Tag Archives: Sheep

Castrate sheep with tools, not teeth; Campylobacter jejuni cases in Wyoming sheep hands

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The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reports that on June 29, 2011, the Wyoming Department of Health was notified of two laboratory-confirmed cases of Campylobacter jejuni enteritis among persons working at a local sheep ranch.

During June, two men had reported onset of symptoms compatible with campylobacteriosis. Both patients had diarrhea, and one also had abdominal cramps, fever, nausea, and vomiting. One patient was hospitalized for 1 day. Both patients recovered without sequelae. During June, both patients had participated in a multiday event to castrate and dock tails of 1,600 lambs. Both men reported having used their teeth to castrate some of the lambs. Among the 12 persons who participated in the event, the patients are the only two known to have used their teeth to castrate lambs. During the multiday event, a few lambs reportedly had a mild diarrheal illness. Neither patient with laboratory-confirmed illness reported consumption of poultry or unpasteurized dairy products, which are common sources of exposure to C. jejuni. The patients resided in separate houses and did not share food or water; none of their contacts became ill.

Both patients provided stool specimens for laboratory testing; C. jejuni was isolated from each. The pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) patterns of the isolates were indistinguishable when restricted separately by two enzymes, SmaI and KpnI. This PFGE pattern had never been reported among 667 specimens from which C. jejuni was isolated in Wyoming and is rare in CDC’s PulseNet*database, with a frequency of 0.09% (8 of 8,817). The low frequency of this PFGE pattern suggests that both patients were infected from a common source.

Animals at the ranch included sheep, cattle, horses, cats, and dogs; none were ill during the site visit on October 19 when investigators obtained fecal samples from five lambs. C. jejuni was isolated from two lambs; one isolate had a PFGE pattern indistinguishable from the two human isolates. C. jejuni is transmitted via the fecal-oral route; this is the first reported association of C. jejuni infection with exposure during castration of lambs. The PFGE pattern identified in these cases had not been associated with animal exposure. Ranch owners and employees were advised to use standardized, age-specific techniques for lamb castration (e.g., Burdizzo, rubber rings, or surgery) and to wash their hands thoroughly after contact with animals.

Sheep suspect in Colorado cantaloupe outbreak

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Follow the poop to find the listeria.

I keep getting asked about confined animal feeding operations or CAFOs as the cause of the listeria-in-cantaloupe outbreak that has killed at least 18 and sickened 100.

I say, all animals poop.

The deer that caused E. coli O157:H7 outbreaks in Odwalla juice in 1996 that killed a 16-month-old child, or local Oregon strawberries in 2011 that killed one and sickened 14, had nothing to do with CAFOs.

Neither did the sheep in 1981, which were used to crapping on a cabbage field in Nova Scotia (that’s in Canada) and led to a listeria outbreak linked to coleslaw that sickened seven adults and led to 34 perinatal infections, according to a report on the outbreak published in 1983 in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).

Lisa Schnirring of CIDRAP cites Dr. Lawrence (Larry) Goodridge, a food microbiologist in the department of animal sciences at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, as saying all potential sources of contamination are being considered, including irrigation water, soil, "biosolids," and contamination from animal incursions.

Goodridge said in the region of Colorado where cantaloupes are grown—though not necessarily at the farm implicated in the outbreak—sheep are often grazed on cantaloupe fields following harvest.

"If that practice was followed at Jensen Farms, then there is the possibility of sheep manure contaminating the cantaloupe with L monocytogenes," he said. A similar scenario occurred in Nova Scotia, Canada, in 1981 when a listeria outbreak caused by tainted cabbage was traced to the use of sheep manure as fertilizer, Goodridge added.

Goodridge said another puzzling aspect of the cantaloupe Listeria outbreak is that four different pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) profiles have been identified, falling into two distinct serotypes, which could suggest multiple contamination events or a contamination event from multiple sources, such as different animals.

E. coli O123:H in a family in France, 2009

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King et al., report in Emerging Infectious Disease that on February 11, 2009, two cases of diarrhea were reported to a surveillance coordinator: 1 in a child with HUS and the other in that child’s sibling.

The 2 siblings, 2 and 6 years of age, had diarrhea beginning on February 4 and 5, 2009. Bloody diarrhea developed in the younger child, and HUS was diagnosed on February 9. The older child had non-bloody diarrhea for 3 days and abdominal pain. Questioning of the patients’ parents identified no recent history of travel, contact with farm animals, or outdoor bathing. A food history indicated that the 2 patients had shared an undercooked ground beef burger 4–5 days before symptom onset. The patients’ parents also ate burgers from the same package (box); they did not report any gastrointestinal symptoms.

And they found the same bug in a leftover frozen burger.

STEC serotype O123:H– has been isolated from feces of healthy lambs and sheep in Spain and in southwestern Australia and is considered to be among the predominant ovine STEC serotypes in these countries.

This family outbreak shows that STEC serotype O123:H–, albeit rarely described as causing human illness, can cause severe human infection. This serotype can also cause clusters of STEC infections and be transmitted by ingestion of undercooked ground beef.
 

The face of E. coli: rodeo edition

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A bunch of us went to the Riley County Fair Sunday morning (that’s in Manhattan, Kansas) so we could wander around the animals without too many people around.

We’ve done this before, but now there are a couple of public health students interested in doing some formal work to decrease the risk of dangerous bugs passing from animals to humans, or humans to animals, so we introduced them to the petting zoo/fair concept, and the hygiene measures available.

KWTX.com reports that Derek Scott “Bubba” Kirby, 3, of Goldthwaite, Texas (above, right), has been fighting for his life for several weeks at Dell Children’s Medical Center in Austin, will be transferred Monday or Tuesday to Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston where he can receive more specialized care.

The story says that Bubba contracted E. coli from the floor of a rodeo arena after he ended up with a mouthful of dirt when he was thrown from a sheep during a mutton-busting event and then developed serious complications that caused his kidneys to shut down and led to a stroke.

??In 1999, 159 people, mainly children, were sickened with E. coli O157:H7 traced to goat and sheep at the 1999 Western Fair in London, Ontario (that’s in Canada). Scott Weese, a clinical studies professor at the University of Guelph (that’s also in Canada) and colleagues reported in the July 2007 edition of Clinical Infectious Diseases that in a study of 36 petting zoos in Ontario between May and October of 2006, they observed infrequent hand washing, food sold and consumed near the animals, and children being allowed to drink bottles or suck on pacifiers in the petting area..

Weese noted that risk can be significantly reduced by locating hand-washing stations at the exit of a petting zoo, posting signs promoting good hygiene and educating people about the risks of bringing food, beverages or items that may end up in a child’s mouth into the zoo.

Such measures echo recommendations issued in 2001 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Unfortunately these reports and recommendations do not offer advice on how to ensure that fair operators are actually doing what they are supposed to be doing.

In 2003, U.S. researchers, in a study of livestock at 29 county and 3 large state agricultural fairs, found E. coli O157:H7 in 13.8 per cent of beef cattle, 5.9 per cent of dairy cattle, 3.6 per cent of pigs, 5.2 per cent of sheep, and 2.8 per cent of goats. Over seven percent of pest fly pools also tested positive for E. coli O157:H7.

The bad bugs are there and handwashing may not be enough to get rid of them.

The E. coli O157:H7 that sickened 82 people in 2002 at the Lane County Fair in Oregon appears to have spread through the air inside the goat and sheep expo hall. In a case-controlled study, health investigators found that the percentage of sick people who washed their hands after leaving the Lane County animal barns — 31 percent — was only slightly lower than the percentage of healthy people who washed their hands — 36 percent. In other words those who washed their hands were at almost the same risk of contracting E. coli, O157:H7. One child sickened at the fair, 23-month-old Carson Walter of Eugene, spent a month at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital before coming home.

So, how best to motivate fair managers to provide petting zoos that are microbiologically safe? Should the urban public be allowed to interact with livestock at all? Should petting zoos be inspected, as restaurants are, and the results displayed? We’ll be looking, and hoping that Bubba improves. Bubba has his own Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/BUBBAS-ANGELS/141182275896304.

A table of petting outbreaks is available at http://bites.ksu.edu/petting-zoos-outbreaks-1988-2009.
 

Atypical scrapie in single NZ sheep

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Contrary to what the New Zealand Herald reported tonight (this morning in NZ), the animal in question was born in NZ, not the UK, because NZ does not import sheep from the UK.

MAF Biosecurity New Zealand (MAFBNZ) and the New Zealand Food Safety Authority (NZFSA) today confirmed that a series of New Zealand and European laboratory tests on a single New Zealand sheep brain have detected the condition atypical scrapie (also known as Nor 98).

Atypical scrapie/Nor 98 is a relatively recently discovered brain condition of sheep and goats that is quite different from the classical form of scrapie. 

Neither atypical scrapie/Nor 98 nor scrapie is known to pose any risk to human health or the safety of eating meat or animal products.

MAFBNZ Principal International Adviser Dr Stuart MacDiarmid says global knowledge about atypical scrapie/Nor 98 is evolving.  The widely accepted mainstream scientific view is that it occurs spontaneously or naturally in very small numbers of older sheep in all sheep populations around the world.

“This positive detection of atypical scrapie/Nor 98 in a sheep from New Zealand’s national flock reinforces that view.  Every country that has conducted sufficient surveillance for atypical scrapie/Nor 98 has found it in their flocks.  This includes most Scandinavian and EU countries, the UK, the USA and Canada,” he says.

The detection does not change New Zealand’s status as free from scrapie.

Dr MacDiarmid says because of this scrapie freedom status, New Zealand supplies sheep brains to the European Union for use in the development of tests for scrapie. 

“The affected brain was one of a consignment of 200 brains sent for this purpose.  EU-authorised tests carried out in New Zealand prior to shipment had not picked up anything unusual.  However further tests in Europe and re-testing in New Zealand on different parts of the brain from the area originally tested have now established a diagnosis of atypical scrapie/Nor 98.

There is no evidence that atypical scrapie/Nor 98 can be transmitted naturally to other animals or to people, or that it in any way affects people.

 

A Canadian in New Zealand: Cartwheeling in sheep poo

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This weekend during a mini-adventure an hour north I got to tick two things off my Things to do in New Zealand list: drive on the left side of the road and pet a lamb. While the former turned out to be easier than initially presumed (aside from roundabouts), it was the latter that had me giddy.

Hills covered in sheep were everywhere and I couldn’t resist the temptation to hop a fence (despite the electrical shock endured) and cartwheel the fields (right), scaring sheep and likely placing my hands in sheep poo. I didn’t wash them, though I really should have.

Sheep, like cows and goats, are ruminant mammals and therefore can carry E. coli O157:H7. If you cartwheel in [sheep] doo doo, wash your hands.

Mud with sheep poop sickens mountain bikers

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Hundreds of mountain bikers competing in separate races in British Columbia and Wales in the past year were stricken by campylobacter, apparently from contact with feces-laden mud.

Now, the National Public Health Service for Wales (NPHS) and Environmental Health officers at Powys County Council have concluded the Welsh outbreak was probably caused by campylobacter, spread to the cyclists by mud which was contaminated with sheep feces.

The report acknowledged that, given the nature of mountain bike events, it would be impossible to eliminate the risk of catching such an infection, but made the following recommendations:

* Participants should avoid using soiled drink and food containers
* Pre-packaged food should be eaten out of the wrapper
* Where possible, hands and utensils should be washed before consuming food and drinks
* No open food should be served at events.
* Drinks produced in large volumes for consumption by participants should be dispensed using a method which does not require the repeated immersion of utensils.
* Organisers should consider providing facilities to wash hands and water bottles with clean, running water
* Wherever possible, courses should be re-routed to avoid areas which are heavily contaminated with animal faeces
* Mountain bikers, particularly those who are vulnerable to infection, should be alerted to the potential risk of acquiring zoonotic illnesses from participation in events which cross land used by agricultural and other animals.

 To comment on the report, email bikes.outbreak@nphs.wales.nhs.uk.