Foodborne Illness News

June 11, 2024

Top Headlines

Researchers Discover 'Trojan Horse' Virus Hiding in Human Parasite

May 31, 2024 — An international team has found a new RNA virus that they believe is hitching a ride with a common human parasite. The virus is associated with severe inflammation in humans infected with the parasite Toxoplasma gondii, leading the team to ...

Mistaken Identity Cleared Up of Foodborne Pathogen Causing Severe Symptoms in Children

May 23, 2024 — Researchers have developed a quantitative real-time PCR-based detection method for the emerging zoonotic organism Escherichia albertii. They found that E. albertii survives in the human intestinal ...

Natural Toxins in Food: Many People Are Not Aware of the Health Risks

May 16, 2024 — Many people are concerned about residues of chemicals, contaminants or microplastics in their food. However, it is less well known that many foods also contain toxins of completely natural origin. These are often chemical compounds that plants use ...

Rapid, Simultaneous Detection of Multiple Bacteria Achieved With Handheld Sensor

Apr. 5, 2024 — A team has developed a method for simultaneous detection of multiple disease-causing bacterial species within one hour using a handheld ...

Latest Headlines

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Study Compares Salmonella Rates in Backyard, Commercial Poultry Farm Samples

Apr. 23, 2024 — Researchers find less Salmonella on backyard poultry farms. But concerns remain about the prevalance of multidrug-resistant bacteria on both large ...

Scientists Further Our Understanding of How a Foodborne Bacterium Can Survive in Food Preparation Environments

Apr. 3, 2024 — Scientists have discovered that bacterial populations remain stable on factory floor despite cleaning efforts in ready-to-eat food production ...

Refrigerate Lettuce to Reduce Risk of E. Coli Contamination

Feb. 29, 2024 — Leafy green vegetables are important sources of dietary fiber and nutrients, but they can harbor harmful pathogens. In particular, lettuce has often been involved in outbreaks of foodborne illness ...

New and Highly Infectious E. Coli Strain Resistant to Powerful Antibiotics

Jan. 31, 2024 — A new type of E. coli that is both highly infectious and resistant to some antibiotics has been discovered. The newly identified mutation of antibiotic-resistant E. coli is described in a new ...

Tomato Juice's Antimicrobial Properties Can Kill Salmonella

Jan. 30, 2024 — New research shows that tomato juice can kill Salmonella Typhi and other bacteria that can harm people's digestive and urinary tract ...

Foodborne-Pathogen Listeria May Hide from Sanitizers in Biofilms

Jan. 24, 2024 — An estimated 1,600 people in the U.S. contract a serious infection from Listeria bacteria in food each year and, of those individuals, about 260 people die, according to the Centers for Disease ...

New Insights Into What Helps Salmonella Cause Infections

Jan. 13, 2024 — In a new study, researchers have discovered how a system of proteins, called TamAB, helps Salmonella survive under the harsh conditions inside ...

Feeding Dogs Raw Meat Increases the Risk of Antibiotic-Resistant E. Coli

Nov. 20, 2023 — Feeding dogs raw (uncooked) meat increases their risk of excreting E. coli that cannot be killed by a widely used antibiotic -- ciprofloxacin -- researchers have found from a study of 600 healthy pet ...

Pathogen That Plagues Food Processing Plants Eradicated by Blue Light

Oct. 17, 2023 — A new study shows that blue light kills both dried cells and biofilms of Listeria ...

Multi-Drug Resistant Strain of E. Coli Battles Bacteria in Healthy Gut

Oct. 17, 2023 — Different strains of E. coli can outcompete one another to take over the gut, a new study ...

Climate Change Can Alter the Risk of Succumbing to Infectious Diseases

Sep. 11, 2023 — A new Europe-wide study investigated the prevalence of protozoans, bacteria and viruses potentially pathogenic to humans and domestic animals in birds and bats in varying climatic conditions. The ...

Resistant E. Coli Rises Despite Drop in Ciprofloxacin Use

Aug. 28, 2023 — After a nearly threefold drop in prescriptions for the antibiotic ciprofloxacin between 2015 and 2021, the rates of ciprofloxacin-resistant E. coli bacteria circulating in the community did not ...

Using Big Data on Livestock Farms Could Improve Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance

Aug. 18, 2023 — A new study suggests that using big data and machine learning in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) surveillance in livestock production methods could help inform interventions and offer protections ...

Bacteria in Kitchen May Not Be as Harmful as You Think

July 11, 2023 — New research shows that bacteria in kitchens across 5 European countries is mostly ...

New Insights on Bacteria That Causes Food Poisoning

June 16, 2023 — A joint research group has clarified how pathogenic genes in some Providencia spp., which have gained attention as causative agents of food poisoning as well as enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli. ...

Early Toilets Reveal Dysentery in Old Testament Jerusalem

May 26, 2023 — Study of 2,500-year-old latrines from the biblical Kingdom of Judah shows the ancient faeces within contain Giardia -- a parasite that can cause ...

How Bacteria Evolve Resistance to Antibiotics

May 11, 2023 — Bacteria can rapidly evolve resistance to antibiotics by adapting special pumps to flush them out of their cells, according to new research. Antimicrobial resistance is a growing problem of global ...

New Approach Targets Norovirus, World's Leading Cause of Foodborne Infection

Apr. 11, 2023 — Researchers have found a creative way to make a vaccine for norovirus, the leading cause of foodborne infections, by piggybacking on rotavirus, an unrelated virus for which there are already several ...

Emergence of Extensively Drug-Resistant Shigella Sonnei Strain in France

Mar. 20, 2023 — Shigellosis, a highly contagious diarrheal disease, is caused by Shigella bacteria circulating in industrializing countries but also in industrialized countries. Scientists who have been monitoring ...

Salmonella Exposure a Risk for Colon Cancer

Jan. 17, 2023 — Researchers studied human colon cancer tissue samples and animal models and found that exposure to salmonella was linked with colon cancers that developed earlier and grew ...

Toxoplasmosis: Pathogen With Molecular Master Key

Jan. 9, 2023 — Parasitologists have shown that a complex of two protein variants plays a significant role in toxoplasmosis ...

Food Decontamination Spray Deploys 'Billions of Tiny Soldiers'

Dec. 6, 2022 — Researchers harness bacteria-eating viruses to create a powerful new weapon against contamination and ...

Microfibers in the Mediterranean Sea Are Floating Homes for Bacteria

Nov. 30, 2022 — Almost 200 species of bacteria colonize microfibers in the Mediterranean Sea, including one that causes food poisoning in humans, according to a new ...

Identity Theft the Secret of the Cat Parasite's Success

Oct. 28, 2022 — The parasite Toxoplasma is carried by a large portion of the global human population. Now a study shows how this microscopic parasite so successfully spreads in the body, for example to the brain. ...

Spice Containers Pose Contamination Risk During Food Preparation

Oct. 19, 2022 — A new study on the potential for cross-contaminating kitchen surfaces with pathogens during food preparation has pointed to an unlikely culprit for spreading sickness: spice ...

White, Red, and Blue Signals Alert You to Dangerous Germs

Aug. 29, 2022 — Scientists developed a simple, rapid method for identifying food poisoning-inducing bacteria based on color differences in the scattered light of composite structures consisting of gold, silver, and ...

Pulsed Light Technology Effectively Kills Harmful Pathogens in New Study

Aug. 16, 2022 — A light-based, food sanitization technique successfully eliminated multiple harmful pathogens in a new study. The pulsed light technique shows promise as an effective alternative to the chemical, ...

Oil-Based Systems Show Promise for Eradicating Salmonella on Food Production Machinery

Aug. 8, 2022 — New research suggests that oil formulations with food-grade organic acids can kill dried Salmonella on stainless steel ...

Impact of Climate Change on Human Pathogenic Diseases Subject of New Study by UH Researchers

Aug. 8, 2022 — A comprehensive assessment of scientific literature has uncovered empirical evidence that more than 58% of human diseases caused by pathogens, such as dengue, hepatitis, pneumonia, malaria, Zika and ...

Can We Save More Lives If We Let Resistant Bacteria Live?

June 22, 2022 — Every day, people die of simple inflammation because bacteria can no longer be killed with antibiotics. So what do we do? Maybe we should spend less energy on killing them and more on ...