E. coli Cookie Update

Thanks to an unknown source for yesterday's CDC update to the E. coli cookie dough situation:

As of Monday, June 22, 2009, 70 persons infected with a strain of E. coli O157:H7 with a particular DNA fingerprint have been reported from 30 states. Of these, 41 have been confirmed by an advanced DNA test as having the outbreak strain; these confirmatory test results are pending on the others. The number of ill persons identified in each state is as follows: Arizona (2), California (3), Colorado (5), Connecticut (1), Delaware (1), Georgia (1), Hawaii (1), Iowa (2), Illinois (5), Kentucky (3), Massachusetts (4), Maryland (2), Maine (3), Minnesota (6), Missouri (2), Montana (1), North Carolina (2), New Hampshire (2), New Jersey (1), Nevada (2), Ohio (3), Oklahoma (1), Oregon (1), Pennsylvania (2), South Carolina (1), Texas (3), Utah (2), Virginia (2), Washington (5), and Wisconsin (1).

As advised by the CDC, PlagueBlog reminds you that you should not eat raw food products that are intended for cooking or baking before consumption, no matter how yummy they may appear.

90% Mortality Rates

Via ProMED-mail: The Hartford Courant reports a 90% mortality rate for the state's bats from white-nose syndrome.

Jenny Dickson, the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection wildlife biologist supervising the detection and control of white-nose syndrome in the state, said Tuesday that visits to two sample caves in Litchfield County in the past two weeks revealed veritable bat catacombs. Dickson's team of wildlife experts found thousands of dead bats floating like dead fish in standing water, or stacked on top of each other along the flat ledges of the cave walls.
"It was grim, and you don't have to be a scientist to realize the implications for the environment inside those caves," said Dickson. "This is a massive, unprecedented die-off, with significant potential impacts on nature, especially insect control."

Bats from all over the Northeast migrate through Connecticut, so expect more mosquitoes this summer.

In other 90% mortality news, a German researcher pricked herself instead her intended mouse victim with a needle full of Ebola-Zaire last week. She's still in isolation, showing no symptoms and being treated with an experimental vaccine. See the AAAS blog for more information.

Holiday Cookie Dough Warning

Via ProMED-mail: the New Zealand Food Safety Authority reports on a salmonella outbreak apparently caused by (raw) contaminated flour.

“It is possible for low levels of bacteria to be on wheat or other points of the flour milling process, and studies indicate that about one percent of flour on average contains Salmonella.”
“Flour is a raw ingredient and intended to be consumed cooked. Although flour is not expected to be a sterile product, we support the company’s precautionary decision to withdraw the product. The affected batches of these brands can be safely used to cook if proper care is taken. If people have used these brands in their baking - for biscuits, cakes, breads or other Christmas treats - they can be reassured that the cooking will have killed the bacteria and that these home baked foods are safe to eat.”

In other words, bake those cookies before you eat any.

Via ProMED-mail: the South Carolina Department of Health and Environment Control reports on a rabid raccoon that exposed sixteen people to rabies, because they wouldn't let Darwin be Darwin.

Sixteen people who were exposed to rabies by a raccoon are under the care of a physician after the raccoon tested positive for the disease, the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control said today.
"The baby raccoon was found in the woods and was being cared for by several people over the past several weeks," said Sue Ferguson of DHEC's Bureau of Environmental Health.
According to Ferguson, many of the exposures occurred when feeding the raccoon, as caretakers came into contact with the animal's saliva. Seven more people are being evaluated for possible exposure risk.

Bat Woman Found on Facebook

ProMED-mail reports that the mysterious woman who brought a rabid bat to the Toronto Wildlife Center has been found and inoculated:

Toronto Public Health has located the woman who had delivered an injured bat to the Toronto Wildlife Centre that later tested positive for rabies. Finding her proved to be very challenging as the Wildlife Centre did not have her updated demographic information. After several attempts to locate her, including a media release, proved to be unsuccessful, one of the communications staff at Toronto Public Health suggested using the website "Facebook.com".

If you come across an injured rodent of a populous and frequently rabid species, Plagueblog recommends that you walk away and let Darwin handle the situation.

Adopt-A-Rabid-Bat Month

Via ProMED-mail: the Casper Star-Tribune reports on a case of rabies exposure at Trinity Lutheran School in Riverton, Wyoming:

A staff member on May 9 discovered the bat in the school basement, where it was captured and stored in a cage in Steve Coniglio's seventh- and eighth-grade classroom.
It was also displayed in other classrooms, and students fed it crickets through the cage. No one is believed to have touched the bat directly, head teacher Susan Tucker said.
School officials notified a local veterinarian after the bat died suddenly on May 11. The state Department of Health was called in once the animal tested positive for the rabies virus.
Coniglio and a teacher's aide who washed the cage without protective gloves after the bat died are receiving the rabies vaccine as a precaution.

PlagueBlog recommends getting your pets from an animal shelter, pet store, or reputable breeder.

Don't Sue the Messenger

ProMED-mail reprints The Jakarta Post on yet another howler from Indonesia:

The parents of 3 young children from North Sumatra's Karo regency who were earlier reported as exhibiting classic bird flu symptoms plan to sue the provincial administration and the central government for saying their children most likely had bird flu.

I believe this is the same area where angry poultry workers drank chicken blood to protest earlier diagnoses. Suing is, at least, more sanitary.

From the Don't Eat the Guano files...

The New York Times reports that two groups of researches have independently identified the Chinese horseshoe bat as the natural reservoir for the SARS virus.

The bats apparently are healthy carriers of SARS, which caused severe economic losses, particularly in Asia, as it spread to Canada and other countries. In Asia, many people eat bats or use bat feces in traditional medicine for asthma, kidney ailments and general malaise.

Thanks to an unnamed source for the link.

From the don't-eat-the-downers files

Via ProMED-mail: several NY sources report on at least 5 deer infected with Chronic Wasting Disease, a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy. One of the deer was served at a Verona Fire Department annual dinner (apparently while the brain was languishing at a lab someplace). This means that the state department of health has a few CWD exposures to track, to see whether CWD really poses no threat to humans.

Don't Eat the Apes

Via ProMED-mail, of course: Study links Ebola outbreaks to animal carcasses.

Specifically, the researchers found that Ebola infections in wild animals such as gorillas, chimpanzees, and occasionally duikers (a diminutive antelope species), move across the human-wildlife divide through hunters taking either sick animals or carcasses for meat. Hunters can then spread the disease to families and hospital workers, creating the conditions for an epidemic in the process.

Eagles with Bird Flu

From the don't-kiss-the-chickens department: a Thai man came forward after public appeals in Belgium. He had attempted to smuggle infected eagles into the country in his luggage. Belgian officials have killed hundreds of unfortunate birds who were in the airport at the same time, and passengers on the flights are being warned about bird flu.

This just in from ProMed-mail: The Belgian veterinarian who euthanized the two eagles has been hospitalized with bird flu. So much for the Thai Public Health Ministry's assurances that only domesticated birds had been known to transmit bird flu to humans.