The Center for Food Animal Health awarded the Dairy Food Safety Laboratory (DFSL) continuing funds for a collaborative study with WIFSS entitled "Presence of the pathogen Campylobacter jejuni in bulk tank milk and the environment of central California dairies." Drs. James Cullor (Principal Investigator) and Paul Rossitto (VMTRC) are working with Dr. Jay-Russell (WIFSS) and Drs. Robert Mandrell and William Miller (USDA ARS Western Regional Research Center) to expand the study to include molecular typing of dairy Campylobacter strains. They are using DNA fingerprinting methods (PFGE, MLST, and MOMP typing) to track Campylobacter on the farm and identify prevention strategies to reduce entry of this foodborne pathogen into the food supply.

The DFSL in the School of Veterinary Medicine at UC Davis is located in Tulare, California. The DFSL&quo;s mandate is to provide a consistent, rapid response applied research on herd health and food safety questions as they arise. For more information, visit the Dairy Food Safety Labortaroy web site.
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Drs. Harris and Payne (WIFSS) joined Dr. James Cullor (VMTRC) at the Fresh Farm Milk: Assuring Safety and Consumer Choice Informational Hearing in Sacramento, CA. The three experts were invited to provide a scientific overview of the risks associated with the consumption of raw milk. The hearing was sponsored by the CA State Agriculture Committee and CA Senate Select Committee on Foodborne Illness.
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Dr. Harris gave a presentation entitled, Update on Food Safety Issues – What to Expect in the Future at the Citrus Postharvest Pest Control Conference in Santa Barbara, CA. Her presentation provided an update and overview of produce outbreaks; and compared and contrasted the response of the lettuce, leafy greens, and almond industries in response to outbreaks associated with their commodities. Also discussed were future trends in food safety as influenced by advances in outbreak investigation, microbial evolution, population demographics and their impact, and recent chemical threats associated with imported foods.
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Dr. Jay-Russell presented at the 8th annual California Emerging Infections Program conference on emerging infectious diseases and issues in the San Francisco Bay Area. She described the laboratory's role in farm investigations during foodborne disease outbreaks. Case studies on recent milk (Campylobacter and E. coli O157:H7) and spinach (E. coli O157:H7) related outbreaks were used as examples to illustrate how the laboratory uses molecular epidemiology to identify potential sources and risk factors for food contamination at the farm level. The conference program can be viewed at: http://www.ceip.us/under_surveillance_2008.htm.

The California Emerging Infections Program (CEIP), funded under a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is 1 of 11 federally funded Emerging Infections Program (EIP) sites. As part of the EIP network, the CEIP has been an invaluable national resource for surveillance, prevention, and control of emerging infectious diseases since 1994. The Program consists of a broad spectrum of research and surveillance activities including the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet). The core activity of the CEIP's FoodNet project is laboratory-based active surveillance at over 30 clinical and reference laboratories that test stool samples in the catchment area, which consists of Alameda, Contra Costa, and San Francisco counties. For more information, visit CEIP and FoodNet web sites.
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Drs. Bennie Osburn, Linda Harris, Michael Payne, and Rob Atwill met with Beth Calvey, Steve Gendel, and Samir Assar of FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) to discuss areas where WIFSS and CFSAN could strengthen their collaboration on a range of research and outreach projects related to food safety. Additionally, WIFSS conducted a field trip to show FDA a working commercial dairy in California's delta region. Discussion of dairy food safety, sanitation of the milking parlor, manure management, and the many environmental laws related to clean air and water that challenge this industry ensued. Thank you Ann Silva for hosting us at your dairy.
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A Systems Approach to Food Safety...Connecting the Dots Conference*
June 5, 2008, Culinary Institute of America at Greystone, St. Helena, CA
by Linda J. Harris

WIFSS is co-sponsoring a conference with the California Institute for Food and Agricultural Research on June 5, 2008.  The conference entitled Systems Approach to Food Safety...Connecting the Dots will be held at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in St. Helena, CA.  This one-day conference will provide a holistic perspective of food safety, weaving risk, standards, practices, and emerging technologies into a practical mosaic of agriculture, environment, health, and safety.  Speakers and participants will represent different segments of the regional, national, and global food supply chain; and contribute their own perspectives toward ensuring a safe, diverse, nutritious, and affordable food supply.

• Program
• Registration

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AN EXCERPT FROM THE REVIEW:
The description for Epidemiologic Principles and Food Safety (by Tamar Lasky, 254 pages, Oxford University Press, New York, NY, 2007. Price: $49.95) states that this book is the first of its kind in food safety. Indeed, the compilation of relatively concise chapters by expert authors offers a unique perspective. The authors are notably direct in their discussion of the historical political, legal, and economic implications of work in food safety as exemplified by the following quote from chapter 6: "The food-borne outbreak investigation is essentially a scientific study that takes place in an extremely public and political atmosphere, compressed in a relatively short period of time."
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ABSTRACT:
Vacuum cooling is a common practice in the California leafy-green industry. This study addressed the impact of vacuum cooling on the internalization of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in lettuce as part of the risk assessment responding to the E. coli O157:H7 outbreaks associated with leafy-green produce from California. Vacuum cooling increased the internalization of E. coli O157:H7 into the lettuce tissue significantly (2.65E+06 CFU/g) compared to the non-vacuumed condition (1.98E+05 CFU/g). A stringent surface sterilization and quadruple washing could not eliminate the internalized bacteria in lettuce. It appeared that vacuuming forcibly changed the structure of lettuce tissue such as the stomata, suggesting a possible mechanism of E. coli O157:H7 internalization. Vacuuming also caused a slower reduction rate of E. coli O157:H7 in stored lettuce leaves, compared to the non-vacuumed condition.
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