The Ban on Thai Chicken Imports as Boys Catch Avian Flu
The European Commission banned imports of Thai poultry yesterday to
halt the spread of deadly bird flu after two boys came down with the
virus outside Bangkok.
Following moves by Japan and Hong Kong, Brussels announced it was
blocking the sale of all Thai chicken slaughtered after Jan 1, in
addition to eggs and poultry products for pet food.
David Byrne, the food safety commissioner, dismissed criticism that
the EU was over-reacting to the health scare sweeping Asia. "We cannot
take any risks with public health or animal health," he said.
Thailand's health minister, Sudarat Keyuraphan, said the infected
boys, aged six and seven, from different provinces west of Bangkok,
were "critical but stable".
The seven-year-old had symptoms akin to severe pneumonia and was on a
respirator at a hospital in the capital, a health ministry statement
said. Three further people are being tested.
The first possible Thai death from the virus was also reported when a
farmer suspected of having bird flu died of pneumonia-like symptoms.
Millions of chickens have been slaughtered across east Asia after the
disease was found in Japan, South Korea, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam,
where five people have died and at least 17 others are infected.
Experts say transmission is chiefly caused by direct contact with the
birds, which Thailand does not export alive to Europe.
The commission said the risk of contagion from eating poultry was
"very low" but gave a warning that meat could be unsafe without
prolonged heat-treatment at over 70C.
There is no evidence so far that the virus can be transmitted between
humans, but health experts are constantly on alert for mutations that
could ultimately trigger a deadly pandemic.
The World Health Organisation, calling the near simultaneous bird flu
outbreaks across much of Asia "unprecedented", said it was concerned
that a new, virulent strain of influenza could sweep around the world.
It said eliminating the H5N1 bird flu virus "should be given high
priority as a matter of international public health importance".
The medical field is a vast land of beauty but with great beauty comes immense horror. There are many deadly viruses and diseases found in the medical field. In the novel, The Hot Zone by Richard Preston, the author discusses the many deadly viruses found in the field. The viruses are widespread due to the errors that occur when the viruses are in the presence of human beings. The effects of the errors performed by the human race include a decrease in population and wildlife. The viruses are spread in many different ways in the novel, but all are due to human mistakes.
The Meat Inspection Act of 1906 was an attempt to regulate the meatpacking industry and to assure consumers that the meat they were eating was safe. In brief, this act made compulsory the careful inspection of meat before its consummation, established sanitary standards for slaughterhouses and processing plants, and required continuous U.S. Department of Agriculture inspection of meat processing and packaging. Yet, the most important objectives set by the law are the prevention of adulterated or misbranded livestock and products from being commercialized and sold as food, and the making sure that meat and all its products are processed and prepared in the adequate sanitary and hygienic conditions (Reeves 35). Imported meat and its various products are no exception to these conditions; they must be inspected under equivalent foreign standards.
still a factor that continuously infects humans. In Foodborne Diseases, it says that “They [Salmonell...
It has not taken human to human transmission yet, that we know of. So far all cases of the virus result from people coming into close contact with bird blood or droppings. If the transmission of the virus does take human to human form, it could unleash a global pandemic. This is the first time in history that humans have been able to prepare themselves for an epidemic. The bird flu virus travels with migrating birds.
Following through with this fodder transmission theory, the British government introduced compulsory destruction of suspect animals and their carcasses beginning in 1988. The feeding of animal tissue to cows was banned in Britain in July 1988 and since mid-1992, monitors working for the United Kingdom Ministry of Agriculture have recorded a persistent decline in the number of confirmed cases. It is estimated that the program will eradicate BSE in Britain by the end of 1999.
To give background on the FDA and USDA for better understanding the USDA is responsible for meat and poultry, while the FDA is responsible for dairy, seafood, and vegetables. The USDA was founded in 1862 to encourage food creation in the United States (Sherrow 15). Dr. Peter Collier was the first person to suggest rules and laws for the safety of our food (Sherrow 15). Congress passed the Meat Inspection Act in 1890. The Act made the USDA inspectors inspect all pig products (Sherrow 15). In 1906 the Comprehensive Meat Inspection Act was passed. The act assigned inspectors from the UDSA to the United States’ 163 slaughter houses. In the slaughter houses the meat needed to be inspected before and after slaughter (Sherrow 15-16). The FDA is also responsible for protecting food from terrorists and anyone who wants to try to harm the public (Wilson). The FDA oversees 167,000 farms in the United States and 421,000 worldwide farms. The FDA only has 1,100 inspectors to inspect those farms (Wilson). The number of inspections done by the FDA went from 4,573 in 2005 to 3,400 in 2006 (Sherrow 34). According to the Center of Science in the Public Interest the FDA has no authority for prev...
On January 4, 2011 President Obama signed into law The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). This law has shed new light on the safety and security of our food supply. The last update to the food safety laws in the United States was in 1938. The food safety modernization act pays special attention at trying to modernize the food safety policies in the United States in hopes to prevent problems and concerns before they happen. As we all know, most of our food comes from overseas or sometimes from your neighboring state. The food products travel by car, truck, airplane, boat, or even train. We are all very happy to be receiving our bananas from Costa Rica and all of our other fresh fruits and vegetables that are imported into the United States, but we never stop to think about what pathogens are contaminating our produce and other foods on the way over and if they are safe for us to eat. In an article by Neal Fortin, he states that the law also gives the FDA new standards to hold imported foods to the domestic food standards and it also encourages the FDA to establish and develo...
Pathogens are organisms that are capable of causing diseases in other organisms and are considered to be ubiquitous. They can be found in water, on surfaces, and on or in humans, plants, and animals. Different pathogens have different signs and symptoms, treatment options, ways of transmission, diagnoses, and prognoses. Chickenpox, also known as varicella, and shingles are diseases caused by the same pathogen and have many of the same characteristics, but are also unique in their own ways.
Health and Economic Burdens of Norovirus Disease – The health burden of foodborne norovirus is significant (Painter et al., 2013). Norovirus causes a significant morbidity in terms of the number of outbreaks and associated illnesses each year in the United States. Hall et al. (2013) analyzed surveillance data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and derived estimates for AGE (acute gastroenteritis) associated with norovirus and found that about 19 to 21 million AGE illnesses, 400,000 emergency room visits, 1.7 to 1.9 million outpatient visits, 56,000 to 71,000 hospitalizations, and 570 to 800 deaths are caused by norovirus disease (Hall et al., 2013). ). There is an estimated 1 million pediatric cases requiring health provider intervention, 1 out of 14 children will require emergency room intervention and 1 out of every 6 children will require outpatient intervention (Wikswo & Hall, 2012; Hall et al., 2013). Norovirus is a major cause of morbidity for the general population. Children, the elderly and individuals with compromised immune systems and co-morbidities (McCabe-Sellers & Beatte, 2004) are particularly vulnerable to the effects of the virus. The economic burden of foodborne norovirus is significant (Painter et al., 2013). Researchers examined 14 foodborne pathogens that account for 95% of all confirmed foodborne illnesses and associated hospitalizations and 98% of deaths in the United States. One of the 14 pathogens evaluated was norovirus. On an annual basis, norovirus-associated hospitalizations are estimated to cost about $500 million (Batz et al., 2011; Bartsch et al, 2012). Healthcare costs and losses in productivity cost about $2 billion and results in the loss of 5,000 Q...
Hvistendahl, M, Cohen, J et. al. 2013. ‘New Flu Virus in China Worries and Confuses’ Science 340: 129-130
Imagine eating a plate full of insects, would you be totally grossed out? Or would you eat them? To begin with Around 20 million people eat bugs, instead of what most people call normal food. So what is the big deal? Though a lot of the other party would disagree, and believe that Insects should not be served on restaurant menus.
Fast food chicken nuggets are horrible for the human health. They have been many lawsuits and debates on whether it is real meat, processed, or whatever else might be in the world to create the delicious food most Americans desire. Chicken nuggets from fast food restaurants contain 57% of fat in each chicken nugget. Yes, I know what you are thinking, I had to think of how many chicken nuggets I have eaten too. Let’s begin with one of the famous restaurants, Mcdonalds. Mcdonalds is one of the worst place to get chicken nuggets from, as statistics shows. There chicken nuggets aren’t even chicken. Their chicken nuggets are processed and bioengineered. “and it's hard to determine exactly how much is added to McNuggets – this chemical can be toxic.”
... the Bahrain food control authorities must be in a position to address and counter all the threats to the system identified. For example, the threat faced from the inability to critically analyze the food regulatory agencies could expose the population to unsafe foods. In other words, there are high chances of cross-contamination of food during inspections due to weak inspection services and procedures. Worse still, the government may lack the capacity to bring food-borne diseases under control should they break out. Overreliance on imported food however remains the biggest threat to Bahrain food control system as it implies that the food problems in the countries of origin would be imported into Bahrain. One of the proposed or recommended strategies for Bahrain regarding its food control system is the adoption of an integrated approach to food control activities.
A kimchi Christmas. I have been eating kimchi like there is no tomorrow. Don't get me wrong, I love kimchi. However, I have been eating more than my stomach and breath can handle. Scientists from Seoul National University came out with a study a few days ago stating that a lactic enzyme in kimchi has remedial effects on chicken and other types of poultry. I assume kimchi's "antibacterial powers" have kept my family and I clean from this epidemic. With what I could understand from the Korean news, the bird flu is extremely infectious to organisms such as poultry. I went on the Center for Disease Control website to get a much more comprehendible version of the epidemic. It conveyed that the disease spreads rapidly from bird to bird as large amounts of the virus are secreted in bird droppings, contaminating earthly surroundings. The technical term for the disease is called Avian Influenza A H5N1. The big scare, The World Health Organization admits, is that this strain has the unique capacity to jump the species barrier, causing several diseases in humans. I will not be eating chicken for a while.
Food safety is an increasingly important public health issue. Governments all over the world are intensifying their efforts to improve food safety. Food borne illnesses are diseases, usually either infectious or toxic in nature, caused by agents that enter the body through the ingestion of food. “In industrialized countries, the percentage of people suffering from food borne diseases each year has been reported to be up to 30%. In the United States of America, for example, around 76 million cases of food borne diseases, resulting in 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths, are estimated to occur each year.” (Geneva 2)