Scientists at Oregon State University have made progress in the war against antibiotic resistant bacteria. More and more pathogenic bacteria are developing resistance against antibiotics, even our last-ditch drugs. Researchers have found that a molecule can neutralize bacteria’s ability to become resistant to antibiotics. The study was published in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. This … Read more
A paper in the January 2017 edition of Nature Ecology & Evolution states that antibiotic-resistant bacteria grow faster and more efficiently than those that are not resistant to antibiotics. That is bad news in the fight against this deadly threat. Antibiotic resistant bacteria develop when the organisms are exposed to antibiotics. The drugs kill most … Read more
A study published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology has found that taking acid-suppressing medications increases the risk for bacterial gastroenteritis in the community and in hospital-based settings. The population-based, propensity-score matched cohort study was conducted at the University College London. The study identified 188,323 patients from a community in Scotland who took these … Read more
A new study focusing on contact surface transfer of pathogens is halfway through its two year timeline. The research is being conducted at Virginia Tech. Dr. Laura Strawn, a produce safety Extension Specialist at that University is leading the project, along with Dr. Ben Chapman at NCSU and Dr. Michelle Danyluk at the University of … Read more
An E. coli research program that has led to improved detection methods and food safety education at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with continue.The $25 million project is investigating Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) strains that can contaminate beef. The project began in 2011. This type of bacteria can cause serious infections, which can lead to … Read more
Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston have developed an oral vaccine against Salmonella bacteria. The article is published in Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology. Researchers at that facility have developed potential vaccines against Salmonella Typhimurium, but that vaccine was given as an injection. An oral vaccination is much simpler to … Read more
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published a new report on the incidence of antibiotic-resistant Salmonella infections in the United States. Every year, about 6,200 people are sickened with these strains of antibiotic bacteria, but non-resistant Salmonella bacteria cause about 1.2 million illnesses every year in this country. Salmonella infections are one of … Read more
A new study at Michigan State University is the first to show how Campylobacter jejuni triggers Guillain-Barré Syndrome. That complication of the bacterial infection can cause paralysis. If the chicken isn’t cooked to 165°F, the bacteria can survive and cause serious illness. Campylobacter infections have also been caused by raw, or unpasteurized milk and other … Read more
A study published this month in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, conducted at the University of Leicester, shows that juices from damaged salad leaves “massively” stimulate Salmonella growth. In fact, that lab study shows that those juices increase Salmonella growth 2,400 fold over a control group. The leached juices also increased the bacteria’s ability to form … Read more
A study published in the Journal of Food Protection has found that while consumers think that organic foods are “safer” than conventionally grown or produced foods, the standards applied to those products do not directly address microbial or chemical safety issues. Researchers looked at the CDC’s Foodborne Disease Outbreak Surveillance System in this study. They … Read more