Tainted meats point to superbug C. diff in food

[IDemo]

Study finds gut germ in 40 percent of grocery meats; CDC says not to worry

By JoNel Aleccia
Health writer
msnbc.com
updated 6:22 a.m. MT, Tues., Nov. 18, 2008

A potentially deadly intestinal germ increasingly found in hospitals is also showing up in a more unsavory setting: grocery store meats.

More than 40 percent of packaged meats sampled from three Arizona chain stores tested positive for Clostridium difficile, a gut bug known as C. diff., according to newly complete analysis of 2006 data collected by a University of Arizona scientist.

Nearly 30 percent of the contaminated samples of ground beef, pork and turkey and ready-to-eat meats like summer sausage were identical or closely related to a super-toxic strain of C. diff blamed for growing rates of illness and death in the U.S. — raising the possibility that the bacterial infections may be transmitted through food.

“These data suggest that domestic animals, by way of retail meats, may be a source of C. difficile for human infection,” said J. Glenn Songer, a professor of veterinary science at the Tucson school, who talked with msnbc.com about work now under review by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27774614/

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Symptoms

Some people who are infected with C. difficile never become sick, though they can still spread the infection. Others have bouts of watery diarrhea, often with nausea and abdominal pain and cramping. And an increasing number of people develop colitis or pseudomembranous colitis — severe inflammations of the colon. Signs and symptoms of these potentially life-threatening illnesses include:

* Profuse, watery diarrhea — 10 or more bowel movements a day
* Fever, often greater than 101 F
* Abdominal pain, which may be severe
* Blood or pus in the stool
* Nausea
* Dehydration
* Weight loss

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/c-difficile/DS00736/DSECTION=symptoms

[villager]

1. aah, beef! Between this and mad cow, what wonderful stuff!

n/t

[kestrel91316]

2. Before everybody gets all panicked - bacteria of all sorts are found in

(actually on the cut surface of, and also throughout ground) meat. This is why SAFE FOOD HANDLING techniques are important. There is a reason why we are told to cook meats to the proper temperature, to wash our hands after handling raw meats, to wash with soap and water and/or disinfect surfaces touched by raw meats, to avoid cross contamination from raw meats to cooked foods.

Basic hygiene goes a long long long way toward preventing foodborne infections such as C. difficile. If people get sloppy, which they do all too often, they PUT THEMSELVES at risk.

CDC's info on C. difficile as a hospital-acquired infection, which is its traditional niche:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dhqp/id_cdiff.html

C. diffcile is the bug behind antibiotic-associated colitis. It quietly minds its own business, being kept in check by all the various GOOD bacteria in our GI tracts. Only when we start altering the balance of those GOOD bacteria by taking antibiotics or undergoing other GI stresses does C. difficile have the opportunity to make trouble.

So the take-home message is what has been for years: Good hygiene, and don't take antibiotics if you don't have to.

[IDemo]

4. The article I read a week or two ago

stated that this is a very difficult bacteria to control in hospitals. Apparently normal disinfectants aren't working and surfaces must be cleaned with bleach.

Also, how does one deal with processed meats such as summer sausage or lunchmeat? Certainly not by cooking them?

edit - from further down in the article from the OP: C. diff is a tricky bug, hard to kill with anything but bleach in the hospital and able to survive most cooking techniques in the kitchen.

[kestrel91316]

5. Fortunately most people with healthy GI bacteria and overall good health

shouldn't become ill from this if it IS in summer sausage. But we have a reasonable expectation that our ready-to-eat foods be free from infectious agents that could prove dangerous to ANY of us, and not just the super-fit.

People with chronic diseases, on immunosuppressive meds (post transplant, cancer chemo, etc), elderly and small children probably better not be eating ready-to-eat meats. Heck, they're crap full of fat and salt and we'd all be better off without eating them (said kestrel as she tucked into her turkey bologna sandwich, lol).

[kestrel91316]

3. Oh, and BTW, I'd like to see somebody address the role that unnecessary

antibiotics fed to livestock as "growth promotants" play in this increasing presence of a dangerous strain of C. difficile in our food supply. Expect the usual inaction and silence from the USDA until Bush is out of office. I hope Obama unmuzzles their scientists.

[unpossibles]

6. yet another good reason to abstain. nt