Monday, July 23, 2012

Cargill beef sickens 33


Hamburger processed at a Cargill plant at Wyalusing, Pennsylvania, has sickened 33 people.

The company has recalled about 29,300 pounds of 85 per cent lean hamburger over concerns that it might be contaminated with Salmonella enteriditis.

It’s possible that authorities will be checking records of imports of cull cattle from Canada as part of their investigation.

Buyers for U.S. packing plants, such as Richard (Butch) Clare of Aylmer Meat notoriety, buy cull cows for U.S. packers at auction markets, such as the Ontario Livestock Exchange north of Waterloo.

Dr. Doug Powell reports on his website, Barfblog, that “although the onset of illness happened during the week of June 6, 2012, it took six weeks of sleuthing to link illnesses in five case-patients to the ground beef products produced at this establishment based on epidemiologic and traceback investigations, as well as in-store reviews.”
Two of the five case-patients were hospitalized. Leftover product with no packaging information collected during the course of this investigation by the Vermont Department of Health tested positive for Salmonella Enteritidis with the outbreak strain.
This outbreak strain of Salmonella Enteritidis is drug sensitive, meaning antibiotics can be effective in treating patients who need them, Powell wrote.