Data from population-based studies and national surveillance systems were collated and analyzed to estimate the impact of disease and risks associated with eating different foods in England and Wales. From 1996 to 2000, an estimated 1,724,315 cases of indigenous foodborne disease per year resulted in 21,997 hospitalizations and 687 deaths. The greatest impact on the healthcare sector arose from...

Most of the concern about foodborne disease has been focused on the immediate effects of acute infection. Recent information has shown that many of these foodborne infections also have long-term sequelae with serious health effects and a significant economic impact. To increase the awareness of animal health professionals to these sequelae, the authors discuss two groups of sequelae which are s...

PulseNet USA, the national molecular subtyping network for foodborne disease surveillance, began functioning in the United States in 1996 and soon established itself as a critical early warning system for foodborne disease outbreaks, particularly those in which cases may be geographically dispersed. The PulseNet network is now being replicated in different ways in Canada, Europe, the Asia Pacif...

The capacity of state and territorial health departments to investigate foodborne diseases was assessed by the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists from 2001 to 2002 with a self-administered, Web-based survey. Forty-eight health departments responded (47 states and 1 territory). The primary reason for not conducting more active case surveillance of enteric disease is lack of staff, ...

Isolates Clostridium botulinum from foodborne and infant botulism cases in the United States were compared on the basis of toxigenicity, cultural and biochemical characteristics, metabolic products, and susceptibility to antimicrobial agents. Seventy-eight strains, including 42 from foodborne and 36 from infant botulism sources, were examined. Cultures on anaerobic blood agar exhibited circular...

Each year, 31 major known pathogens acquired in the United States caused an estimated 9.4 million episodes of foodborne illness. Additional episodes of illness were caused by unspecified agents, including known agents with insufficient data to estimate agent-specific illness, known agents not yet recognized as causing foodborne illness, substances known to be in food but of unproven pathogenici...

Infant botulism is a rare paralytic disease caused by the microorganism Clostridium botulinum. If an infant swallows enough spores, the spores can colonize the large intestine, multiply and produce toxin. The toxin is absorbed into the body and carried to the nerve endings, which results in muscular impairment. Infant botulism differs from foodborne botulism in where and when the toxin is produ...

Contaminated food is the source of many severe infections in humans. Recent advances in food science have discovered new foodborne pathogens and progressed in characterizing their biology, life cycle, and infection processes. All this knowledge has been contributing to prevent food contamination, and to develop new therapeutics to treat the infections caused by these pathogens. RNA metabolism i...

PulseNet, the national molecular subtyping network for foodborne disease surveillance, was established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and several state health department laboratories to facilitate subtyping bacterial foodborne pathogens for epidemiologic purposes. PulseNet, which began in 1996 with 10 laboratories typing a single pathogen (Escherichia coli O157:H7), now inclu...