years. The FDA would also develop standards and practices for manure application, irrigation water, and for excluding domestic animals from fields where produce is grown.

The bill would also require rulemaking to ensure that imported produce has been grown and processed with the same standards that we will have in the U.S. The bill follows the great recalls of spinach and lettuce.

Strategies to reduce person-to-person transmission during epidemics

[144]
Seto and colleagues 2007 studied the spinach Escherichia coli O157:H7 (E. coli O157) outbreak in the United States in 2006 with 173 cases and one death.

During the spread of the disease the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC and the US Food and Drug Administration advised consumers not to eat spinach as the primary strategy for protecting against foodborne transmission of E. coli O157. No warnings, however, were issued regarding the prevention of person-to-person (secondary) transmission.

The authors assume that a combination of possible intervention strategies to interrupt secondary transmission would have a range of possible levels of effectiveness in epidemics like this. These strategies would include strongly recommending handwashing, avoiding contact with persons with diarrhoea, meticulously preparing food, and avoiding work or school when ill with any gastrointestinal sign or symptom.

The researchers found in this study that an intervention such as a campaign to encourage handwashing and isolation of persons with diarrhoea can substantially reduce secondary transmission. Even if a campaign were initiated relatively late in the outbreak, the number of cases would be reduced. Such advice was not a focus of the public health messages disseminated for the 2006 E. coli O157 outbreak. The interruption of secondary transmission might have had a useful role as an additional tool in managing this outbreak.

Public Health Implications:

Public health strategies for preventing secondary transmission could include public media campaigns reminding the population of the importance of handwashing, avoiding contact with faeces, minimizing nonessential contact with persons with diarrhoea, meticulous care when preparing and consuming food, and staying at home from work or school when having any diarrhoea during the outbreak period. Messages for all of these strategies can be delivered inexpensively to large or targeted populations through a variety of media (television, radio, print, Internet)

The authors conclude that health officials should consider rapidly delivering widespread public health messages with specific advice on how to interrupt secondary transmission of E. coli O157. Such an intervention, even if only modestly successful, could meaningfully reduce the number of cases. Erwinia chrysanthemi

Pathogens on raw produces

[145]
Pathogen contamination of produce
typically consumed raw has caused large scale foodborne illness. According to Robert Mandrell and colleagues 2008 pathogenic microbes often need the help of other microbial species to make the jump from their usual residents (in the intestines of warm blooded animals) to inhabit plants

Pathogens on lettuce, tomatoes and herbs:

The researchers at US ARS found that pathogens such as Eschericia coli and Salmonella develop better on younger leaves with about three times as much nitrogen as in the middle leaves. Therefore strategies to minimise use of nitrogen fertilisers may help reduce E. coli contamination of produce.

On romaine lettuce and on the herb cilantro E. coli and Salmonella are aided by Erwinia chrysanthemi which causes soft rot of the vegetable and biofilms of E. coli and Salmonella.

Xanthomonas campestris (bacterial leaf spot of tomato) helps Salmonella to bind and grow on or in tomato plants. The researchers say that Xanthomonas campestris may disable the plant's immune response, allowing both it and Salmonella to multiply. Soil flooded with Salmonella contaminated water remained infectious to tomato seeds for six weeks and may infect the new plant. Crop debris can also serve as a reservoir of viable Salmonella for at least a week. The authors recommend a fallow period of about two weeks, before replanting fields with lettuce and tomatoes. The team suggest that potentially contaminated fields could benefit from a fallow period of perhaps a few weeks.

The bacterium Wausteria paucula enhances E. coli survival on lettuce leaves by six fold. However, Enterobacter asburiae, living on plants such as beans, cotton and cucumbers without harming them, reduces levels of E. coli and Salmonella on seeds of thale cress. The survival rate of E.coli fell by 20 - 30 fold when Enterobacter asburiae, Wausteria paucula and E.coli come together.

The authors suggest to control and to introduce certain microbes to crops in order to reduce the risk of pathogen spread on fresh produce like tomatoes lettuce and cilantro.

Safety of fresh-cut produces

[146]
According to the USDA, between 1996 and 2006, there were 24 reported incidents of foodborne illness caused by contaminated fresh-cut produce in the United States, such as the E. coli O157:H7 contamination of spinach. To increase the safety of fresh-cut produces the department published some important recommendations:

Farming:

Anything that comes into contact with fresh produce has the potential to contaminate it, such as indirect or direct contact with feces. Sources of fecal contamination include animals, untreated manure used as a soil amendment, water, infected workers, or conditions in the field or packing facility, such as unclean containers and tools used in harvesting and packing.

Multiple farming activities come close together making it harder to keep livestock and produce separate. Livestock and wildlife are likely to be drinking from the same creek that irrigates a crop field.

Transport:

Transport also presents opportunities for contamination, such as unclean floors and walls of the vehicles or unclean containers.

Processing facilities:

Processing fresh produce into fresh-cut products further increases the risk of contamination by breaking the natural exterior barrier of the produce. The release of plant cellular components when produce is shredded or chopped provides a nutritive medium in which pathogen can grow and contamination can spread.

Improper sanitation during processing is another major potential point of contamination by pathogens, followed by the absence of a lethal process, such as a heat step during production to eliminate pathogens; and the potential for temperature change during processing, storage, transport, and retail display.

Ultrasound cleaning of equipment

[147]
Ultrasound technology is being used to sterilize equipment without chemicals. Utrasound treatments, around 20 kHz, collapse bubbles in the cleaning liquid and releases energy that kills bacteria.

Rapid microbe removal:

Bacteria such as Listeria monocytogenes on the belt surfaces are eliminated in only 10-20 seconds.

Cleaning with ultrasound saves about 50 percent of energy and water, and avoids blind spots of the conveyor. The sanitation system includes precleaning with degreasers and caustics, followed with ultrasonic sterilization of the belt surface.

The USDA said that researchers at its Produce Quality and Safety Laboratory (PQSL) in Maryland have been focusing on ways to keep salads safe at processing plants before and after bagging. Cutting fresh produce during harvesting removes natural protective barriers, exposing cut surfaces to potential contaminants. Combining sanitizers with ultrasound, optimizing oxygen conditions and not reusing washing water can reduce bacterial contamination of lettuce and leafy greens. Young leaves of lettuce have higher risk of pathogen contamination.

Nitrogen fertilizers may increase risk of pathogens on lettuce

[148]
Brandl and Amundson 2008 found that the increases in population size of E. coli O157:H7 on lettuce plants was 10-fold higher on the young (inner) leaves than on the middle leaves, suggesting that leaf age affects preharvest as well as postharvest colonization. The authors say that young-leaf exudates were 2.9 and 1.5 times richer in total nitrogen and carbon, respectively, than middle-leaf exudates. The low nitrogen limits the growth of pathogens on these leaves. The authors concluded that leaf age and nitrogen content in young lettuce leaves may be associated with a greater risk of contamination with E. coli O157:H7.

Maria Brandl calls for a strategy of reduction of nitrogen fertilizers to increase safety of lettuce.

Washing and ultrasound

[149]
Yaguang Luo, studied the safety and quality of precut lettuce. He found that sliced romaine lettuce leaves rinsed in fresh wash water, dried, packed in bags and stored for 14 days by 5$^{o}C$ had lower bacterial counts than leaves which were unwashed or were washed with reused water. Luo also found that the combination of a sanitizer with ultrasound treatment for industrial-scale reduced substantially the number of bacteria on the surface of vegetables.

Irradiation of spinach and lettuce

[150]
The FDA announced that it will allow food processors to irradiate some leafy greens (spinach and iceberg lettuce). The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) says that this action may be safe and effective in treating some pathogens, however, it will not solve all problems of pathogenic bacteria on leafy vegetables.

The CSPI recommends FDA to adopt a series of preventive measures starting at the farm that could control foodborne pathogens. Our suggestions, outlined in 2006 petition to FDA, include common-sense food safety control measures:

1. Farmers and processors should be required to keep a written food safety plan specific to the environmental conditions on that particular farm.
2. FDA should develop uniform standards to evaluate those plans, for water quality, worker sanitation, and manure use and management.
3. Written plans should be audited once per season, either by FDA or a 3rd party auditor (whose audits should be reviewed by FDA).

With the approval of irradiation on spinach and lettuce, FDA should also specify that these products should be clearly labelled with the radura symbol and the words "treated with irradiation." This labelling-required for other irradiated products-provides consumers with the information to make choices about the food they purchase.

It is clear that produce safety must become a priority for FDA, starting at the farm. Congress should also act to ensure that the agency has the authority and the resources to fulfill its critical public health mandate.

The CSPI Petition also includes further details: [151]

Manure:

Appropriate manure management is required. Composting of manure intended for use on food crops should be monitored and records should be maintained to ensure effective controls are used to destroy pathogens. Domestic animals should be excluded from fields and orchards during the growing and harvesting season, and growing areas should have wildlife deterrents.

Water:

Growers and producers should ensure that the water supply used for irrigation and in food processing plants is suitable for its intended use.
Facilities should have an environmental monitoring program that includes sampling for pathogens to detect areas of harborage and to verify the effectiveness of cleaning and sanitizing programs in preventing cross-contamination.
Water used for washing produce should be monitored for the presence of pathogens at a rate adequate to ensure highly contaminated batches are identified and either destroyed or sent for further processing.

Hygiene:

Growers and processors should ensure that employees have close access to bathrooms and that handwashing facilities are visible to supervisors. Employees with direct and indirect access to the production areas should be trained in preventive controls that will help to eliminate or minimize contamination of produce.

Traceback:

Processors should mark packaging to ensure easy traceback to the farm of origin when fruits and vegetables are implicated in an outbreak.

Modified atmosphere and temperature may alter bacterial resistance to gastric juice

[152]
Arvind Bhagwatand colleagues 2008 studied the effect of low-oxygen based modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) and temperature after 8 days storage of fresh lettuce.

The authors found that bacteria acquired resistance to synthetic gastric juice when stored under extremely low-oxygen conditions ( between 0,5 and one per cent of oxygen) and at temperatures of 15$^{o}C$ or above. No resistance was induced among bacteria stored under extremely low-oxygen conditions and at temperatures of 10$^{o}C$ or below. Proper storage temperatures are, therefore, essential to minimize bacterial growth and adaptability inside sealed, bagged salad greens under MAP. The authors concluded that MAP must be supported by proper storage temperature to minimizing bacterial adaptability.

Improved sanitation of large food systems

HACCP programs place greater emphasis on record keeping and personal accountability, which, in turn, puts greater demand on systems and employees.

Manually operated, sanitation depend on the people which do not exclude human failures. An automated system is more reliable, because it follows a prescribed cleaning pattern. However, failure of automatic valves and dead ends in the system must always be considered by those who are in charge of the safety of the production.

Sanitation Performance Standards Compliance Guide

[153]
The Sanitation Performance Standards issued by the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) establishes a flexible regulatory method based on HACCP philosophy. It defines rule on sanitation requirements for meat and poultry plants.

The standards define the desired sanitation results, but not the specific means to achieve those results abolishing specific methods for cleaning equipment and utensils. The new standards remove obstacles to innovation, allowing innovative sanitation processing procedures. Past FSIS regulations and guidance, as well as recommendations from the 1999 Food Code and other technical sources, are included or cited.

Construction problems with stainless tubes, tanks and vessels

[154]
Fit and finish troubles with equipment that make it difficult to clean. Smoothness of welds and open bearings may present problems in food plants.

The American Welding Society published a guideline regarding tubes, pipes stainless tanks. describing the welding requirements for tubing systems pipes and stainless steel tankls built to 3-A standards, but also apply to meat production:

• Specification for Welding of Austenitic Stainless Steel Tube and Pipe Systems in Sanitary (Hygienic) Applications (D18.1:1999) [155]
• AWS D18.3/D18.3M Specification for Welding of Tanks, Vessels, and Other Equipment in Sanitary (Hygienic) Applications. Document AWS D18.3/D18.3M [156]

Sanitizing chemicals ozone and chlorine:

Ozone is making strides as a safe alternative and a powerful oxidant that destroys microbes, being nearly 3,000 times faster than chlorine. It is used as the primary agent of sanitation for more than 80 percent of the bottled water supplied to the U.S.

Aqueous ozone is used both to clean apples and its juice storage tanks. Salad makers uses aqueous ozone to disinfect vegetables and its associated equipment, replacing chlorine. Ozonated water is used to sanitize work areas and processing equipment used at the meat industry. Ozone rapidly decomposes into oxygen. Chlorine rinses uses 100 ppm chlorine. The same effect is attained with water containing 1 ppm ozone.

Bonamia ostreae oyster parasite in UK

[157]
The UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has issued a notice in 2007 confirming the presence of the parasite Bonamia ostreae in a bed of native oysters from Whitstable Bay.

The area subject to movement controls has been selected to ensure maximum protection against further spread of the disease. Bonamia ostreae causes the serious disease Bonamiosis in native oyster stocks, but does not have any clinical effect on any other species of shellfish. Cefas will be monitoring the extent and effect of the disease in the controlled area.

It is not expected that the controls will interfere with current commercial activity. Bonamiosis has no implications for human health, and native oysters from this area can still be eaten.

The Notice, issued under Regulation 14 of the Fish Health Regulations 1997 (as amended), restricts the movement of any live molluscan shellfish out of the specified area, for the purposes of relaying or re-immersion in the aquatic environment, without the prior written consent of Defra.

Bonamia ostreae is a protistan parasite (2-3$\mu$m) infecting the blood cells of the flat oyster (Ostrea edulis). The bonamiasis disesas is considered as a haemocytic parasitosis developing in older oysters. The transmission of the parasite can occur between cohabiting oysters. The parasite is present at the coasts of the USA, continental Europe and the Irish and English coastlines. Once Bonamia gets into an area it is not possible to eradicate the disease. However, stocks Irish oysters seem to have developed a degree of resistance to the disease. [158]

Researches on HIV and antiretroviral drugs strategies, the HPTN 035 Study

A retrovirus is an RNA virus that is replicated in a host cell via the enzyme reverse transcriptase to produce DNA from its RNA genome. The DNA is then incorporated into the host's genome by an integrase enzyme. The virus thereafter replicates as part of the host cell's DNA. Retroviruses are enveloped viruses that belong to the viral family Retroviridae. The virus itself stores its nucleic acid in the form of a +mRNA (including the 5'cap and 3'PolyA inside the virion) genome and serves as a means of delivery of that genome into cells it targets as an obligate parasite, and constitutes the infection. Once in the host's cell, the RNA strands undergo reverse transcription in the cytosol and are integrated into the host's genome. The HIV virus is the most prominent retrovirus. Antiretroviral drugs are medications for the treatment of infection by retroviruses, primarily HIV. Different classes of antiretroviral drugs act at different stages of the HIV life cycle. [159]

Genetic engineered plant production of a complex HIV drug unites efficiency and low production cost

[160]
Sexton and colleages 2009 describe a fusion protein molecule which may be useful as HIV microbicide. It is the combination of the HIV-neutralizing mAb b12 expressed in transgenic plants. This substance has gp120 binding activity and HIV-neutralizing activity in vitro. A combinational protein, also obtained by genetically modifying the plant, unites the mAb b12 with cyanovirin-N, both microbicides act synergistically to control the HIV virus. The fusion protein molecule is predicted to have four binding sites for HIV gp120.

The authors stress that genetic engineering of plant can make the drug affordable for developing countries and turn the production of high quantities possible. Its efficiency was only tested in vitro. The authors deplore the high legislation barriers for new drugs, meanwhile no regulations are set regarding new food supplements to be put on market.

Microbicide gel to prevent HIV infection of women

[161]
Sharon Hillier and colleagues 2009, leading the HPTN 035 study reports the prevention of HIV infections in women using a vaginal 0.5% microbicide gel preventing the HIV virus from attaching to cells in the genital tract.

The authors claim that the gels was 30% effective. Several candidate microbicides are being tested in clinical trials, although none is yet approved or available for use. Condoms are very effective to prevent HIV infection, but are often not accepted by the male partner. Applying the gel, women could protect themselves. Infection male to female is more frequent as the infection of men.

The study was conducted in Africa an in the USA during 2005 – 2008, assessing the effectiveness of BufferGel and 0.5% PRO 2000/5 Gel (P) in preventing the following among women at risk for sexually-transmitted HIV infection: bacterial vaginosis, chlamydia infection, genital ulcer disease, gonorrhea infection, herpes simplex virus-2 infection, pregnancy, syphilis infection, trichomoniasis.

HPTN 035 tested two candidate microbicides with different mechanisms of action: BufferGel and PRO 2000 (0.5% dose). BufferGel is designed to boost the natural acidity of the vagina in the presence of seminal fluid. Semen reduces the acidity of the vagina making it more receptive for pathogens that cause sexually transmitted infections, such as HIV. PRO 2000 is an entry/fusion inhibitor that is designed to hamper HIV's ability to attach to and infect healthy cells.

Although the participants in the PRO 2000 study arm had a 30 percent lower rate of HIV infection compared with the Buffer gel, tha placebo gel and a no-gel group. However, 33 percent effectiveness would have been needed to considered the results statistically significant. The authors call therefore for more studies whether PRO 2000 prevents HIV infection in women. [162]

Mathematical models predict higher protection rate in men than women using vaginal microbicides

[163]
Results of mathematical models of 2008 simulating clinical trials and population-level transmission of HIV, found that if HIV-positive women using microbicides may develop drug-resistant strains of HIV that are then less likely to be transmitted to men. In the high-risk scenario, the mathematical models predict for the use of microbicides prevention of infection of 21% for women and 27% for men. In the low-risk scenario, the microbicide would be 17% and 18% respectively.

Sally Blower, professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences said that vaginal microbicides are being developed to provide direct protection to women in case of non-acceptance of condom use by men. However, there are also concerns that microbicides could lead to drug resistance if they are used by HIV-positive women.

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