Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS)

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A Few Ways The Government Shutdown Could Harm Your Health (And The World’s)

Maryn McKenna | Wired | October 1, 2013

There’s going to be a lot — a lot — of coverage today on the federal shutdown, what it means and how long it might go on. I thought it might be worth quickly highlighting how it affects the parts of the government that readers here care most about: public health, global health, food safety and the spread of scary diseases. Read More »

Antibiotic Resistance Ups Salmonella Hospitalizations: CDC

Steven Reinberg | Philly.com | October 9, 2013

Because of antibiotic resistance, 42 percent of patients stricken with salmonella tied to a California chicken farm have required hospitalization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Wednesday. Read More »

CDC Calls Back Staff To Handle Salmonella Outbreak

Cole Petrochko | MedPage Today | October 8, 2013

An outbreak of Salmonella Heidelberg has spread to 18 states and has sickened nearly 300, prompting the return of some 30 CDC staffers furloughed during the government shutdown to work on the case. Read More »

CDC Unable To Conduct Lab, Detection Work On Salmonella Outbreak

Tom Sullivan | Government Health IT | October 9, 2013

For all those Americans crossing fingers that no communicable disease, influenza or foodborne illness outbreaks would happen during the government shutdown, exactly that has occurred. Read More »

Drug-Resistant Bacteria On Chicken: It’s Everywhere And The Government Can’t Help

Maryn McKenna | Wired | December 19, 2013

Two important, linked publications are out today, both carrying the same message: The way we raise poultry in this country is creating an under-appreciated health hazard, and the government structures we depend upon to detect that hazard and protect us from it are failing us. Read More »

Got Milk? Got Drugs? Got Both?: State Responds After Idaho Dairy Cattle Test Positive In Food Safety Tests

George Prentice | Boise Weekly | April 6, 2011

The [FDA] is worried about what it calls an "important potential public health issue." It could be in your latte or your child's bowl of breakfast cereal. It could be in your refrigerator or freezer. At the very least, the FDA wants to make certain that it's not in any of the 8 million milk-producing cattle in the United States or the 500,000 dairy cows in Idaho. Read More »

New Salmonella Outbreak In Chicken Resists Antibiotics

Elizabeth Weise | USA Today | October 8, 2013

A salmonella outbreak linked to raw chicken from California involves several antibiotic-resistant strains of the disease and has put at least 42% of the victims in the hospital, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday. Read More »

Shutdown Salmonella Outbreak Continues. CDC Food Safety Chief: ‘We Have A Blind Spot.’

Maryn McKenna | Wired | October 10, 2013

We’re 11 days now into the federal shutdown and four days since the announcement of a major foodborne outbreak in chicken that is challenging the shutdown-limited abilities of the food-safety and disease-detective personnel at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug Administration and Department of Agriculture. Here’s an update. Read More »

There’s A Major Foodborne Illness Outbreak And The Government’s Shut Down

Maryn McKenna | Wired | October 7, 2013

Late-breaking news, and I’ll update as I find out more: While the government is shut down, with food-safety personnel and disease detectives sent home and forbidden to work, a major foodborne-illness outbreak has begun. Read More »