Antibotic use in Agriculture production

[PORKER]

Antibotic use in Agriculture production causing MRSA and other health problems.
Link to CBS video below;
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6191894n

 

[hypocritexposer]

antibiotics are being given to perfectly healthy Humans also.

 

[PORKER]

Since this CBS report featured hogs and chicken, beef use may pick up.

 

[Anonymous]

Since this CBS report featured hogs and chicken, beef use may pick up.

Why should beef use pick up? Being as the feed lots are as guilty as the pig/chicken growers!

 

[PORKER]

Beefing Up Meat Safety in School Lunch Programs
February 15th, 2010

Supplying food for the National School Lunch Program is about to see tighter safety regulations. New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in an attempt to tie tighter regulations and higher standards around meat products being consumed by children in school lunch programs. At issue is the frequency with which meat products are tested before they are included in cafeteria lunches. Gillibrand is calling for testing procedures similar to those used in the food industry. She cited Costco and Jack in the Box for having strict testing programs. She is also asking that the USDA to "terminate contracts with any habitual violators of your food safety policies."

The attempt is part of the senator's E. coli Eradication Act, legislation she authored that would for the first time federally mandate testing of all ground beef for E. coli. Her goal is to set stricter guidelines for bacteria, which may mean more testing for the livestock and meat production industry.

The highlight of the bill would be a requirement that slaughterhouses, producers and grinding facilities receiving ground meat trimmings use independent testing facilities for the E. coli testing. Also, the testing facilities would be given annual contracts to eliminate the chance of the testing facility being fired by the company as a result of returning too many positive E. coli test results.

For small producers, all is not lost. The bill sets a threshold 25,000 pounds of trim per day. Producers whose business falls under that threshold are given three years to comply with the measure.

The bill will put tighter recall deadlines on meat products; specifically, retailers must be notified of all Class I recalls directly and within 24 hours of a public recall. Also, producers will be expected to develop prevention plans to deal with food-borne hazards. That plan must be accessible by the FDA.
The good news is that the new bill, if passed, puts tighter food safety regulations on imported foods, leveling the playing field for domestic producers.

 

[mrj]

Anyone interested in FACTS, versus food hysteria agenda's could check the refutation of many of the claims in the CBS story may want to check comments by H. Scott Hurd DVM, PhD at Iowa State U.

http://www.vetmed.iastate.edu/news/isu-associate-professor-and-former-usda-deputy-undersecretary

http://vetmed.iastate.edu/research/labe/food-risk-modeling-and-policy-lab

Just a few points made:

That was a very small pilot study sampling less than 300 pigs.

There have been organic farms found to be 100% positive for mrsa and some conventional farms using using antibiotics were 100% free of mrsa.

There was a failure to state that there are at least 3 general categories of MRSA

The strain of MRSA associated with livestock is unique (strain 398) and has not been found in human disease surveillance for MRSA in either the US CDC, or the U of Iowa hospitals.

It is very unlikely people interviewed for the CBS story had livestock associated MRSA, and much more likely they had the common community-acquired strain from being in close contact with MRSA infected PEOPLE, not ANIMALS.

There is MUCH more to be found a the website of this highly respected University. How much respect is due CBS these days????



mrj

 

[flounder]

Anyone interested in FACTS, versus food hysteria agenda's could check the refutation of many of the claims in the CBS story may want to check comments by H. Scott Hurd DVM, PhD at Iowa State U.

http://www.vetmed.iastate.edu/news/isu-associate-professor-and-former-usda-deputy-undersecretary

http://vetmed.iastate.edu/research/labe/food-risk-modeling-and-policy-lab

Just a few points made:

That was a very small pilot study sampling less than 300 pigs.

There have been organic farms found to be 100% positive for mrsa and some conventional farms using using antibiotics were 100% free of mrsa.

There was a failure to state that there are at least 3 general categories of MRSA

The strain of MRSA associated with livestock is unique (strain 398) and has not been found in human disease surveillance for MRSA in either the US CDC, or the U of Iowa hospitals.

It is very unlikely people interviewed for the CBS story had livestock associated MRSA, and much more likely they had the common community-acquired strain from being in close contact with MRSA infected PEOPLE, not ANIMALS.

There is MUCH more to be found a the website of this highly respected University. How much respect is due CBS these days????



mrj

:???: :?


MRJ, you would not know a fact, if it slapped you up side the head. the only facts you know about is your bottom dollar $ in your surmation, this is just another blatant attack on the republican farmer, from those blue coat democrats and that mean old katie couric. damn her, it's all her fault. :roll:


maybe we should look at some more FACTS. :shock:



MRSA ST398 HUMANS

From Emerging Infectious Diseases Staphylococcus aureus ST398, New York City and Dominican Republic Meera Bhat; Caroline Dumortier; Barbara S. Taylor; Maureen Miller; Glenny Vasquez; Jose Yunen; Karen Brudney; Jacqueline Sánchez E.; Carlos Rodriguez-Taveras; Rita Rojas; Patricia Leon; Franklin D. Lowy

Authors and Disclosures

Posted: 05/11/2009; Emerging Infectious Diseases © 2008 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Abstract Closely related Staphylococcus aureus strains of ST398, an animal-associated strain, were identified in samples collected from humans in northern Manhattan, New York, NY, USA, and in the Dominican Republic. A large population in northern Manhattan has close ties to the Dominican Republic, suggesting international transmission.

Introduction

In the past 5 years, as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has emerged as a community pathogen, awareness of the role of animal exposure from pets or farming as sources of MRSA has increased.[1-3] We identified a clone of S. aureus previously associated with outbreaks of infections in animals and in humans who work with animals in 2 unique collections of S. aureus isolates. The first was from a population-based study of S. aureus colonization among residents of northern Manhattan in New York, NY, USA; the second was from isolates obtained from the Dominican Republic. This clone does not digest with the restriction enzyme SmaI, which is generally used for pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Consequently, the clone is identified by multilocus sequence typing as sequence type 398 (ST398). Both methicillin-resistant and methicillin-susceptible isolates of S. aureus have been reported.[4] ST398 has been found primarily in Europe, where it has been isolated from pigs and pig farmers in the Netherlands and France and from dogs, pigs, horses, and humans in Germany and Austria.[5-8] Colonization with MRSA ST398 has recently been reported in pigs and pig farmers in Canada.[9]

snip...

The Study

The community-based study was conducted from 2004 through 2007 in the northern section of Manhattan, a borough of New York City. Northern Manhattan contains a large, medically underserved population that has close ties to the Dominican Republic. Participants were recruited by using random-digit dialing. Consenting persons and household members were subsequently interviewed and screened for S. aureus colonization. A total of 321 eligible households containing 914 household members participated. In 9 households, 13 participants were found to be colonized with S. aureus isolates that were SmaI resistant. Digestion with the Cfr9I, an isoschizomer of SmaI, yielded identical PFGE profiles (Figure). Subsequent multilocus sequence typing confirmed the ST398 identification (allelic profile 3–35–19–2-20–26–39). All strains were methicillin susceptible. A representative strain was spa-typed as type t571 (allelic profile 8–16–2-25–2-25–34–25, eGenomics type 109); it was Panton-Valentine leukocidin negative.

Characteristics of persons colonized with ST398 were similar to those of persons in the community-based study and with northern Manhattan census characteristics (Table). The 13 isolates were from 9 different families; 1 family had 4 members colonized with ST398 at either nasal or axillary sites. The mean age of those colonized was 33.4 years; only 1 child (7 years of age) was colonized. Two persons from different families were colonized with ST398 at multiple sites, none of which were confirmed as infections.

No household reported owning pets, although 2 reported animal contact. Of the 12 adults, 5 (41.7%) reported possible job exposure to S. aureus, including 1 who worked in a healthcare-associated field. No household reported patronizing viveros, or live poultry markets, which are common in the Latino communities of northern Manhattan and the Bronx. Two households reported having children who attended day care, although none of these children were colonized with S. aureus. Although 15% of the Dominican population in the study reported travel to the

Page 2 of 7

Dominican Republic within 6 months of their interview, none of the colonized participants reported recent travel to the Dominican Republic. No contact among the different households was reported.

snip...


http://www.cdc.gov/eid/content/15/2/pdfs/08-0609.pdf



First human isolates of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus sequence type 398 in Spain

C. Potel & M. Álvarez-Fernández & L. Constenla & P. Álvarez & S. Perez Received: 31 July 2009 / Accepted: 13 December 2009 # Springer-Verlag 2010

To the Editor,

An emerging sequence type (ST) 398 methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) clone producing infections in humans has been detected across Europe [1]. Recent studies indicate that it is widely distributed in farm animals, particularly in pigs, suggesting transmission between animals and humans [2].

The frequency of MRSA ST398 in the Spanish population is unknown. In this study, we present the first three human cases of MRSA ST398 infections admitted to two hospitals in the north-west of Spain.

Forty-four MRSA strains were isolated in 2006 in both hospitals. They were studied by the analysis of restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) of the coagulase gene patterns and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) [3, 4]. Three non-Sma I typeable MRSA strains were identified; the three strains were EagI PFGE typeable. Next, they were analyzed by multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and spa typing [5, 6]. The staphylococcal chromosome cassette (SCC) mec, the accessory gene regulator (agr) types, and the Panton–Valentine leukocidin (PVL)-encoding genes were polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-identified [7–9].

The three strains were resistant to tetracycline. Besides, one isolate was resistant to levofloxacin, tobramycin, and erythromycin, and another isolate was resistant to levofloxacin and clindamycin, and susceptible to erythromycin; this rare phenotype has already been described [2]. The three MRSA isolates were identical by RFLP. By EagI PFGE, they were closely related following Tenover's criteria (Fig. 1) [10]. All isolates were ST398, SCCmec-V, agr-1, and PVL genes-negative. They belonged to three spa types; t108, t011, and t1255.

The age of the three patients was 59, 82, and 83 years, respectively. Two patients owned pigs and the other a calf. Two patients were diabetic and were hospitalized because they developed skin and soft-tissue infections by MRSA ST398. The third patient had bronchitis and the strain was isolated from a respiratory secretion submitted to the laboratory from an outpatient clinic. The three patients had had multiple hospital admissions in the last 12 months.

As it has been described previously, the ST398 isolates were resistant to tetracycline [2]. Only another strain from the 44 MRSA strains studied was also resistant to tetracycline. This one belonged to the ST239 clone that was epidemic in north-west Spain until 2002, and since then, it has scarcely been isolated [3]. The ST239 clone is easily identified because of the homogeneity in the resistance profile (it is also resistant to levofloxacin, gentamicin, tobramycin, erythromycin, clindamycin, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, and chloramphenicol) [3]. Therefore, it can be stated that the resistance to tetracycline could be a local marker for a presumptive identification of the ST398 clone.


http://www.springerlink.com/content/p8866u775tvm51w5/fulltext.pdf?page=1



Volume 16, Number 1–January 2010

Letter

Skin Lesion Caused by ST398 and ST1 MRSA, Spain1

Carmen Aspiroz, Carmen Lozano, Ana Vindel, Juan J. Lasarte, Myriam Zarazaga, and Carmen Torres Author affiliations: Hospital Royo Villanova, Zaragoza, Spain (C. Aspiroz); Universidad de La Rioja, Logroño, Spain (C. Lozano, M. Zarazaga, C. Torres); Centro Nacional Microbiología, Madrid, Spain (A. Vindel); and Centro Salud San Mateo de Gállego, Zaragoza (J.J. Lasarte)

Suggested citation for this article

To the Editor: Human infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) sequence type 398 (ST398) have been emerging in recent years in Europe (1,2). Pigs represent a common reservoir of MRSA ST398, and working with these animals may constitute a risk factor for MRSA carriage and possible infection (2–4). We report a case of human infection caused by MRSA ST398 in Spain.

SEE FULL TEXT ;


http://www.cdc.gov/eid/content/16/1/157.htm



Eurosurveillance, Volume 13, Issue 9, 28 February 2008

Rapid communications

First outbreak of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus ST398 in a Dutch hospital, June 2007

M WH Wulf ([email protected].)1, A Markestein2, F T van der Linden3, A Voss4, C Klaassen4, C M Verduin1,2

1. Laboratory for Pathology and Medical Microbiology, Veldhoven, the Netherlands 2. Department of Hospital Infection Control, St Anna Hospital, Geldrop, the Netherlands 3. Department of Surgery, St Anna Hospital, Geldrop, the Netherlands 4. Department of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Canisius-Wilhelmina Hospital, Nijmegen, the Netherlands

We describe the first outbreak of non-typable methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus on a surgical ward in the Netherlands in June 2007. Nine cases of infection and/or colonisation were found among patients and healthcare workers.

Background

In the Netherlands, the proportion of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) among clinical isolates of S. aureus is still low [1], but community-acquired MRSA occurs more frequently [2]. This increase is mainly caused by so called 'non-typable' MRSA (NTMRSA, i.e. not typable by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) with Sma1 restriction digest [3]) belonging to multilocus sequence typing (MLST) type ST398 [4].

These strains are widely disseminated among pigs, veal calves and people in contact with pigs [5-8]. An association between the use of antibiotics in pig farming and the dissemination of these strains has been suggested [6,8], since the majority of ST398 MRSA are tetracycline-resistant and oxytetracyclins are the most frequently used antibiotics in pig farming.

Transmission within families, as well as single cases of colonised healthcare workers, have been described [5]. One report indicates possible healthcare-acquired infections with a Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL)- positive ST398 strain in China [9], but no nosocomial transmission to multiple patients or healthcare workers has occurred in the Netherlands to date.

Outbreak description

In June 2007, MRSA was cultured from a diabetic foot ulcer of a patient on a surgical ward. Subsequent screening of contacts among patients and healthcare workers revealed four additional patients with MRSA infection and/or colonisation and five healthcare workers who carried MRSA.

Two of the five affected patients (one with prostate carcinoma and one with a diabetic foot) were successfully decolonised with mupirocin nasal ointment, chlorhexidine wash, and treatment with trimetoprim/rifampicin.

A further colonised patient with a gastro-intestinal malignancy and two patients with infected diabetic foot ulcers remained colonised, despite several decolonisation regimens.

Of 238 healthcare workers who were screened, five were colonised in the nose and/or throat and had no skin conditions. All five have been treated with mupirocin nasal ointment and chlorhexidine wash and successfully decolonised.

All strains were resistant to tetracycline and non-typable by PFGE. Spa-typing showed that all strains were spa-type t567. This spa-type corresponds to MLST type 398, a type previously found in pigs.

None of the patients had had contact with pigs or veal calves. One healthcare worker lived on the grounds of a pig farm but neither she nor her partner came into contact with pigs themselves. While we presume that this health care worker was the source of the infection, this could not be proven. Permission to sample the pigs on this farm was not granted.

Conclusions

The NT-MRSA strain responsible for this outbreak was spa-type t567, which corresponds to MLST type ST398, the clonal complex to which most of NT-MRSA strains belong. This outbreak shows that transmission on a larger scale than a one-on-one transmission between caretaker and patient can occur with NT-MRSA in a hospital setting.

References


http://www.eurosurveillance.org/images/dynamic/EE/V13N09/art8051.pdf



EDITORIAL

MRSA in livestock animals—an epidemic waiting to happen?

M. Wulf 1 and A. Voss 2,3 1 PAMM Laboratory for Medical Microbiology, Veldhoven , 2 Department of Medical Microbiology, Nijmegen University Centre for Infectious Diseases, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre and 3 Department of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Canisius-Wilhelmina Hospital, Nijmegen, The Netherlands Corresponding author and reprint requests: A. Voss, Department of Medical Microbiology, Nijmegen University Centre for Infectious Diseases, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands E-mail: [email protected] Copyright © 2008 European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases KEYWORDS Community-acquired MRSA • epidemiology • livestock • methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus • pig farming • ST398 ABSTRACT

Screening of pig farmers and pigs in The Netherlands has revealed that >20% of pig farmers and 39% of slaughterhouse pigs are positive for an unusual strain of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) belonging to sequence type (ST) 398. It is now clear that the emergence of ST398 is not just a Dutch problem, with human infections being described in several European countries, Canada and Singapore. Furthermore, some human isolates have now acquired the genes encoding Panton–Valentine leukocidin. Livestock may become an important source of community-acquired MRSA. A concerted effort on the part of clinicians, infection control practitioners and veterinarians will be required to prevent further spread of this novel strain of MRSA.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DIGITAL OBJECT IDENTIFIER (DOI) 10.1111/j.1469-0691.2008.01970.x About DOI


http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/119414762/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0



Emerg Infect Dis. 2009 May; 15(5): 845–847. doi: 10.3201/eid1505.081417. PMCID: PMC2687035

Copyright notice

Community-acquired Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus ST398 Infection, Italy

Angelo Pan, Antonio Battisti, Alessia Zoncada, Francesco Bernieri, Massimo Boldini, Alessia Franco, Maurilio Giorgi, Manuela Iurescia, Silvia Lorenzotti, Mario Martinotti, Monica Monaci, and Annalisa Pantosti Istituti Ospitalieri di Cremona, Cremona, Italy (A. Pan, A. Zoncada, F. Bernieri, S. Lorenzotti, M. Martinotti) Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Regioni Lazio e Toscana, Rome, Italy (A. Battisti, A. Franco, M. Iurescia) Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Regioni Lombardia ed Emilia-Romagna, Cremona (M. Boldini) Azienda Sanitaria Locale di Cremona, Cremona (M. Giorgi) Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome (M. Monaci, A. Pantosti)

Corresponding author. Address for correspondence: Angelo Pan, Divisione di Malattie Infettive, Istituti Ospitalieri di Cremona, Largo Priori 1, 26100 Cremona, Italy; email: [email protected].

Keywords: Antimicrobial resistance, staphylococci, Staphylococcus aureus, community acquired, MRSA, ST398, pig strain, bloodstream infection, letter

To the Editor: Community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) has been identified in livestock animals (particularly pigs), veterinarians, and animal farm workers (1,2). CA-MRSA strains from pigs have been classified most frequently within the multilocus sequence type (ST) 398 (1) and have been rarely identified as a cause of invasive infection in humans (1,3,4). We report a case of invasive infection in a pig-farm worker in Cremona, Italy, an intensive animal farming area; the infection was caused by MRSA of swine origin, ST398.

full text ;


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2687035/



EID Journal Home > Volume 16, Number 2–February 2010

Volume 16, Number 2–February 2010 Letter Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus ST398, Italy Laura Soavi, Roberto Stellini, Liana Signorini, Benvenuto Antonini, Palmino Pedroni, Livio Zanetti, Bruno Milanesi, Annalisa Pantosti, Alberto Matteelli, Angelo Pan, and Giampiero Carosi Author affiliations: University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy (L. Soavi, R. Stellini, L. Signorini, A. Matteelli, G. Carosi); Presidio Ospedaliero di Manerbio, Manerbio, Italy (B. Antonini, P. Pedroni, L. Zanetti, B. Milanesi); Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy (A. Pantosti); and Istituti Ospitalieri di Cremona, Cremona, Italy (A. Pan)

Suggested citation for this article

To the Editor: It has recently become apparent that livestock can constitute a new methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) reservoir and be a source of a novel and rapidly emerging type of MRSA. These livestock-associated MRSA clones are nontypeable by use of pulsed-field gel electrophoresis with SmaI and belong to sequence type (ST) 398 (1). MRSA ST398 clones account for 20% of all MRSA in the Netherlands (2), but the emergence of such clones has been described worldwide (3). Although ST398 transmission has been reported primarily between animals, persons with occupational exposure to livestock are at higher risk for MRSA carriage than the general population. Even though MRSA ST398 usually causes colonization, several cases of infections of variable clinical relevance, varying from skin and soft tissue infections (4) to endocarditis (5) and pneumonia (6), have been described over the past few years. Most instances of ST398 human carriers have been identified among persons who work at pig farms (7). Data regarding MRSA colonization of dairy farmers are less exhaustive and, to our knowledge, only 1 instance of direct transmission between cattle and humans has been proven. MRSA isolates from cows with subclinical mastitis in 2007 in Hungary were indistinguishable from MRSA isolates from the tonsil swab of a farmer who worked with these animals (8). We report a case of MRSA ST398 invasive disease in a cattle farmer, as well as a case of MRSA ST398 necrotizing fasciitis


http://www.cdc.gov/eid/content/16/2/346.htm



Volume 15, Number 7–July 2009 Dispatch Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus ST398 in Swine Farm Personnel, Belgium Olivier Denis, Carl Suetens,1 Marie Hallin, Boudewijn Catry, Ilse Ramboer, Marc Dispas, Glenda Willems, Bart Gordts, Patrick Butaye, and Marc J. Struelens Author affiliations: Université Libre de Bruxelles Hôpital Erasme, Brussels, Belgium (O. Denis, M. Hallin, M.J. Struelens); Scientific Institute of Public Health, Brussels (C. Suetens, B. Catry, I. Ramboer); Veterinary and Agrochemical Research Centre, Brussels (M. Dispas, G. Willems, P. Butaye); and AZ Sint-Jan, Brugge, Belgium (B. Gordts)

Abstract We assessed methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in persons on 49 swine farms in Belgium. Surveys showed that 48 (37.8%) persons carried MRSA ST398 and 1 (0.8%) had concurrent skin infection. Risk factors for carriage were MRSA carriage by pigs, regular contact with pigs and companion animals, and use of protective clothing.

snip...

Conclusions Human carriage of MRSA was associated with swine colonization with MRSA. Prevalence rate (38%) was higher than that for hospitalized patients or nursing home residents in Belgium (www.nsih.be/surv_mrsa/download_fr.asp). MRSA isolates from farmers belonged to closely related spa types corresponding to ST398, which are unrelated to hospital- and community-acquired strains but identical to strains from humans in contact with pigs in other European countries (1,2,10).

Despite the high prevalence of nasal MRSA, active MRSA skin infection was detected infrequently (<1%), within the range described in recent US-based studies (11). In a hospital in the Netherlands, a lower attack rate was found for MRSA ST398 than for other MRSA strains (12). However, invasive infections caused by MRSA ST398 have been reported, suggesting that this genotype is pathogenic for humans (2). In our study, MRSA strains did not harbor exotoxin.

Two MRSA genotypes were predominant. For 70% of farms with multiple MRSA carriers, all strains belonged to the same genotype, suggesting transmission within the farm. Although these strains have been shown to not spread easily in hospitals (12), outbreaks of MRSA ST398 in a residential care facility and a hospital probably originated from healthcare workers living on pig farms (13,14). In contrast with MRSA strains, MSSA isolates in our study showed diverse genotypes that frequently colonize human populations (4). MSSA isolates from 3 farmers belonged to the ST398 genotype, which is infrequently reported in humans except in pig farmers with contact with pigs (4).

Risk factors for MRSA ST398 carriage included regular contact with pigs but also with horses and dogs (10), suggesting that different animals could be MRSA ST398 reservoirs or vectors, at least on pig farms. Protective measures did not seem to reduce the risk of becoming colonized with MRSA; this lack of effectiveness has previously been observed for veterinarians (15). This apparent lack of protection should be further investigated to determine routes of transmission other than direct contact with pigs, including airborne transmission and contact with contaminated surfaces and companion animals.


http://www.cdc.gov/EID/content/15/7/1098.htm



doi:10.1016/j.vetmic.2009.12.044 | How to Cite or Link Using DOI Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Permissions & Reprints

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) ST398 associated with clinical and subclinical mastitis in Belgian cows

Wannes Vanderhaeghena, b, , , , Tineke Cerpentierc, Connie Adriaensena, Jo Viccac, Katleen Hermansb and Patrick Butayea, b

a Veterinary and Agrochemical Research Center, CODA-CERVA-VAR, Groeselenberg 99, B-1180 Ukkel, Belgium

b Ghent University, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Pathology, Bacteriology and Poultry Diseases, Salisburylaan 133, 9820 Merelbeke, Belgium

c University College KaHo Sint-Lieven, Association Catholic University Leuven, Department of Agro- and Biotechnology, Hospitaalstraat 23, 9100 Sint-Niklaas, Belgium

Received 28 October 2009; revised 24 December 2009; accepted 28 December 2009. Available online 11 January 2010.

Abstract Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is infrequently reported in mastitis. Yet, as in many other countries, the prevalence of methicillin resistance among S. aureus from mastitis is currently unknown in Belgium.

To elucidate this, the presence of mecA was investigated in 118 S. aureus strains originating from diagnostic mastitis milk samples from 118 different farms experiencing S. aureus mastitis. MRSA strains were characterized by disk diffusion susceptibility testing, spa-typing, MLST and SCCmec-typing. In an additional study, four MRSA-positive farms were selected to assess the in-herd prevalence of MRSA, by sampling all cows in lactation. Isolated MRSA strains were similarly characterized.

The mecA gene was detected in 11 (9.3%) of the 118 S. aureus isolates, indicating that nearly 10% of the Belgian farms suffering from S. aureus mastitis have an MRSA problem. The in-herd prevalence varied between 0% and 7.4%. Characterization of the MRSA strains showed that they were all resistant to tetracycline. Additional resistances to macrolides, lincosamides and aminoglycosides were frequently detected. The strains were ST398, spa-types t011 or t567 and had SCCmec-type IVa or V, proving that they belong to the emerging livestock-associated MRSA (LA-MRSA) strains of CC398.

Our study shows that after detection in Belgian pigs, horses and poultry, LA-MRSA has also attained Belgian cattle. It is the first report on frequent isolation of LA-MRSA from bovine infections. As the in-herd isolation rate resembles that of regular S. aureus in farms experiencing S. aureus mastitis, the multi-resistance of LA-MRSA strains may cause future treatment problems.

Keywords: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus; MRSA; Mastitis; Belgium; ST398; Multidrug resistance


http://www.sciencedirect.com/


High occurrence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus ST398 in equine nasal samples

A. Van den Eedea, , , A. Martensa, U. Lipinskab, M. Struelensc, A. Deplanoc, O. Denisc, F. Haesebrouckb, F. Gasthuysa and K. Hermansb

aDepartment of Surgery and Anaesthesiology of Domestic Animals, Ghent University, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Salisburylaan 133, B-9820 Merelbeke, Belgium

bDepartment of Pathology, Bacteriology and Poultry Diseases, Ghent University, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Salisburylaan 133, B-9820 Merelbeke, Belgium

cLaboratoire de Référence MRSA-Staphylocoques, Department of Microbiology, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Hôpital Erasme, Route de Lennik 808, B-1070 Brussels, Belgium

Received 30 March 2008; revised 23 June 2008; accepted 26 June 2008. Available online 5 July 2008.

Abstract Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections do occur in equine patients. Little is known, however, about their origin and the general equine MRSA colonization status. In West European horses in particular, neither the colonization rate nor the present strains or their antimicrobial susceptibility patterns are known.

In the present study, a sample of 110 (Belgian, French, Dutch and Luxemburg) horses presented at a Belgian equine clinic was screened for nasal MRSA carriage. An indirect culturing protocol using a 0.001% colistin and nalidixic acid containing broth was compared to a direct agar method. Phenotypic identification following growth on a chromogenic MRSA screening agar (ChromID™ MRSA) was combined with genotypic analysis (PCR, PFGE, SCCmec, spa, and MLST typing). Antimicrobial susceptibility was tested through disk diffusion.

Twelve (10.9%) horses carried MRSA, with the enrichment protocol resulting in a significantly higher isolation rate. None of the isolated strains were typeable through SmaI PFGE. They all harboured SCCmec type IVa or V and belonged to spa type t011 or t1451 of the ST398 lineage. All isolates were tetracycline resistant and sulfonamide and enrofloxacin susceptible. Macrolide, lincosamide, trimethoprim and aminoglycoside susceptibility varied and in total five different antimicrobial resistance patterns were distinguished.

These results show that ST398 is certainly present in West European horses. Due to its known interspecies transmission and the structure of the equine industry, the presence of this clone in horses poses a substantial health hazard for both animals and humans.

Keywords: Staphylococcus aureus; MRSA; Horse; Nasal colonization, ST398


http://www.sciencedirect.com/



Veterinary Microbiology Volume 141, Issues 1-2, 24 February 2010, Pages 96-102

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in horses and horse personnel: An investigation of several outbreaks

E. van Duijkerena, , , M. Molemanb, M.M. Sloet van Oldruitenborgh-Oosterbaanb, J. Multema, A. Troelstrac, A.C. Fluitc, W.J.B. van Wameld, D.J. Houwersa, A.J. de Neelinge and J.A. Wagenaara, f

a Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, PO Box 80165, 3508 TD Utrecht, Utrecht University, The Netherlands

b Department of Equine Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, The Netherlands

c Department of Medical Microbiology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht University, The Netherlands

d Department of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

e National Institute of Public Health and the Environment, Laboratory for Infectious Diseases and Screening, Bilthoven, The Netherlands

f Central Veterinary Institute of Wageningen UR, Lelystad, The Netherlands

Received 29 May 2009; revised 9 July 2009; accepted 3 August 2009. Available online 8 August 2009.

Abstract

At the Veterinary Microbiological Diagnostic Center, the Netherlands, the percentage of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolates found in equine clinical samples increased from 0% in 2002 to 37% in 2008. MRSA of spa-type t064, belonging to MLST ST8 and spa-types t011 and t2123, both belonging to the livestock-associated MLST ST398, predominated.

During an outbreak of post-surgical MRSA infections in horses at a veterinary teaching hospital in 2006/2007, MRSA isolates of spa-type t2123 were cultured from 7 horses and 4/61 personnel which indicated zoonotic transmission. After intervention the outbreak stopped. However, another outbreak occurred in 2008, where 17 equine MRSA isolates of spa-type t011 (n = 12), t2123 (n = 4), and t064 (n = 1) were found. This time, 16/170 personnel were positive for MRSA with spa-type t011 (n = 11) and t2123 (n = 5). Personnel in close contact with horses were more often MRSA-positive (15/106) than those without (1/64).

Screening of horses upon admission showed that 9.3% were MRSA-positive predominantly with spa-type t011. Weekly cross-sectional sampling of all hospitalized horses for 5 weeks showed that 42% of the horses were MRSA-positive at least once, again predominantly with spa-type t011, which suggests that nosocomial transmission took place. Fifty-three percent of the environmental samples were MRSA-positive, including samples from students' and staff members' rooms, and all were spa-type t011. This indicates that humans contribute to spreading the organism. Culturing of samples employing high-salt pre-enrichment performed better than a comparable method without pre-enrichment.

Our results show that nosocomial transmission occurs in equine clinics and suggests that personnel play a role in the transmission.

Keywords: Horse; MRSA; Staphylococcus aureus; Transmission; Environment


http://www.sciencedirect.com/


Preventive Veterinary Medicine Volume 91, Issues 2-4, 1 October 2009, Pages 270-273

Short communication Occurrence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in rats living on pig farms

A.W. van de Giessen, a, , M.G. van Santen-Verheuvela, P.D. Hengevelda, T. Boscha, E.M. Broensa and C.B.E.M. Reuskena

aCentre for Infectious Disease Control Nertherlands, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, The Netherlands

Received 20 March 2009; revised 8 May 2009; accepted 8 May 2009. Available online 11 June 2009.

Abstract In The Netherlands, MRSA ST398 has emerged in hospitals and human carriers have been associated with exposure to pigs and cattle. High prevalences of MRSA ST398 in pigs and pig farmers have been determined and the transmission routes of MRSA on pig farms need to be elucidated. In the south of the Netherlands, in recent years, the black rat (Rattus rattus) has emerged as a prominent rodent on livestock farms. From March till May 2008, a survey on MRSA in rats living on livestock farms in the south of The Netherlands and the north of Belgium was conducted. In total, 40 black rats (R. rattus) and 3 brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) were collected on 12 farms including five pig farms, five poultry farms, one mixed pig and veal farm and one goat farm. MRSA ST398 was detected in black rats captured at two of the five pig farms as well as in a black rat living on the mixed pig and veal farm. From one black rat captured at another pig farm MRSA ST 97 was isolated. Considering the behaviour of rats on livestock farms, it is concluded that rats might play a role in the spread and persistence of MRSA on pig farms.

Keywords: Staphylococcus aureus; Methicillin resistance; Swine; Transmission; Rats; Rodents

Article Outline


http://www.sciencedirect.com/


JAC Advance Access originally published online on October 21, 2009 Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy 2009 64(6):1325-1326; doi:10.1093/jac/dkp378


© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: [email protected].

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Research letters

Detection of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus ST398 in food samples of animal origin in Spain Carmen Lozano, María López, Elena Gómez-Sanz, Fernanda Ruiz-Larrea, Carmen Torres and Myriam Zarazaga* Departamento de Agricultura y Alimentación, Universidad de La Rioja, Madre de Dios 51, 26006 Logroño, Spain

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

* Corresponding author. Tel: +34-941-299751; Fax: +34-941-299721; E-mail: [email protected]. Keywords: MRSA , food microbiology , ST398 , ST125 , ST217


Sir,

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains belonging to clonal lineage sequence type (ST) 398 are being reported at an increasing frequency in Europe.1 This new MRSA type has been isolated from colonized and infected animals and humans, and also from meat in some countries,1,2 representing a risk to human health; nevertheless, so far, no data about detection of MRSA ST398 in food in Spain have been published.


http://jac.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/extract/64/6/1325



doi:10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2008.12.007 | How to Cite or Link Using DOI Copyright © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.


Prevalence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in meat


E. de Boera, , , J.T.M. Zwartkruis-Nahuisa, B. Wita, X.W. Huijsdensc, A.J. de Neelingc, T. Boschc, R.A.A. van Oosteromb, A. Vilaa and A.E. Heuvelinka

aFood and Consumer Product Safety Authority (VWA), PO Box 202, 7200 AE Zutphen, The Netherlands

bFood and Consumer Product Safety Authority (VWA), PO Box 19506, 2500 CM Den Haag, The Netherlands

cNational Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), PO Box 1, 3720 BA Bilthoven, The Netherlands

Received 13 August 2008; revised 18 November 2008; accepted 7 December 2008. Available online 13 December 2008.

Abstract Recently the isolation of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains from several food-producing animals has been reported. During slaughtering of MRSA-positive animals, contamination of carcasses with MRSA may occur and consequently the meat of these animals may get contaminated. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of MRSA in raw meat samples from the retail trade.

Samples of raw beef, pork, veal, lamb/mutton, chicken, turkey, fowl and game were collected from the retail trade. A detection method including a two-step enrichment in Mueller–Hinton broth + 6.5% NaCl and phenol red mannitol broth containing ceftizoxime and aztreonam, followed by isolation on MRSA ID agar (bioMérieux) was evaluated and subsequently applied for the detection of MRSA in samples of raw meats.

MRSA strains were isolated from 264 (11.9%) of 2217 samples analyzed. Isolation percentages for the meat species were: beef (10.6%), veal (15.2%), lamb and mutton (6.2%), pork (10.7%), chicken (16.0%), turkey (35.3%), fowl (3.4%) and game (2.2%). The majority (85%) of the isolated strains belonged to spa-types of pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) non-typeable (NT)-MRSA, corresponding to the multilocus sequence type ST398, a type also recently isolated in the Netherlands from pigs. However, a smaller part of these strains were found to be of other ST's, possibly of human origin.

Further studies are needed to elucidate transmission routes of MRSA in relation to meat and other foods and to provide the tools for preventing the spread of MRSA. At present the high prevalence of MRSA in meat has not been shown to contribute significantly to the dissemination of MRSA to humans and the possible health hazard for consumers of the presence of MRSA in foods should be further elucidated.

Keywords: MRSA; Meat; MLST; spa-Typing


http://www.sciencedirect.com/


Thursday, February 11, 2010

Denmark's Case for Antibiotic-Free Animals NEW YORK, Feb. 10, 2010

snip...

According to one study, when different countries introduced certain antibiotics on farms, a surge occurred in people contracting antibiotic resistant intestinal infections one to two years later. One infection, Campylobacter, increased 20 percent in Denmark and 70 percent in Spain.

After the ban, a Danish study confirmed that removing antibiotics from farms drastically reduced antibiotic-resistant bacteria in animals and food.

Danish scientists believe if the U.S. doesn't stop pumping its farm animals with antibiotics, drug-resistant diseases in people will only spread.

"It's not going to be a time bomb that goes off like this," said Dr. Frank Aarestrup, of the Danish Food Institute at the University of Denmark. "It's something that's slowly getting more and more complicated, more difficult for us to actually treat infections.

Rep. Slaughter's "Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act"

Some American food producers agree.

"It's just gone too far," said Stephen McDonnell, CEO Applegate Farms.

snip...see full text ;


http://staphmrsa.blogspot.com/2010_02_01_archive.html



TSS

 

[Broke Cowboy]

Terry

Someday you will actually post something that I will read - you know - something less than 600 words - neatly divided up into paragraphs and summing up your point.

And in fact, I am sure you have a point or two that might be valid - however, I just cannot beat myself about my naked upper body with a willow branch until I bleed.

Many of us - probably most of us - are not the scientific, fact driven, religious fanatics you want us to be.

You just do not get it - you lose more than 95% of your audience in the vast majority of cases. Possibly ALL your cases.

We - myself included - have told you this over and over.

We are not rabid fanatics - you want to educate me then do so - but do it in a manner that is interesting, informative and educational. Or at a minimum, readable.

Remember that boring nasal monotone the English teacher used that would put the entire class to sleep while discussing Wuthering Heights?

That is you my friend. That is you.

You might have something interesting to say, but I simply cannot bring myself to read it.

Try making your story interesting and to the point and you might, just might, gain an audience.

I bet you did not hear. I actually have come to believe, over the years, you do not want to hear.

You want to TELL.

So - one last time in a very short sentence.

Your delivery is why you fail in many / most cases.

So listen, learn and advance towards success.

In the end, if you do not change, you simply become more noise in the wind and people tend to block that noise out.

I am sure you will ignore this and continue - but I thought I might try - just one more time.

Regards

BC

 

[Faster horses]

Very true, BC. I didn't read it either; way too long.

 

[PORKER]

Facts Link;

http://www.pigprogress.net/weblog/pig-health/drug-dilemmas-3935.html

 

[Soapweed]

Very well said, Broke Cowboy.

 

[RobertMac]

I just cannot beat myself about my naked upper body with a willow branch until I bleed.

:lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2:

:lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2:

 

[Mike]

I just cannot beat myself about my naked upper body with a willow branch until I bleed.

:lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2:

:lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2:

Terry Singletary -- A retired machinist and high school dropout, Terry Singletary suffered the tragic loss of his mother to "sporadic" Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in 1997. Desperate to find an explanation for his mother's death, he has devoted himself to the sad and fruitless task of connecting her death to her diet. Various reports confirm that Mrs. Singletary's life was claimed by the most common sub-type of CJD (one that accounts for 70 percent of "sporadic" cases). Sporadic CJD, unlike its newer "variant," is not linked to meat.

As the self-appointed international coordinator of CJD Watch, an organization he co-founded with social worker Deborah Oney, Singletary is cited in media reports as an apparent expert on tracking mad cow disease. This despite his lack of formal education and the absence for support from any credible academic, medical or scientific authority. His sensationalist allegations about the safety of U.S. beef have found their way into hundreds of newspapers and broadcasts. Singletary moderates a mad-cow discussion forum run by a vegetarian activist group; his contributions account for more than half the traffic on the "BSE-L" mailing list, which is generally read by real scientists. Animal rights activists and other food-scare artists frequently refer to him as "Dr. Terry Singletary," apparently an honorary degree as he has yet to finish high school.

Like many activists, Singletary ignores overwhelming epidemiological and laboratory evidence that rules out a connection between sporadic CJD and beef. Relying entirely on shallow circumstantial evidence and frequent repetition of claims which have been publicly refuted as false, he also blindly insists upon a mad-cow with Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and Lou Gehrig's disease. His specific allegations have been clearly refuted by Centers for Disease Countrol and Prevention scientists in the journal Neurology.

 

[flounder]

I just cannot beat myself about my naked upper body with a willow branch until I bleed.

:lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2:

:lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2:

Terry Singletary -- A retired machinist and high school dropout, Terry Singletary suffered the tragic loss of his mother to "sporadic" Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in 1997. Desperate to find an explanation for his mother's death, he has devoted himself to the sad and fruitless task of connecting her death to her diet. Various reports confirm that Mrs. Singletary's life was claimed by the most common sub-type of CJD (one that accounts for 70 percent of "sporadic" cases). Sporadic CJD, unlike its newer "variant," is not linked to meat.

As the self-appointed international coordinator of CJD Watch, an organization he co-founded with social worker Deborah Oney, Singletary is cited in media reports as an apparent expert on tracking mad cow disease. This despite his lack of formal education and the absence for support from any credible academic, medical or scientific authority. His sensationalist allegations about the safety of U.S. beef have found their way into hundreds of newspapers and broadcasts. Singletary moderates a mad-cow discussion forum run by a vegetarian activist group; his contributions account for more than half the traffic on the "BSE-L" mailing list, which is generally read by real scientists. Animal rights activists and other food-scare artists frequently refer to him as "Dr. Terry Singletary," apparently an honorary degree as he has yet to finish high school.

Like many activists, Singletary ignores overwhelming epidemiological and laboratory evidence that rules out a connection between sporadic CJD and beef. Relying entirely on shallow circumstantial evidence and frequent repetition of claims which have been publicly refuted as false, he also blindly insists upon a mad-cow with Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and Lou Gehrig's disease. His specific allegations have been clearly refuted by Centers for Disease Countrol and Prevention scientists in the journal Neurology.

FLAG! piling on :wink:



seriously, thanks Mike you always make it easier for me. I love it when folks just shoot the messenger. I love it more when you post that article you posted about me. I have been proven correct at every point I made back then. First, let's look at the complete article, and then analyze the group that posted the article about me, and then let's look at the facts of the Journal of Neurology article that was published, and a few more peer review articles that was published by this dropout, that did get a GED.
you make it too easy for me. for the ones that cannot stomach more than two lines of facts and or sound science, please be warned, hard core facts are to follow, and it's more than a paragraph... :roll:



2003


Terry Singletary -- A retired machinist and high school dropout, Terry Singletary suffered the tragic loss of his mother to "sporadic" Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in 1997. Desperate to find an explanation for his mother's death, he has devoted himself to the sad and fruitless task of connecting her death to her diet. Various reports confirm that Mrs. Singletary's life was claimed by the most common sub-type of CJD (one that accounts for 70 percent of "sporadic" cases). Sporadic CJD, unlike its newer "variant," is not linked to meat.

As the self-appointed international coordinator of CJD Watch, an organization he co-founded with social worker Deborah Oney, Singletary is cited in media reports as an apparent expert on tracking mad cow disease. This despite his lack of formal education and the absence for support from any credible academic, medical or scientific authority. His sensationalist allegations about the safety of U.S. beef have found their way into hundreds of newspapers and broadcasts. Singletary moderates a mad-cow discussion forum run by a vegetarian activist group; his contributions account for more than half the traffic on the "BSE-L" mailing list, which is generally read by real scientists. Animal rights activists and other food-scare artists frequently refer to him as "Dr. Terry Singletary," apparently an honorary degree as he has yet to finish high school.

Like many activists, Singletary ignores overwhelming epidemiological and laboratory evidence that rules out a connection between sporadic CJD and beef. Relying entirely on shallow circumstantial evidence and frequent repetition of claims which have been publicly refuted as false, he also blindly insists upon a mad-cow with Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and Lou Gehrig's disease. His specific allegations have been clearly refuted by Centers for Disease Countrol and Prevention scientists in the journal Neurology.

http://www.consumerfreedom.com/article_detail.cfm/a/138-mad-cow-scaremongers




SO, just who are The Center for Consumer Freedom ;

http://www.consumerfreedom.com/index.cfm



let's take a closer look shall we ;

The Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) (formerly called the "Guest Choice Network (GCN)") is a front group for the restaurant, alcohol and tobacco industries. It runs media campaigns which oppose the efforts of scientists, doctors, health advocates, environmentalists and groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving, calling them "the Nanny Culture -- the growing fraternity of food cops, health care enforcers, anti-meat activists, and meddling bureaucrats who 'know what's best for you.'"

CCF is registered as a tax-exempt, non-profit organization under the IRS code 501(c)(3). Its advisory board is comprised mainly of representatives from the restaurant, meat and alcoholic beverage industries.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Center_for_Consumer_Freedom

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Consumer_Freedom



What Is the Center for Consumer Freedom, and Why Is It Attacking PETA?

The Center for Consumer Freedom is a nonprofit corporation run by lobbyist Richard Berman through his Washington, D.C.-based for-profit public relations company, Berman & Co. The Center for Consumer Freedom, formerly known as the Guest Choice Network, was set up by Berman with a $600,000 "donation" from tobacco company Philip Morris.

Berman arranges for large sums of corporate money to find its way into nonprofit societies of which he is the executive director. He then hires his own company as a consultant to these nonprofit groups. Of the millions of dollars "donated" by Philip Morris between the years 1995 and 1998, 49 percent to 79 percent went directly to Berman or Berman & Co.

Richard Berman is an influence peddler. He has worked out a scheme to funnel charitable donations from wealthy corporations into his own pocket. In exchange, he provides a flurry of disinformation, flawed studies, op-ed pieces, letters to the editor, and trade-industry articles, as well as access to his high-level government contacts, who are servants of the industries he represents.

Berman's name might sound familiar. In 1995, Berman and Norm Brinker, his former boss at Steak and Ale Restaurants, were identified as the special-interest lobbyists who donated the $25,000 that disgraced then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who was hauled before the House Ethics Committee for influence-peddling over the money. Berman and Brinker were lobbying against raising the minimum wage.

Richard Berman is a spin doctor. For example, he has argued against a Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) initiative to lower the blood alcohol content (BAC) limit for drivers by claiming that the stricter limits would punish responsible social drinkers. He has claimed that U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warnings about salmonella-related food poisoning are just "whipping up fear over food."

Here's how an internal Philip Morris memo described Berman's spin: "His proposed solution would broaden the focus of the 'smoking issue,' and expand into the bigger picture of over-regulation." Smoking won't kill you; over-regulation will.

Berman is "a one-man wrecking crew on important issues." His approach has been described as "misleading" and "despicable." Berman has been called "a tobacco company whore," but he's branched out since then.

Using "freedom of choice" as his battle cry, Berman has now taken on PETA and a number of other groups and organizations whose points of view could have an impact on the profits of his clients by waking consumers up. Berman's Guest Choice Network has an "advisory panel" whose members in 1998 included officials representing companies ranging from Cargill Processed Meat Products and Outback Steakhouse to Minnesota Licensed Beverage Association and Sutter Home Winery. Berman's clients are companies with vested interests in low employee wages; cheap, unhealthy restaurant-chain food, particularly meat; and tobacco, soft drink, and alcohol consumption—companies like Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, Armour Swift, and Philip Morris, whose product line includes Kraft Foods and everything from Marlboro cigarettes to Oscar Meyer wieners and which is a major shareholder in its former subsidiary Miller Brewing, now known as SABMiller.

PETA's recent successes in gaining fast-food industry concessions for more humane conditions for farm animals have sent ripples of fear through the food and beverage service industry. About the same time that McDonald's buckled to PETA's demands, Richard Berman changed his front group's name and stepped up his attacks.

The key to Berman's aggressive strategy is, in his own words, "to shoot the messenger ... we've got to attack their credibility as spokespersons,"—an interesting remark from someone whose background and funding so severely challenge his own credibility.


http://www.consumerdeception.com/index.asp



NOW, what about that Journal of Neurology article published by Singeltary ;



JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY

MARCH 26, 2003

Send Post-Publication Peer Review to journal:

Re: RE-Monitoring the occurrence of emerging forms of Creutzfeldt-Jakob

disease in the United States

Email Terry S. Singeltary:

[email protected]

I lost my mother to hvCJD (Heidenhain Variant CJD). I would like to comment on the CDC's attempts to monitor the occurrence of emerging forms of CJD. Asante, Collinge et al [1] have reported that BSE transmission to the 129-methionine genotype can lead to an alternate phenotype that is indistinguishable from type 2 PrPSc, the commonest sporadic CJD. However, CJD and all human TSEs are not reportable nationally. CJD and all human TSEs must be made reportable in every state and internationally. I hope that the CDC does not continue to expect us to still believe that the 85%+ of all CJD cases which are sporadic are all spontaneous, without route/source. We have many TSEs in the USA in both animal and man. CWD in deer/elk is spreading rapidly and CWD does transmit to mink, ferret, cattle, and squirrel monkey by intracerebral inoculation. With the known incubation periods in other TSEs, oral transmission studies of CWD may take much longer. Every victim/family of CJD/TSEs should be asked about route and source of this agent. To prolong this will only spread the agent and needlessly expose others. In light of the findings of Asante and Collinge et al, there should be drastic measures to safeguard the medical and surgical arena from sporadic CJDs and all human TSEs. I only ponder how many sporadic CJDs in the USA are type 2 PrPSc?


http://www.neurology.org/cgi/eletters/60/2/176#535



about sporadic CJD and BSE ;


CJD RISING SWITZERLAND



CJD is a predominantly sporadic disorder but can also occur as a dominantly inherited or infective condition. Only one of the 26 most recent confirmed cases was identified as carrying a disease related mutation of the PRNP gene, none had identifiable iatrogenic exposure, and none resembled variant CJD. Thus 25 of the 26 cases appear to be sporadic cases. Sporadic CJD is distributed worldwide with a reported incidence of about one in a million per year. Raised awareness of the disease in recent years could account for an increase in reported cases of CJD, although neither an increase in the average age of patients nor more frequent recognition of CJD amongst residents of nursing homes (where dementing illness is prevalent and misdiagnosis might be expected) were seen in the Swiss cases. Moreover, improved ascertainment as an explanation for the observed increase would imply levels of under-reporting in countries other than Switzerland, which appear implausible. The authors of the Lancet report suggest that the rise in cases might be due to some form of unidentified iatrogenic transmission or to exposure to a zoonotic source of infection, though cases do not resemble variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). The ongoing surveillance of CJD in Switzerland and the rest of Europe is essential to monitor the situation to see if this rise is sustained in Switzerland, and if a similar rise occurs in other countries (see http://www.eurocjd.ed.ac.uk).

http://www.eurosurveillance.org/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=1921



Prion data suggest BSE link to sporadic CJD Declan Butler

Predicting the number of cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in people as a result of transmission of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) has just got more difficult.Whereas it was thought that BSE only caused a new form of the disease called variant CJD (vCJD), a study in mice from a team led by John Collinge at University College London suggests that it may also cause a disease indistinguishable from the commonest form of classical, or 'sporadic', CJD...


http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v420/n6915/full/420450a.html




BSE prions propagate as either variant CJD-like or sporadic CJD-like prion strains in transgenic mice expressing human prion protein

Emmanuel A. Asante, Jacqueline M. Linehan, Melanie Desbruslais, Susan Joiner, Ian Gowland, Andrew L. Wood, Julie Welch, Andrew F. Hill, Sarah E. Lloyd, Jonathan D.F. Wadsworth, and John Collinge1 MRC Prion Unit and Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, Institute of Neurology, University College, Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK 1Corresponding author e-mail: [email protected]. August 1, 2002; Revised September 24, 2002; Accepted October 17, 2002.


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC136957/?tool=pubmed



IF we look at sporadic incidence of CJD in UK from 1993 to 2003, the incidence rose from 37 in 1993 to 77 in 2003. THIS seems to show an increase to me? I do not understand the statement ;

However, in the period following the first published description of vCJD in 1996, there was no increasing trend in the reported annual number of U.K. sporadic CJD deaths (52).

IF we go further and look at some of the other documented BSE countries, you will the increase of sporadic CJD there as well ;

Canada from 2 to 25

France from 35 to 108

Germany 21+ to 96

Italy 27 to 76

http://www.eurocjd.ed.ac.uk/sporadic.htm




Switzerland sporadic CJD ;

Swiss rise in CJD raises concerns over possible BSE link [LONDON] THE LANCET

Plaque attack: Swiss patients have spongiform patterns in the brain typical of sporadic CJD. The number of people dying from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) has risen sharply in Switzerland -- sparking fears of a possible link with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).

BSE is thought to be the cause of a distinctive form of the brain-wasting disease known as variant CJD. The Swiss cases, in contrast, are standard 'sporadic' CJD. Each year between 1997 and 2000, no more than 11 Swiss people developed CJD. But 19 cases were reported in 2001, and seven were recorded in the first quarter of this year. This is some four times higher than the incidence elsewhere, reports a team led by Adriano Aguzzi of the University Hospital Zurich (M. Glatzel et al. Lancet 360, 139-141; 2002).

The increase could be a mere statistical blip, or it may be due to increased awareness of the disease leading to more diagnoses. More disturbing is the possibility that the cases are linked to the consumption of BSE-infected meat products -- which would mean that the BSE agent can cause two distinct forms of CJD.

Possible links between the Swiss CJD cases and BSE will now be explored by strain-typing experiments in which the disease is transmitted to mice. These tests will take at least a year to complete. "It's the best way to establish or exclude any suspected link," says Moira Bruce of the UK Institute for Animal Health's Neuropathogenesis Unit in Edinburgh.


======================================


Experiences in England and Switzerland -- two countries that discovered mad cow disease in their cattle -- have heightened concerns about the possibility some cases of sporadic CJD are due to consuming mad-cow-tainted beef. Both countries have reported increases in sporadic CJD since mad cow was first detected in British herds in 1986.

Switzerland discovered last year its CJD rate was twice that of any other country in the world. Switzerland had been seeing about eight to 11 cases per year from 1997 to 2000. Then the incidence more than doubled, to 19 cases in 2001 and 18 cases in 2002.

http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030721-102924-4786r




Mouse model sheds new light on human prion disease

snip...

Professor John Collinge said We are not saying that all or even most cases of sporadic CJD are as a result of BSE exposure, but some more recent cases may be the incidence of sporadic CJD has shown an upward trend in the UK over the last decade. While most of this apparent increase may be because doctors are now more aware of CJD and better at diagnosing it, serious consideration should be given to a proportion of this rise being BSE-related. Switzerland, which has had a substantial BSE epidemic, has noted a sharp recent increase in sporadic CJD.

snip...

http://www.mrc.ac.uk/txt/index/public-interest/public-news-4/public-news_archive/public-news-archive_nov_dec_02/public-bse_and_sporadic_cjd.htm




Monday, May 19, 2008

SPORADIC CJD IN FARMERS, FARMERS WIVES, FROM FARMS WITH BSE HERD AND ABATTOIRS

http://bseinquiry.blogspot.com/




Sunday, August 10, 2008

A New Prionopathy OR more of the same old BSe and sporadic CJD

http://creutzfeldt-jakob-disease.blogspot.com/2008/08/new-prionopathy-or-more-of-same-old-bse.html






THE PATHOLOGICAL PROTEIN

BY Philip Yam

Yam Philip Yam News Editor Scientific American www.sciam.com

Answering critics like Terry Singeltary, who feels that the U.S. under- counts CJD, Schonberger conceded that the current surveillance system has errors but stated that most of the errors will be confined to the older population.

CHAPTER 14

Laying Odds

Are prion diseases more prevalent than we thought?

Researchers and government officials badly underestimated the threat that mad cow disease posed when it first appeared in Britain. They didn't think bovine spongiform encephalopathy was a zoonosis-an animal disease that can sicken people. The 1996 news that BSE could infect humans with a new form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease stunned the world. It also got some biomedical researchers wondering whether sporadic CJD may really be a manifestation of a zoonotic sickness. Might it be caused by the ingestion of prions, as variant CJD is?

Revisiting Sporadic CJD

It's not hard to get Terry Singeltary going. "I have my conspiracy theories," admitted the 49-year-old Texan.1 Singeltary is probably the nation's most relentless consumer advocate when it comes to issues in prion diseases. He has helped families learn about the sickness and coordinated efforts with support groups such as CJD Voice and the CJD Foundation. He has also connected with others who are critical of the American way of handling the threat of prion diseases. Such critics include Consumers Union's Michael Hansen, journalist John Stauber, and Thomas Pringle, who used to run the voluminous www.madcow. org Web site. These three lend their expertise to newspaper and magazine stories about prion diseases, and they usually argue that prions represent more of a threat than people realize, and that the government has responded poorly to the dangers because it is more concerned about protecting the beef industry than people's health.

Singeltary has similar inclinations. ...

snip...

THE PATHOLOGICAL PROTEIN

Hardcover, 304 pages plus photos and illustrations. ISBN 0-387-95508-9

June 2003

BY Philip Yam

CHAPTER 14 LAYING ODDS

Answering critics like Terry Singeltary, who feels that the U.S. under- counts CJD, Schonberger conceded that the current surveillance system has errors but stated that most of the errors will be confined to the older population.


http://www.thepathologicalprotein.com/


http://books.google.com/books?id=ePbrQNFrHtoC&pg=PA223&lpg=PA223&dq=the+pathological+protein+laying+odds+It%E2%80%99s+not+hard+to+get+Terry+Singeltary+going&source=bl&ots=um0PFAZSZD&sig=JWaGR7M7-1WeAr2qAXq8D6J_jak&hl=en&ei=MhtjS8jMJM2ztgeFoa2iBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=&f=false


http://www.springerlink.com/content/r2k2622661473336/fulltext.pdf?page=1


http://www.thepathologicalprotein.com/


http://prionunitusaupdate2008.blogspot.com/2009/04/national-prion-disease-pathology.html




Newsdesk The Lancet Infectious Diseases, Volume 3, Issue 8, Page 463, August 2003 doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(03)00715-1Cite or Link Using DOI

Tracking spongiform encephalopathies in North America

Xavier Bosch

"My name is Terry S Singeltary Sr, and I live in Bacliff, Texas. I lost my mom to hvCJD (Heidenhain variant CJD) and have been searching for answers ever since. What I have found is that we have not been told the truth. CWD in deer and elk is a small portion of a much bigger problem." 49-year-old Singeltary is one of a number of people who have remained largely unsatisfied after being told that a close relative died from a rapidly progressive dementia compatible with spontaneous Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). So he decided to gather hundreds of documents on transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE) and realised that if Britons could get variant CJD from bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), Americans might get a similar disorder from chronic wasting disease (CWD)-the relative of mad cow disease seen among deer and elk in the USA. Although his feverish.


http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1473309903007151


http://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(03)00715-1/fulltext


http://www.mdconsult.com/das/article/body/180784492-2/jorg=journal&source=&sp=13979213&sid=0/N/368742/1.html?issn=14733099



Diagnosis and Reporting of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Singeltary, Sr et al. JAMA.2001; 285: 733-734. Vol. 285 No. 6, February 14, 2001 JAMA

Diagnosis and Reporting of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease

To the Editor: In their Research Letter, Dr Gibbons and colleagues1 reported that the annual US death rate due to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) has been stable since 1985. These estimates, however, are based only on reported cases, and do not include misdiagnosed or preclinical cases. It seems to me that misdiagnosis alone would drastically change these figures. An unknown number of persons with a diagnosis of Alzheimer disease in fact may have CJD, although only a small number of these patients receive the postmortem examination necessary to make this diagnosis. Furthermore, only a few states have made CJD reportable. Human and animal transmissible spongiform encephalopathies should be reportable nationwide and internationally.

Terry S. Singeltary, Sr Bacliff, Tex

1. Gibbons RV, Holman RC, Belay ED, Schonberger LB. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in the United States: 1979-1998. JAMA. 2000;284:2322-2323. FREE FULL TEXT


http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/extract/285/6/733?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=singeltary&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT


http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/285/6/733?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=singeltary&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT



DER SPIEGEL (9/2001) - 24.02.2001 (9397 Zeichen) USA: Loch in der Mauer Die BSE-Angst erreicht Amerika: Trotz strikter Auflagen gelangte in Texas verbotenes Tiermehl ins Rinderfutter - die Kontrollen der Aufsichtsbehördensind lax.Link auf diesen Artikel im Archiv:


http://service.spiegel.de/digas/find?DID=18578755



"Löcher wie in einem Schweizer Käse" hat auch Terry Singeltary im Regelwerk der FDA ausgemacht. Der Texaner kam auf einem tragischen Umweg zu dem Thema: Nachdem seine Mutter 1997 binnen weniger Wochen an der Creutzfeldt-Jakob-Krankheit gestorben war, versuchte er, die Ursachen der Infektion aufzuspüren. Er klagte auf die Herausgabe von Regierungsdokumenten und arbeitete sich durch Fachliteratur; heute ist er überzeugt, dass seine Mutter durch die stetige Einnahme von angeblich kräftigenden Mitteln erkrankte, in denen - völlig legal - Anteile aus Rinderprodukten enthalten sind.

Von der Fachwelt wurde Singeltary lange als versponnener Außenseiter belächelt. Doch mittlerweile sorgen sich auch Experten, dass ausgerechnet diese verschreibungsfreien Wundercocktails zur Stärkung von Intelligenz, Immunsystem oder Libido von den Importbeschränkungen ausgenommen sind. Dabei enthalten die Pillen und Ampullen, die in Supermärkten verkauft werden, exotische Mixturen aus Rinderaugen; dazu Extrakte von Hypophyse oder Kälberföten, Prostata, Lymphknoten und gefriergetrocknetem Schweinemagen. In die USA hereingelassen werden auch Blut, Fett, Gelatine und Samen. Diese Stoffe tauchen noch immer in US-Produkten auf, inklusive Medizin und Kosmetika. Selbst in Impfstoffen waren möglicherweise gefährliche Rinderprodukte enthalten. Zwar fordert die FDA schon seit acht Jahren die US-Pharmaindustrie auf, keine Stoffe aus Ländern zu benutzen, in denen die Gefahr einer BSE-Infizierung besteht. Aber erst kürzlich verpflichteten sich fünf Unternehmen, darunter Branchenführer wie GlaxoSmithKline, Aventis und American Home Products, ihre Seren nur noch aus unverdächtigem Material herzustellen.

"Its as full of holes as Swiss Cheese" says Terry Singeltary of the FDA regulations. ...


http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-18578755.html


http://wissen.spiegel.de/wissen/image/show.html?did=18578755&aref=image024/E0108/SCSP200100901440145.pdf&thumb=false


http://service.spiegel.de/digas/servlet/find/DID=18578755



Suspect symptoms

What if you can catch old-fashioned CJD by eating meat from a sheep infected with scrapie?

28 Mar 01

Like lambs to the slaughter 31 March 2001 by Debora MacKenzie Magazine issue 2284. Subscribe and get 4 free issues. FOUR years ago, Terry Singeltary watched his mother die horribly from a degenerative brain disease. Doctors told him it was Alzheimer's, but Singeltary was suspicious. The diagnosis didn't fit her violent symptoms, and he demanded an autopsy. It showed she had died of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Most doctors believe that sCJD is caused by a prion protein deforming by chance into a killer. But Singeltary thinks otherwise. He is one of a number of campaigners who say that some sCJD, like the variant CJD related to BSE, is caused by eating meat from infected animals. Their suspicions have focused on sheep carrying scrapie, a BSE-like disease that is widespread in flocks across Europe and North America.

Now scientists in France have stumbled across new evidence that adds weight to the campaigners' fears. To their complete surprise, the researchers found that one strain of scrapie causes the same brain damage in mice as sCJD.

"This means we cannot rule out that at least some sCJD may be caused by some strains of scrapie," says team member Jean-Philippe Deslys of the French Atomic Energy Commission's medical research laboratory in Fontenay-aux-Roses, south-west of Paris. Hans Kretschmar of the University of Göttingen, who coordinates CJD surveillance in Germany, is so concerned by the findings that he now wants to trawl back through past sCJD cases to see if any might have been caused by eating infected mutton or lamb.

Scrapie has been around for centuries and until now there has been no evidence that it poses a risk to human health. But if the French finding means that scrapie can cause sCJD in people, countries around the world may have overlooked a CJD crisis to rival that caused by BSE.

Deslys and colleagues were originally studying vCJD, not sCJD. They injected the brains of macaque monkeys with brain from BSE cattle, and from French and British vCJD patients. The brain damage and clinical symptoms in the monkeys were the same for all three. Mice injected with the original sets of brain tissue or with infected monkey brain also developed the same symptoms.

As a control experiment, the team also injected mice with brain tissue from people and animals with other prion diseases: a French case of sCJD; a French patient who caught sCJD from human-derived growth hormone; sheep with a French strain of scrapie; and mice carrying a prion derived from an American scrapie strain. As expected, they all affected the brain in a different way from BSE and vCJD. But while the American strain of scrapie caused different damage from sCJD, the French strain produced exactly the same pathology.

"The main evidence that scrapie does not affect humans has been epidemiology," says Moira Bruce of the neuropathogenesis unit of the Institute for Animal Health in Edinburgh, who was a member of the same team as Deslys. "You see about the same incidence of the disease everywhere, whether or not there are many sheep, and in countries such as New Zealand with no scrapie." In the only previous comparisons of sCJD and scrapie in mice, Bruce found they were dissimilar.

But there are more than 20 strains of scrapie, and six of sCJD. "You would not necessarily see a relationship between the two with epidemiology if only some strains affect only some people," says Deslys. Bruce is cautious about the mouse results, but agrees they require further investigation. Other trials of scrapie and sCJD in mice, she says, are in progress.

People can have three different genetic variations of the human prion protein, and each type of protein can fold up two different ways. Kretschmar has found that these six combinations correspond to six clinical types of sCJD: each type of normal prion produces a particular pathology when it spontaneously deforms to produce sCJD.

But if these proteins deform because of infection with a disease-causing prion, the relationship between pathology and prion type should be different, as it is in vCJD. "If we look at brain samples from sporadic CJD cases and find some that do not fit the pattern," says Kretschmar, "that could mean they were caused by infection."

There are 250 deaths per year from sCJD in the US, and a similar incidence elsewhere. Singeltary and other US activists think that some of these people died after eating contaminated meat or "nutritional" pills containing dried animal brain. Governments will have a hard time facing activists like Singeltary if it turns out that some sCJD isn't as spontaneous as doctors have insisted.

Deslys's work on macaques also provides further proof that the human disease vCJD is caused by BSE. And the experiments showed that vCJD is much more virulent to primates than BSE, even when injected into the bloodstream rather than the brain. This, says Deslys, means that there is an even bigger risk than we thought that vCJD can be passed from one patient to another through contaminated blood transfusions and surgical instruments.


http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg16922840.300-like-lambs-to-the-slaughter.html




2 January 2000

British Medical Journal

U.S. Scientist should be concerned with a CJD epidemic in the U.S., as well


http://www.bmj.com/cgi/eletters/320/7226/8/b#6117


15 November 1999

British Medical Journal

vCJD in the USA * BSE in U.S.


http://www.bmj.com/cgi/eletters/319/7220/1312/b#5406



2006


USA sporadic CJD cases rising ;

There is a growing number of human CJD cases, and they were presented last week in San Francisco by Luigi Gambatti(?) from his CJD surveillance collection.

He estimates that it may be up to 14 or 15 persons which display selectively SPRPSC and practically no detected RPRPSC proteins.

http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/ac/06/transcripts/1006-4240t1.htm



http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/ac/06/transcripts/2006-4240t1.pdf




2008


The statistical incidence of CJD cases in the United States has been revised to reflect that there is one case per 9000 in adults age 55 and older. Eighty-five percent of the cases are sporadic, meaning there is no known cause at present.

http://www.cjdfoundation.org/fact.html





CJD USA RISING, with UNKNOWN PHENOTYPE ;

5 Includes 41 cases in which the diagnosis is pending, and 17 inconclusive cases;

*** 6 Includes 46 cases with type determination pending in which the diagnosis of vCJD has been excluded.

http://www.cjdsurveillance.com/pdf/case-table.pdf




Saturday, January 2, 2010


Human Prion Diseases in the United States January 1, 2010 ***FINAL***

http://prionunitusaupdate2008.blogspot.com/2010/01/human-prion-diseases-in-united-states.html



my comments to PLosone here ;


http://www.plosone.org/annotation/listThread.action?inReplyTo=info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fannotation%2F04ce2b24-613d-46e6-9802-4131e2bfa6fd&root=info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fannotation%2F04ce2b24-613d-46e6-9802-4131e2bfa6fd



14th International Congress on Infectious Diseases H-type and L-type Atypical BSE January 2010 (special pre-congress edition)



From: xxxx To: Terry Singeltary Sent: Saturday, December 05, 2009 9:09 AM Subject: 14th ICID - abstract accepted for 'International Scientific Exchange'

Your preliminary abstract number: 670

Dear Mr. Singeltary,

On behalf of the Scientific Committee, I am pleased to inform you that your abstract

'Transmissible Spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) animal and human TSE in North America update October 2009'

WAS accepted for inclusion in the INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC EXCHANGE (ISE) section of the 14th International Congress on Infectious Diseases. Accordingly, your abstract will be included in the "Intl. Scientific Exchange abstract CD-rom" of the Congress which will be distributed to all participants.

Abstracts accepted for INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC EXCHANGE are NOT PRESENTED in the oral OR poster sessions.

Your abstract below was accepted for: INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC EXCHANGE

#0670: Transmissible Spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) animal and human TSE in North America update October 2009

Author: T. Singeltary; Bacliff, TX/US

Topic: Emerging Infectious Diseases Preferred type of presentation: International Scientific Exchange

This abstract has been ACCEPTED.

#0670: Transmissible Spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) animal and human TSE in North America update October 2009

Authors: T. Singeltary; Bacliff, TX/US

Title: Transmissible Spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) animal and human TSE in North America update October 2009

Body: Background

An update on atypical BSE and other TSE in North America. Please remember, the typical U.K. c-BSE, the atypical l-BSE (BASE), and h-BSE have all been documented in North America, along with the typical scrapie's, and atypical Nor-98 Scrapie, and to date, 2 different strains of CWD, and also TME. All these TSE in different species have been rendered and fed to food producing animals for humans and animals in North America (TSE in cats and dogs ?), and that the trading of these TSEs via animals and products via the USA and Canada has been immense over the years, decades.

Methods

12 years independent research of available data

Results

I propose that the current diagnostic criteria for human TSEs only enhances and helps the spreading of human TSE from the continued belief of the UKBSEnvCJD only theory in 2009. With all the science to date refuting it, to continue to validate this old myth, will only spread this TSE agent through a multitude of potential routes and sources i.e. consumption, medical i.e., surgical, blood, dental, endoscopy, optical, nutritional supplements, cosmetics etc.

Conclusion

I would like to submit a review of past CJD surveillance in the USA, and the urgent need to make all human TSE in the USA a reportable disease, in every state, of every age group, and to make this mandatory immediately without further delay. The ramifications of not doing so will only allow this agent to spread further in the medical, dental, surgical arena's. Restricting the reporting of CJD and or any human TSE is NOT scientific. Iatrogenic CJD knows NO age group, TSE knows no boundaries.

I propose as with Aguzzi, Asante, Collinge, Caughey, Deslys, Dormont, Gibbs, Gajdusek, Ironside, Manuelidis, Marsh, et al and many more, that the world of TSE Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy is far from an exact science, but there is enough proven science to date that this myth should be put to rest once and for all, and that we move forward with a new classification for human and animal TSE that would properly identify the infected species, the source species, and then the route.

Keywords: Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease Prion


http://www.isid.org/14th_icid/


http://www.isid.org/publications/ICID_Archive.shtml


http://ww2.isid.org/Downloads/IMED2009_AbstrAuth.pdf



Monday, October 19, 2009

Atypical BSE, BSE, and other human and animal TSE in North America Update October 19, 2009

snip...

I ask Professor Kong ;

Thursday, December 04, 2008 3:37 PM Subject: RE: re--Chronic Wating Disease (CWD) and Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathies (BSE): Public Health Risk Assessment

''IS the h-BSE more virulent than typical BSE as well, or the same as cBSE, or less virulent than cBSE? just curious.....''

Professor Kong reply ;

.....snip

''As to the H-BSE, we do not have sufficient data to say one way or another, but we have found that H-BSE can infect humans. I hope we could publish these data once the study is complete.

Thanks for your interest.''

Best regards,

Qingzhong Kong, PhD Associate Professor Department of Pathology Case Western Reserve University Cleveland, OH 44106 USA

END...TSS

I look forward to further transmission studies, and a true ENHANCED BSE/atypical BSE surveillance program put forth testing all cattle for human and animal consumption for 5 years. a surveillance program that uses the most sensitive TSE testing, and has the personnel that knows how to use them, and can be trusted. I look forward to a stringent mad cow feed ban being put forth, and then strictly enforced. we need a forced, not voluntary feed ban, an enhanced feed ban at that, especially excluding blood. we need some sort of animal traceability. no more excuses about privacy. if somebody is putting out a product that is killing folks and or has the potential to kill you, then everybody needs to know who they are, and where that product came from. same with hospitals, i think medical incidents in all states should be recorded, and made public, when it comes to something like a potential accidental transmission exposure event. so if someone is out there looking at a place to go have surgery done, if you have several hospitals having these type 'accidental exposure events', than you can go some place else. it only makes sense. somewhere along the road, the consumer lost control, and just had to take whatever they were given, and then charged these astronomical prices. some where along the line the consumer just lost interest, especially on a long incubating disease such as mad cow disease i.e. Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy. like i said before, there is much more to the mad cow story than bovines and eating a hamburger, we must start focusing on all TSE in all species. ...TSS

http://bse-atypical.blogspot.com/2009/10/atypical-bse-bse-and-other-human-and.html



for those interested, please see full text ;


Friday, January 29, 2010 14th International Congress on Infectious Diseases H-type and L-type Atypical BSE January 2010 (special pre-congress edition)

http://bse-atypical.blogspot.com/2010/01/14th-international-congress-on.html




Sunday, August 09, 2009

CJD...Straight talk with...James Ironside...and...Terry Singeltary... 2009


http://creutzfeldt-jakob-disease.blogspot.com/2009/08/cjdstraight-talk-withjames.html



Tuesday, August 18, 2009

BSE-The Untold Story - joe gibbs and singeltary 1999 - 2009

...snip

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

BSE-The Untold Story - joe gibbs and singeltary 1999 - 2009

Wed, 29 Nov 2000 14:14:18 -0500

a private email from the late Dr. Gibbs, a true pioneer in the research of human/animal TSEs and one that never wavered on helping the families and victims of this horrible disease, and one that helped me many times in trying to seek out the truth;

Subject: Re: Hello Dr. Gibbs........... Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2000 14:14:18 -0500 From: "Clarence J. Gibbs, Jr., Ph.D." To: "Terry S. Singeltary Sr." References: <[email protected]>

Hi Terry:

326 E Stret N.E., Washington, D. C. 20002.

Better shrimp and oysters than cards!!!!

Have a happy holiday and thanks for all the information you bring to the screen.

Joe Gibbs ==========

please see full text ;


http://madcowusda.blogspot.com/2009/08/bse-untold-story-joe-gibbs-and.html



Sunday, February 14, 2010


[Docket No. FSIS-2006-0011] FSIS Harvard Risk Assessment of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE)



http://bseusa.blogspot.com/2010/02/docket-no-fsis-2006-0011-fsis-harvard.html



Friday, February 05, 2010

New Variant Creutzfelt Jakob Disease case reports United States 2010 A Review


http://vcjd.blogspot.com/2010/02/new-variant-creutzfelt-jakob-disease.html




>>> he also blindly insists upon a mad-cow with Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and Lou Gehrig's disease.



Monday, October 12, 2009

SEAC Science and Technology Committee's investigation of research funding priorities on behalf of the Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens TSE

• Are some commoner types of neurodegenerative disease (including Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease) also transmissible? Some recent scientific research has suggested this possibility


http://www.seac.gov.uk/pdf/hol-response091008.pdf


http://bse-atypical.blogspot.com/2009/10/seac-science-and-technology-committees.html




Monday, January 4, 2010


Rising Tide: The Impact of Dementia in Canada Huge wave of dementia cases coming, warns report



http://betaamyloidcjd.blogspot.com/2010/01/rising-tide-impact-of-dementia-in.html




Terry S. Singeltary Sr.
P.O. Box 42
Bacliff, Texas USA 77518

 

[Soapweed]

Still at it, I see. :wink: You could change your name to Filibuster Frank.

 

[mrj]

Again, for those interested in FACTS (that obviously does not include you, T.S.) Check CDC. And the previous sites I posted, or many others of teaching institutions across the nation.

For the record, TS and anyone else who chooses to make it their business, my concern is not so much for my personal "bottom line" (tho survival in the cattle business is a very fine line for those of us who operate family owned and 'manned' ranches) as it is the continued good health of my family and all consumers.

Just today, I heard it stated on Agri-Talk that CDC says out of 10,000 cases of MRSA in humans, they have not found a sincle case related to use of antibiotics in food animals.

Dr. Mike Apley, DVM, PhD, a professor in clinical sciences at KS State U. has an interesting column regarding use of antibiotics in food animals and the anti-ag agenda of HSUS as well as inaccuracies of some so called 'scientists' in the current Beef Magazine which you may be able to read at, www.beefmagazine.com.

A few of his points: Flurorquinolones and cephalosporins, antibiotics used in both veterinary and human medicine for treatment of infectious disease have never been labeled for use in feed of water for cattle or swine, and have never been approved for use in animalf for efficiency of feed or rate of gain;

This one may relate to TS's claims of animal to human infections: A Netherlands study found a typeof MRSA epidemiologically assoiated with pig and cattle farmers who carry infection without symptoms. The same strain IS FOUND in swine herds, BUT strains responsible for community outbreaks (term used for symptomatic MRSA) is NOT the one found in animals. MRSA has also been found in organic production;

The CDC report of food-borne illnesses comparing 2008 FoodNet dato to 1996-1998 date shows Salmonella is the number one food-borne pathogen in the USA with incidence unchanged over the study period; BUT, Campylobacter is down 32%, Shigella down 40%, E. coli O157:H7 is down 25%, Yersinia down 48%, and listeria down 36% while Vibrio ROSE 47%, and cryptosporidium rate is unchanged. The sky is not falling nearly so badly in this area as we are often led to believe! Improvement is always desireable, yet perfection is not attainable, partly, IMO, because organisms change to find ways to survive when we attack them.

I'm in total agreement with Dr. Apley when he states "as an industry, we need to respond to activist drive-by journalists and those who mindlessly repeat their drivel".

There is more worth reading in his column, especially the links and sources for his statements.

mrj

 

[Dylan Biggs]

Very true, BC. I didn't read it either; way too long.

You have to be a speed reader like NR, he could read those few words in no time. Myself I was overwhelmed by the massive content also.

 

[flounder]

Again, for those interested in FACTS (that obviously does not include you, T.S.) Check CDC. And the previous sites I posted, or many others of teaching institutions across the nation.

For the record, TS and anyone else who chooses to make it their business, my concern is not so much for my personal "bottom line" (tho survival in the cattle business is a very fine line for those of us who operate family owned and 'manned' ranches) as it is the continued good health of my family and all consumers.

Just today, I heard it stated on Agri-Talk that CDC says out of 10,000 cases of MRSA in humans, they have not found a sincle case related to use of antibiotics in food animals.

Dr. Mike Apley, DVM, PhD, a professor in clinical sciences at KS State U. has an interesting column regarding use of antibiotics in food animals and the anti-ag agenda of HSUS as well as inaccuracies of some so called 'scientists' in the current Beef Magazine which you may be able to read at, www.beefmagazine.com.

A few of his points: Flurorquinolones and cephalosporins, antibiotics used in both veterinary and human medicine for treatment of infectious disease have never been labeled for use in feed of water for cattle or swine, and have never been approved for use in animalf for efficiency of feed or rate of gain;

This one may relate to TS's claims of animal to human infections: A Netherlands study found a typeof MRSA epidemiologically assoiated with pig and cattle farmers who carry infection without symptoms. The same strain IS FOUND in swine herds, BUT strains responsible for community outbreaks (term used for symptomatic MRSA) is NOT the one found in animals. MRSA has also been found in organic production;

The CDC report of food-borne illnesses comparing 2008 FoodNet dato to 1996-1998 date shows Salmonella is the number one food-borne pathogen in the USA with incidence unchanged over the study period; BUT, Campylobacter is down 32%, Shigella down 40%, E. coli O157:H7 is down 25%, Yersinia down 48%, and listeria down 36% while Vibrio ROSE 47%, and cryptosporidium rate is unchanged. The sky is not falling nearly so badly in this area as we are often led to believe! Improvement is always desireable, yet perfection is not attainable, partly, IMO, because organisms change to find ways to survive when we attack them.

I'm in total agreement with Dr. Apley when he states "as an industry, we need to respond to activist drive-by journalists and those who mindlessly repeat their drivel".

There is more worth reading in his column, especially the links and sources for his statements.

mrj

here is some more facts for you mrj. i just know how much you love to read facts :lol2: :tiphat: :wave:



"This study is the first to document MRSA in U.S. swine and swine workers, and to our knowledge, the first to report the presence of ST398 (also reported as non-typeable MRSA, NT-MRSA) [15] in the U.S."


Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) Strain ST398 Is Present in Midwestern U.S. Swine and Swine Workers




This study is the first to document MRSA in U.S. swine and swine workers, and to our knowledge, the first to report the presence of ST398 (also reported as non-typeable MRSA, NT-MRSA) [15] in the U.S. Like previous studies in Canada, Denmark, and the Netherlands [11], [12], [24], ST398 was found in both animals and humans, suggesting transmission between the two. The prevalence of MRSA colonization among swine and swine workers was high at one farm system that we examined in the Midwestern U.S., suggesting that agricultural animals could become an important reservoir for this bacterium. Strain ST398 was the only MRSA identified among the swine and swine workers. This strain has been the predominant strain among swine in the Netherlands and Canada. However, Khanna et al. in Canada recently found both ST398 and ST5/USA100 colonizing the nares of swine and swine workers [12]. This difference may indicate that the epidemiology of MRSA on Canadian swine farms is different than on the affected farm system in Iowa and Illinois. On the other hand, the difference may have resulted from differing sampling methodologies. Khanna et al. sampled a small number of humans and swine on 20 farms whereas we took a larger number of samples from a smaller number of farms in two corporate systems. Furthermore, because we did not type all isolates in this pilot study, additional strain types may be present that we did not detect.



SNIP...



Introduction

Staphylococcus aureus is one of the most common and devastating human pathogens [1]. Though approximately a third of the population is colonized with S. aureus [2,3], colonization by strains of S. aureus that are resistant to methicillin (methicillin-resistant S. aureus, MRSA) is less common. A recent publication estimated that 1.5% of the United States (U.S.) population (,4.1 million persons) is colonized with MRSA [4]. Klevens et al. recently showed that deaths from MRSA infections in the U.S. have eclipsed those from many other infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS. On the basis of data from several major metropolitan areas in the U.S., these investigators estimated that MRSA caused 94,000 infections and over 18,000 deaths in the U.S. in 2005 [5].

Moreover, MRSA has been found in a variety of animals, including horses [6,7], cattle [8], dogs, cats [9], and swine [10,11,12]. Voss et al. reported that the prevalence of MRSA among pig farmers was >760 times higher than that among patients admitted to Dutch hospitals [13]. Multi locus sequence typing (MLST) suggested that these MRSA isolates belonged to sequence type 398 (ST398), and had been transmitted from pigs to pig farmers, among pig farmers and their family members, and from the colonized son of a swine veterinarian to a hospital nurse. A subsequent study found that 4.6% of veterinarians and veterinary students were colonized with MRSA compared with a population-based estimate of 1% [14].

Additional studies in swine have shown that isolates obtained from swine and their human caretakers are frequently indistinguishable, suggesting transmission between the two animal species [11,12]. Indeed, investigations in the Netherlands demonstrated that ST398 now accounts for 20% of all MRSA detected in that country, documenting the importance of considering livestock and PLoS ONE | www.plosone.org 1 January 2009 | Volume 4 | Issue 1 | e4258 other animals when examining the epidemiology of MRSA [15]. However, despite research examining swine-associated MRSA in the Netherlands and Canada [10,12], currently the prevalence of MRSA in swine or their caretakers is unknown in the U.S. In a rural state such as Iowa, which produces 25% of the swine raised in the U.S., transmission of MRSA on swine farms or in veterinary facilities could complicate efforts to reduce MRSA transmission statewide and beyond. Therefore, we conducted a pilot culture survey to examine the prevalence of MRSA in swine and swine workers in two swine farming production systems in Iowa and Illinois.


full text ;



http://www.plosone.org/article/fetchObjectAttachment.action?uri=info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0004258&representation=PDF



also see, and please note ;



"none of the colonized participants reported recent travel to the Dominican Republic. No contact among the different households was reported."



From Emerging Infectious Diseases


Staphylococcus aureus ST398, New York City and Dominican Republic


Meera Bhat; Caroline Dumortier; Barbara S. Taylor; Maureen Miller; Glenny Vasquez; Jose Yunen; Karen Brudney; Jacqueline Sánchez E.; Carlos Rodriguez-Taveras; Rita Rojas; Patricia Leon; Franklin D. Lowy

Authors and Disclosures

Posted: 05/11/2009; Emerging Infectious Diseases © 2008 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Abstract Closely related Staphylococcus aureus strains of ST398, an animal-associated strain, were identified in samples collected from humans in northern Manhattan, New York, NY, USA, and in the Dominican Republic. A large population in northern Manhattan has close ties to the Dominican Republic, suggesting international transmission.

Introduction

In the past 5 years, as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has emerged as a community pathogen, awareness of the role of animal exposure from pets or farming as sources of MRSA has increased.[1-3] We identified a clone of S. aureus previously associated with outbreaks of infections in animals and in humans who work with animals in 2 unique collections of S. aureus isolates. The first was from a population-based study of S. aureus colonization among residents of northern Manhattan in New York, NY, USA; the second was from isolates obtained from the Dominican Republic. This clone does not digest with the restriction enzyme SmaI, which is generally used for pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Consequently, the clone is identified by multilocus sequence typing as sequence type 398 (ST398). Both methicillin-resistant and methicillin-susceptible isolates of S. aureus have been reported.[4] ST398 has been found primarily in Europe, where it has been isolated from pigs and pig farmers in the Netherlands and France and from dogs, pigs, horses, and humans in Germany and Austria.[5-8] Colonization with MRSA ST398 has recently been reported in pigs and pig farmers in Canada.[9]

snip...

The Study

The community-based study was conducted from 2004 through 2007 in the northern section of Manhattan, a borough of New York City. Northern Manhattan contains a large, medically underserved population that has close ties to the Dominican Republic. Participants were recruited by using random-digit dialing. Consenting persons and household members were subsequently interviewed and screened for S. aureus colonization. A total of 321 eligible households containing 914 household members participated. In 9 households, 13 participants were found to be colonized with S. aureus isolates that were SmaI resistant. Digestion with the Cfr9I, an isoschizomer of SmaI, yielded identical PFGE profiles (Figure). Subsequent multilocus sequence typing confirmed the ST398 identification (allelic profile 3–35–19–2-20–26–39). All strains were methicillin susceptible. A representative strain was spa-typed as type t571 (allelic profile 8–16–2-25–2-25–34–25, eGenomics type 109); it was Panton-Valentine leukocidin negative.

Characteristics of persons colonized with ST398 were similar to those of persons in the community-based study and with northern Manhattan census characteristics (Table). The 13 isolates were from 9 different families; 1 family had 4 members colonized with ST398 at either nasal or axillary sites. The mean age of those colonized was 33.4 years; only 1 child (7 years of age) was colonized. Two persons from different families were colonized with ST398 at multiple sites, none of which were confirmed as infections.

No household reported owning pets, although 2 reported animal contact. Of the 12 adults, 5 (41.7%) reported possible job exposure to S. aureus, including 1 who worked in a healthcare-associated field. No household reported patronizing viveros, or live poultry markets, which are common in the Latino communities of northern Manhattan and the Bronx. Two households reported having children who attended day care, although none of these children were colonized with S. aureus. Although 15% of the Dominican population in the study reported travel to the

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Dominican Republic within 6 months of their interview, none of the colonized participants reported recent travel to the Dominican Republic. No contact among the different households was reported.

snip...

http://www.cdc.gov/eid/content/15/2/pdfs/08-0609.pdf


TSS

 

[PORKER]

Court Shuts Down Maryland Veal Operation
by Dan Flynn | Feb 26, 2010
A Maryland veal calf dealer selling about 1,200 animals a year has agreed to shut down after years of refusing to change the way he used drugs in his business.

William F. Nickle of North East, MD has agreed to shut down as part of a consent degree of permanent injunction after being charged with repeatedly violating federal law and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations by selling veal calves with illegal drug residues in their edible tissues.

U.S. District Court Judge J. Frederik Motz of Baltimore signed the consent degree against Nickle on Feb. 19. Former President Ronald Reagan appointed Judge Motz to the federal bench.

Nickle may reopen his veal operation only if he gives FDA 90 days notice and sets up systems that will bring him into compliance with the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, FDA regulations, and other regulations and terms of the decree.

Among those terms, Nickle must identify each of his animals by tag number, keep medical records for each animal for sale or slaughter, segregate medicated animals from those not medicated, and notify purchasers of his animals' medication history. He also may not resume operations until he receives written approval from the FDA.

The federal government's complaint was based, in part, on Nickle's illegal administration of flunixin, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug. Illegal residues of the drug were found by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in calves Nickle sold for human consumption. In recent years, Nickle had received numerous verbal and written warnings from both the FDA and the USDA.

FDA files also show that Nickle was abusing Neomycin, an aminoglycoside antibiotic, as early as June 2005.

The sale of animals for human food that may contain illegal levels of drugs is a concern because of the potential for adverse effects on human health. FDA requirements for animal drugs include a specified time to withdraw an animal from treatment prior to slaughter so that a drug is depleted from edible tissue to levels safe for humans.
Tags: FDA, injunction, veal
Comment
02/26/2010
10:46AM It's disappointing that it took the FDA FIVE YEARS to get him shut down, after they became aware of Nickle's disregard for food safety laws. I understand some lag time on enforecement, but that seems a very long time, particularly given the context. Once again, I note how quickly "corrective action" takes place vis a vis air travel versus our more critical food system. Tsk, tsk. Our priorities are so sadly misaligned.

 

[Kato]

We raise cattle. I also once worked in a doctor's office. We treat our cattle with antibiotics WHEN THEY ARE SICK. I have seen patients with problems that did not need antibiotics go into tantrums and pressure the doctors to give them a prescription WHEN THEY WERE NOT SICK. You don't need antibiotics for a cold. Tell that to someone who has a cold, who has decided they need antibiotics, and see how well it goes over. Not well. :shock: Combine that with the fact that a lot of people don't realize you need to finish every single pill in that prescription, even if you feel better, and it's not hard to see how antibiotic resistance develops.

I read a story a few months ago on how antibiotics can be found in the sewage coming out of many cities. How did that get there? Not from some cow living in an apartment downtown, that's for sure.

But it's so much easier to blame the livestock producers. I do agree that intensively raised livestock can need antibiotics more often, just due to the close contact and conditions they live in, but if you take a look back on the ranch, you'd find that the antibiotic use is a fraction of what people think it is, especially now that vaccinations are a major part of our production methods.