Message Number: FHL11983 | New FHL Archives Search

From: Sukie Crandall
Date: 2010-08-10 15:54:25 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Salmonella: This is an interesting news story, and here is an interesting article
To: Ferret Mailing List <ferret-l@LISTSERV.FERRETMAILINGLIST.ORG>, fhl <ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com>

Pets can have a very hard time with salmonella, too. Healthy ferrets,=20
if their exposure is not large, usually can resist infection, but if=20
the exposure is too high or their health is compromised then they are=20
can get it.

Once they get it salmonella is very hard to treat in ferrets and can=20
be fatal. So, it is not among the worst food poisonings (such as=20
shiga toxin producing strains of E. coli) that ferrets can get, but it=20
still can be dangerous.

Cooking sufficiently does kill salmonella. Avoid cross contamination=20
from cutting surfaces, knives, platters, etc. with thorough cleaning=20
of anything that touched the raw, and wash your own hands well. Don't=20
forget that these things can get into sponges and towels, so...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20100809/sc_livescience/drypetfoodlinke=
dtohumansalmonellaoutbreak

79 people, about half children, with salmonella from dry pet food in=20
2006-2008

> The infections, half of which struck children, are the first known=20
> human salmonella cases linked to dry dog and cat food.

...
> Because pet food usually contains meat, and meat can carry=20
> salmonella, the investigators turned to the families' dog and cat=20
> foods for clues. They found a variety of brands, but lot numbers=20
> stamped on the bags traced the food back to a common manufacturing=20
> facility in Pennsylvania owned by Mars Petcare US, according to a=20
> CDC website about the outbreak.
> The investigators found salmonella contamination in the flavoring=20
> room of the manufacturing plant, where dry food was sprayed with=20
> flavor enhancers before being packaged. The company instituted a=20
> voluntary recall of more than 23,000 tons of pet food in 2007. When=20
> the outbreak continued in 2008, Mars Petcare US recalled all of its=20
> products and eventually shuttered its plant.

That explains how it happened since cooking enough kills salmonella. =

The salmonella wound up put on in the flavor enhancer after the=20
cooking had already happened. The route had always been puzzling.

> Salmonella can jump from pet food to humans in several ways, said=20
> Barton Behravesh. Pets can shed salmonella in their feces for up to=20
> 12 weeks after infection, even if the dogs themselves don't appear=20
> sick. Children might have also played with the pet food and then put=20
> their hands =E2=8E=AF or the food itself =E2=8E=AF in their mouths.

...
> One of the strongest predictors of illness turned out to be whether=20
> the family pet was fed in the kitchen or not. For children under age=20
> 2, feeding a pet in the kitchen raised the risk of infection about=20
> fourfold


and in the latest Science News:

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/61930/title/Chicken_poses_signif=
icant_drug-resistant_Salmonella_threat

> More than one-in-five retail samples of raw chicken cutlets=20
> collected in Pennsylvania hosted Salmonella, a new study found
...
> And where these bacteria were present, more than half were immune to=20
> the germicidal activity of at least one antibiotic. Nearly one-third=20
> were resistant to three or more drugs.

...
> The good news: The Pennsylvania stats are lower than the chicken=20
> contamination rates seen in earlier studies involving other,=20
> admittedly less virulent food poisoning agents, such as Enterococcus=20
> faecalis.
...
> They also point to the wisdom of cooks adopting the precautionary=20
> principle: assuming that all the chicken that enters their kitchens=20
> is bugged.
...
> Some of the meat had been laying open, on display, in the butcher=E2=80=
=99s=20
> case; others had come prepackaged. Some had been labeled organic and=20
> a few carried designations that the meat came from animals raised=20
> without use of growth-promoting antibiotics.
>
> Regardless of how the animals had been reared or what kind of outlet=20
> had sold the meat, all sources of chicken were equally likely to be=20
> contaminated, the researchers report in the August Foodborne=20
> Pathogens and Disease.
>
The article goes on to explain how over use and careless use of=20
antibiotics in the chicken farms themselves are leading to many=20
antibiotic resistant strains of salmonella (and the same problem=20
exists in cattle farms and others for types of food poisonings=20
typically from those animals).

> In the new study, 43 percent of tainted chicken hosted=20
> Salmonellaimmune to ceftiofur, an antibiotic approved for use on=20
> chickens as young as one-day old. That incidence rate is=20
> particularly disturbing, M=E2=80=99ikanatha=E2=80=99s group points out, b=
ecause=20
> resistance to this drug =E2=80=9Ccorrelates with decreased susceptibility=
=20
> to other extended-spectrum cephalosporins [antibiotics], including=20
> ceftriaxone, a drug of choice for treatment of severe salmonellosis=20
> in humans, particularly in children where therapeutic options are=20
> limited.=E2=80=9D Between 1996 and 2006, CDC charted a 17-fold increase i=
n=20
> resistance to these ESC antibiotics.

Now, there are probably some farms that get chicks from their own eggs=20
and then raise from those without using antibiotics, but those will be=20
smaller farms and rare. In the large farms, the typical farms, the=20
chickens are very crowded so protection from disease and parasites=20
means many meds, and the chicks are brought in from another type of=20
facility which does the egging, incubation, and hatching (and back=20
when I was young the pointier eggs were thought to more likely become=20
males and the rounder ones more likely to be become females so some=20
division of fates was done even that early but I don't know how that=20
is done these days) then the chicks are trucked to other farms which=20
raise them and sell them to the distributor once raised. Reducing=20
uses of antibiotics in chickens to reduce the food borne disease risk=20
will mean changing practices that have been used for at least 60 years=20
as well as some newer ones that are even worse than they were in the=20
1950s. (BTW, being a chicken farmer is not an easy haul; besides=20
loads of heavy work there is an increased risk of COPD later in life,=20
and back when relatives had one during my childhood those of us girls=20
who dusted the chicks with DDT had an increased risk of developing=20
uterine malformations as we grew up.)

Sukie (not a vet)

Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/
http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html
all ferret topics:
http://listserv.ferretmailinglist.org/archives/ferret-search.html

"All hail the procrastinators for they shall rule the world tomorrow."
(2010, Steve Crandall)

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