Bacterial Foodborne Infection Paper

In the case of the Salmonella gastroenteritis outbreak after a reception, the origin of the illness comes down to the potato salad served at this event, however, the investigators are not certain of the mechanism of contamination. Whether the service worker (infected) might have unknowingly contaminated the food item or whether the food service worker also was infected through the same source as the case-patients remains unclear.2 Because the mechanism is unclear, it’s hard to identify if any of the ingredients in the potato salad were the culprit. In many cases, however, investigators are able to identify the mechanism for contamination.

McCarthy, A.L., Stevens, S.K., & Weber, R.A. Bacillus Cereus Fact Sheet (2013) Food Safety Counsel. Retrieved from http://www.foodsafetycounsel.com/fo

This case study, finalized and updated onto the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, talks about the Multistate Outbreak of Salmonella Wandsworth Infections Linked to Veggie Booty. Publishing this outbreak onto their website makes it very beneficial and helps the public realize the importance of food health. Food health is just as important as overall public health. It is essential because people need to consume food in order to live, and if their food is tainted or contaminated, it would cause health problems and sickness and in some extreme cases, death. Ensuring food health will overall promote public health in the long run.

Clostridium botulinum is an, anaerobic, gram-positive, spore-forming bacteria that causes the disease known as botulism (Smith and Sugiyama, 1988). It produces a potent neurotoxin called botulinum toxin which causes botulism or more specifically foodborne botulism. The spores of the bacteria can survive high temperatures and can live in foods that are incorrectly or poorly processed (FDA). There are seven types of botulism recognized, (A-G), but only A, B, E, and F cause human botulism (FDA).

Clostridium botulinum is a bacterium that produces dangerous toxins under low-oxygen conditions. Clostridium botulinum will not grow in acidic conditions, and therefore the toxin will not be formed in acidic foods. Combinations of low storage temperature and salt contents and/or pH are also used to prevent the growth of the bacteria or the formation of the toxin. Even though the spores of clostridium botulinum are not easily damaged by heat, the toxin made by bacteria growing out of the spores under anaerobic conditions is destroyed by boiling. Therefore, ready-to-eat foods in low oxygen-packaging are more frequently involved in botulism. Prevention of foodborne botulism is based on good practice in food preparation particularly preservation and hygiene. Commercial heat pasteurization may not be sufficient to kill all spores and therefore the safety of these products must be based on preventing bacterial growth and toxin making. Salt content combined with refrigeration temperatures will prevent the growth of the bacteria and formation of toxin.

Abbreviated to BoNT, there are seven serotypes of botulinum neurotoxin, denoted BoNT-A through to BoNT-G, all of which are released by strains of the Clostridium botulinum; an anaerobic, rod shaped, gram-positive bacterium which is usually prevalent in soils and is capable of forming endospores, (Samul et al., 2013). These endospores can survive high temperatures, (Sobel, 2005), explaining how the major route of infection occurs. The endospores can contaminate food production, surviving the high cooking temperatures, and end up in jarred and tinned food. After germination, the endospore releases its neurotoxins which are consumed and lead to a potentially fatal disease known as botulism. Thanks to food production regulations, these cases are rare in the UK, however there was a case in Scotland in 2011, where three children acquired botulism after eating a jarred sauce, (Browning et al., 2011). Most cases of food-borne botulism are from home made food, where industrial regulations aren’t followed during “canning” or “jarring”, (McLauchlin et al., 2006).

Many countries use the fermentation method in order to preserve or enhance the flavors of foods. However, the result of fermentation can also lead to drastic symptoms. For instance, the article “Food-Borne Paralysis from Eating Home-Pickled Eggs” from an Outbreak 37 article is about a 68-year-old man having symptoms involving paralysis and muscle weakness after eating the home-pickled eggs that he had made. This is one example of what we call Clostridium Botulinum. Clostridium Botulinum is a rod-shaped bacterium with a terminal endospore. This pathogen grows best around room temperature to warm areas and loves the environment that has soil. They are also gram-positive bacteria. There are three types of Clostridium Botulism: foodborne, infant botulism, and wound. These different types of botulism have different symptoms, causes, preventions, and treatments. C. Botulinum has spores that releases toxins and can germinate and affect other organisms. This neurotoxin is highly toxic which can make a person have paralysis. Originally, there are more than four different types of botulism, but those other types of botulism do not affect human’s health.

Foodborne illness is any illness resulting from food being spoiled, not properly cooked, or contaminated. Examples of the organisms in these types of food are pathogenic bacteria, viruses, parasites, and toxins, these organisms are caused by contaminants ranging from biological to chemical to physical. Biological contaminants such as pathogenic bacteria, can be caused by under cooked food, or can be spread by workers who do not properly wash their hands. Chemical contaminants are cleaning materials that have worked their way into the food during the cooking process, the cooling process, setting on the line or in any scenario where there are chemicals involved there is a risk of chemical contamination. Physical contaminants are any foreign objects that can get

Enteric infections are often caused by foodborne pathogens such as Salmonella and Escherichia coli. The impact these pathogens have on the human body can depend on their pathogenicity and possibly even the hosts’ resident intestinal microbiome. The research aim was therefore to evaluate the possible effects the intestinal microbiome could have on susceptibility to and recovery from enteric infections. By evaluating the microbial compositions present in faecal samples of patients with enteric infections and their uninfected family members by DNA sequencing, the authors discovered levels of the microbes Proteobacteria were higher in infected persons while levels of the microbes Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes were lower in uninfected persons. Future

In this paper we will be discussing Botulism. Botulism is a type of food poisoning that is both rare and serious. Botulism can be caused by different strains of the bacterium Clostridium, however, it is usually is caused by Clostridium botulinum. Botulism can cause severe symptoms, including paralytic symptoms that can eventually lead to death. There are different types of botulism including foodborne botulism, wound botulism, and infant botulism. All types of botulism may be lethal and should always be considered a medical emergency. If illness is left untreated the possibility is greatly increased. We will also discuss a rare case of

Clostridium botulinum is a Gram-positive, anaerobic, slightly curved, motile, rod-shaped bacterium that is also spore-forming producing the heat-resistant endospores. The endospores it produces are very resistant to environmental stresses including heat and high acid, it can become activated in anaerobic environments, low acidity, high moisture content, and in temperatures ranging from 3°C to 43°C. It is usually found in soil and water of any region in the world. The production of botulinum toxin of this bacteria makes it pathogenic. It is a neurotoxin that causes the disease botulism, a rare but serious paralytic illness that can lead to death (Schneider et al. 2014).

Humans are capable of being colonized by this microbe, as an intermediate host, allowing further transmission between individuals. Graveland, et al. (2011) identified a statistical link for individuals whom are occupationally exposed to livestock and / or live in close proximity to livestock. Additionally, contaminated foods might further assist in transmission. A few examples include dairy from bovines have breast tissue infection, which, have been shown to transmit and infect bulk tank milk from dairy farms. This has the ability financially cripple dairy farms in most countries, as most dairy farms must dispose of all contaminated milk. Furthermore, slaughterhouse animals and workers are at risk for contaminating food and furthering transmission straight to the dinner table (Normanno et al.,

Staphylococcus food poisoning can be found in variety type of food products such as meat, poultry, egg and dairy products. Food that are needed to take extra handling during food preparation, stored above refrigeration temperature which is 4℃ after preparation and those food are high in starch and protein content are more susceptible to be attacked by staphylococcus enterotoxin. One study indicate that less than 1.0μg of staphylococcus enterotoxin could cause staphylococcus food poisoning (FDA, 2012).

In 2011, there was an outbreak linked to the whole cantaloupe contaminated with L. monocytogenes whose root cause was speculated to be the unsanitary condition of the processing environment. The firm attachment and biofilm formation by L. monocytogenes in inaccessible areas and later dispersion during processing, supposedly caused the microorganism contaminate the cantaloupes (Sapers, Miller, Pilizota, & Mattrazzo, 2001). Similarly, various common practices in produce industries including trimming, cutting, slicing, washing, rinsing, and packaging; all of which can serve as primary sources of cross-contamination as a result of biofilm formation and hazardous consequences thereafter (Suslow et al., 2003). The sanitizers normally used in produce industries such as ozone, chlorine, organic acids, are only effective in reducing 1-2 logs of microorganisms and are usually ineffective against microbial biofilms (Rosenblum, Ge, Bohrerova, Yousef, & Lee, 2012). Areas of concern in produce industries consist the product itself, equipment and process, all vulnerable to biofilm formation and therefore require a rigorous food safety and sanitation plan.

Clostridium perfringens is a bacterium that is usually responsible for food poisoning. Because the toxin-encoding genes can be located on extra chromosomal elements or in variable regions of the chromosome, several pathovars have arisen, each of which is involved in a specific disease [10]. It has been estimated by the Centers for Diseases Control and the Food and Drug Administration of the United States of America that around 30 million people every year fall sick due to the infections caused by eating food which is contaminated [11,12]. Studies have shown that Salmonella enterica is one amongst the more prevalent bacterial pathogens that causes food borne infections [11]. It is estimated that the medical and productivity losses caused by this bacterium were of high order. [11].