Fruit veggie brain power
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From: Doug Powell
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 2009 13:28:16 -0500
To: BITES-L@LISTSERV.KSU.EDU<BITES-L@LISTSERV.KSU.EDU>
Subject: [BITES-L] bites Sept. 9/09 -- II
bites Sept. 9/09 -- II
US: Cookie dough - gooey, sweet, and seasoned with... bacteria?!
MICHIGAN: Food safety, traceability practices taken down to growing level
UK: Wrexham E. coli probe chip shop owner calls for police protection
US: What exactly is it that the Senate wants?
COLORADO: Parents: Teach food safety in the kitchen
INDIA: 'Jet pilots sick due to food poisoning'
300 people ill in suspected food poisoning in E CHINA city
UK: Cruise line blames big norovirus outbreak on a single rule-breaking passenger
US: USDA and HHS unveil new food safety consumer web site
SPAIN: River flow and temperature limit trout numbers
High fruit and vegetable intake positively correlated with antioxidant status, cognitive performance
US: No mistaking this bug with new insect ID technique
CHINA: Getting plants to rid themselves of pesticide residues
'Dung of the devil' plant roots point to new swine flu drugs
US: ARS scientists help sequence genome of potato late blight pathogen
US: Public meeting to address agenda items for the 3rd session of the Codex Ad Hoc Intergovernmental Task Force on antimicrobial resistance
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US: Cookie dough - gooey, sweet, and seasoned with... bacteria?!
09.sep.09
CDC
Gerry Gómez and Mike Humphrys
http://www.cdc.gov/nczved/blog/2009/09/cookie-dough-gooey-sweet-seasoned-with-bacteria.html
The possibility that E. coli O157:H7 was a contaminant in cookie dough surprised even the most experienced microbiologists here in CDC's Enteric Diseases Laboratory Branch. E. coli O157 is a common culprit of a severe diarrheal illness, usually caused by eating contaminated and undercooked ground beef or drinking unpasteurized apple juice. It shouldn't have even been on the "Who's Who" list of the top bacterial contaminants.
We are Gerry Gómez and Mike Humphrys, two microbiologists in the Enteric Diseases Laboratory Branch. We identify disease-causing bacteria from foods and from specimens taken from sick people.
As microbiologists we have to be flexible and creative in our approaches to isolate bacteria from all different kinds of foods. Our usual method is to mix the food with enrichment broth and see what grows after 18 hours of incubation. For this investigation, we made cookie dough slurry. Then we added tiny magnetic beads treated so they'll stick to the antigen on the cell wall of E. coli bacteria. If present, E. coli cells would stick to the beads, and then we used a magnet to pull the beads (and any bacteria) out of the slurry. Now we had a better chance of isolating E. coli from the cookie dough.
An important part of our investigational process is collecting and sharing data from laboratories across the U.S. For the cookie dough outbreak, 13 laboratories tested 164 various cookie dough products.
We found that the chocolate chip cookie dough that sick people had eaten didn't come from only one batch. It was produced over several months.
We in EDLB never know what food products will come our way, but we're willing to test just about anything to confirm a hypothesis. Even experienced microbiologists who have "seen it all" can be surprised and challenged by an old bacteria turning up in a new place.
MICHIGAN: Food safety, traceability practices taken down to growing level
09.sep.09
The Packer
AshleyBentley
http://thepacker.com/Food-safety--traceability-practices-taken-down-to-growing-level/Article.aspx?articleid=834188&authorid=351&categoryid=309&feedid=216&src=recent
Michigan apple packinghouses have been third party audited for years. Now packers are making sure their growers can say the same thing.
"One thing that's new to us is the pressure of getting GAP certified out in the field," said Owen Glei, president and part owner of Glei's Inc., Hillsdale, Mich.
"It appears to be something, if we want to keep up, that we need to get on board with."
Auditors will be busy in the state this fall, with most apple shippers requiring their company-owned and contracted growers to be third party audited for food safety.
"At our packinghouse here we're going into our sixth season being third party audited, and about four years ago we started taking it out to the grower level with GAP audits," said Don Armock, president of Sparta, Mich.-based Riveridge Produce Marketing.
The company's goal was to have all its growers audited by Primuslabs last season, but only got through 90%. Riveridge is also staying in line with the Produce Traceability Initiative, but is not completely integrated with Global Trade Identification Numbers yet.
Barry Winkel, general manager of Greg Orchards & Produce Inc., Benton Harbor, Mich., said his company is following the Produce Traceability Initiative's guidelines and is using GTINs.
Glei said his company is working to get its farms certified through Primus.
UK: Wrexham E. coli probe chip shop owner calls for police protection
09.sep.09
Evening Leader
Claire Gallagher
http://www.eveningleader.co.uk/news/78419/wrexham-e-coli-probe-chip-shop-owner-calls-for-police-protection.aspx
The owner of a takeaway at the centre of an E. coli storm has called for police help amid fears over 'bad feeling' in the community.
A public meeting heard Llay Fish Bar, which re-opened yesterday, had been targeted with insulting graffiti while it was shut.
Owner Ramazan Aslan re-opened the shop yesterday lunchtime and told the Evening Leader he 'just wants his business back'.
The shop on Council Street, Llay, was shut down by magistrates after being identified as the most likely source of an outbreak which left four people ill, including mum Karen Morrisroe, who remains in intensive care.
As he was preparing to open for lunch-time trade yesterday, he said: "I believe it (the E.coli) is not from here.
"The council could not find anything here and I know myself it is clean.
"I just want my business back.
"If I had done something I would not have carried on my business."
Llay county councillor Peter Davies confirmed he had attended a meeting with police in recent weeks in which the issue of graffiti, sprayed on the shutters of the fish bar, had been raised.
"They said there had been a few incidents of graffiti on the building," he added. "It is in a very isolated position so it is something of an easy target."
Speaking about potential hostility, Cllr Malcolm Williams said: "If anything like this happens, it is understandable there would be some kind of police presence – not just for the fish bar but for the village as a whole."
Mr Aslan's solicitor Pierre Bartlett said: "My client will be liaising with the police in case there is any bad feeling."
US: What exactly is it that the Senate wants?
08.sep.09
Meatingplace
Richard Raymond
http://www.meatingplace.com/MembersOnly/blog/BlogDetail.aspx?topicID=4639&BlogID=10
(The views and opinions expressed in this blog are strictly those of the author.)
What exactly is it that the Senate wants USDA/FSIS to do differently than what it currently does to assure imported meat and poultry are safe for consumers and produced in a food safety environment that is at least equivalent to that of the United States? In the Senate Ag Appropriations bill, Section 744 has language that would appear to let FSIS go forward with rule making to allow China to export cooked chicken to the United States if FSIS simply does what it has always done with imported meat and poultry.
First of all, the Secretary must be satisfied after audits of the system, including facilities and laboratories, have been done that the Chinese system is at least equivalent to the United States' food safety system for poultry slaughter and processing. That has been the case for every single one of the 33 countries currently on the list as OK to export meat and/or poultry products to the United States.
Secondly, FSIS must conduct in-country audits on an annual basis for at least five years. They already do that in every country that has exported meat and/or poultry products to the United States in the preceding year. And not just for five years, but annually forever.
Thirdly, imported product must undergo increased inspection to assure safety. Currently, all imported meat and poultry, with one exception, must undergo re-inspection by an FSIS inspector at one of approximately 140 import houses. Five percent of the imported products undergo more intensive inspection including testing for pathogens and residuals. This testing is risk-based, with increased testing automatically performed for a new exporting country, or for any country or plant with a prior failed test.
The House version of the Appropriations Bill continues to deny FSIS the funds and ability to conduct a risk assessment and therefore cooked Chinese Chicken remains banned.
Maybe the Senate should consider these same requirements they are "imposing" on FSIS for the importation of shrimp, seafood, tomatoes, peppers and cantaloupe to name just a few products that have been known to cause food borne illnesses in recent months and years?
COLORADO: Parents: Teach food safety in the kitchen
09.sep.09
from a press release
http://www.prweb.com/releases/ground_beef/survey/prweb2848474.htm
Denver -- With school starting, parents can benefit from some continuing education about cooking safe, delicious hamburgers - and passing along food preparation skills to their children.
A national survey released today indicates most consumers were "home-schooled" on hamburger preparation, with 57 percent of consumers saying a parent taught them how to cook burgers. Another 29 percent said their hamburger-making skills were self-taught.
Hamburgers and other ground beef products should be cooked to an internal temperature of at least 160 F, as measured by an instant-read meat thermometer. However, only 13 percent of consumers in this latest survey correctly identified 160 F as the proper cooking temperature for ground beef to ensure safety, and only 9 percent said they learned to use a meat thermometer to determine when a hamburger is done.
"In the beef industry, we know that 'the way it has always been done' is not good enough when it comes to food safety. That's why we invest in a wide range of initiatives to ensure we continue to produce the safest food possible," said Mandy Carr, Ph.D., executive director of beef safety research for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. "Consumers can be part of the food safety innovation process by following proper in-home food safety practices, including cooking ground beef to 160 F."
The survey also showed retail establishments are getting the word out about the best in-home food safety practices. Half of survey respondents mentioned seeing information in a supermarket about proper handling and cooking of fresh meat. The top two tips or techniques consumers said they saw in supermarkets were related to hand washing and cooking meats to recommended temperatures using a meat thermometer.
The survey was conducted from July 30-Aug. 4, 2009. The national survey of 1,007 American adults including 971 beef eaters had a margin of error of +/-3.2 percent and was funded by The Beef Checkoff Program.
The Beef Checkoff Program was established as part of the 1985 Farm Bill. The checkoff assesses $1 per head on the sale of live domestic and imported cattle, in addition to a comparable assessment on imported beef and beef products. States retain up to 50 cents on the dollar and forward the other 50 cents per head to the Cattlemen's Beef Promotion and Research Board, which administers the national checkoff program, subject to USDA approval.
INDIA: 'Jet pilots sick due to food poisoning'
08.sep.09
Sify Business
http://sify.com/finance/fullstory.php?a=jjiq22gceij&title=%26%23039%3BJet_pilots_sick_due_to_food_poisoning%26%23039%3B_&tag=topnews
New Delhi -- If the president of the newly formed Jet Airways pilots' union is to be believed, the reason for some 400 of its members falling "sick" Tuesday, perhaps, was food poisoning.
"We are not on strike. This is an individual decision by each pilot," said Girish Kaushik, president of the National Aviators Guild, after member pilots reported sick and inconvenienced some 20,000 passengers.
Jet Airways seeks DGCA's support to end crisis
Asked if it was not too much of a coincidence that so many pilots reported sick at the same time, Kaushik told IANS: "We could all have had food poisoning. That's why we all could have become ill."
The civil aviation ministry has taken strong exception to what it calls a "wildcat" strike.
300 people ill in suspected food poisoning in E CHINA city
09.sep.09
Xinhua News Agency
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-09/09/content_12023779.htm
NANJING -- More than 300 employees of a pipe manufacturing company are suspected victims of food poisoning in an east China city Wednesday, local authorities said.
The 300 employees of Seamless Oil Pipe Company Ltd. in Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province asked for leave Wednesday morning and the company found the employees had begun going to hospital late Tuesday, said an official with the municipal health bureau.
The initial investigation showed that the unsanitary conditions in the company's canteen caused the suspected food poisoning, the official said.
UK: Cruise line blames big norovirus outbreak on a single rule-breaking passenger
09.sep.09
USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/cruises/item.aspx?type=blog&ak=68498592.blog
UK-based Fred Olsen Cruise Lines is blaming a single rule-breaking passenger for a massive outbreak of a norovirus-like illness on one of its ships this week.
The line tells the BBC today it can trace the spread of the gastro-intestinal illness to nearly 100 passengers on the Balmoral to a specific unnamed woman who refused to abide by the line's quarantine rules.
"We know the exact cause (of the outbreak) in this case," the line's marketing director, Nigel Lingard, tells the BBC. "A lady who came on board at Dover."
Lingard tells the BBC the 1,350-passenger ship's doctor confined the sick woman to a cabin after she boarded the vessel Saturday with signs of the illness. "Unfortunately she chose to break that understanding and went out in public and was ill, and spread the illness rapidly," he says.
US: USDA and HHS unveil new food safety consumer web site
09.sep.09
USDA
http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/!ut/p/_s.7_0_A/7_0_1OB?contentidonly=true&contentid=2009/09/0429.xml
www.foodsafety.gov features the latest food safety and recall information from across the government
WASHINGTON, September 9, 2009 - Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the co-chairs of the Obama Administration's Food Safety Working Group, unveiled a new consumer Web site today at www.foodsafety.gov. The site is designed to help consumers and families get all the latest information on food safety and food recalls in one convenient place.
The new site features information from all the agencies across the federal government that deal with critical food and food safety information, including preventive tips about how to handle food safely, alerts on life-saving food recalls, and the latest news from the key agencies.
www.foodsafety.gov provides consumers with one easy place to sign up to receive email and RSS alerts on recalled or potentially unsafe food, as well as get information from the top scientific experts across the government on food safety. Later phases of the site to be launched will include recall feeds for texting and mobile phones. The site will also feature a foodsafety.gov widget that the public and the media are encouraged to download and promote on their Web sites and social networking sites. The widget will instantly update viewers with the latest food safety recalls and will be a valuable public health and safety tool.
Leaders from HHS and USDA praised the new site and said it would be a valuable tool in their efforts to keep our food supply safe and consumers healthy.
"Protecting the health and well-being of the American people is a fundamental responsibility of the federal government. Our new and innovative approach to connecting consumers to food safety information in an easy and timely manner is a critical improvement in this effort," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
"The highest mission of any government is keeping its citizens safe. In this administration, we see public health as an essential part of that mission and this new website as an essential way we will can help keep people safe from unhealthy food and food handling practices and up-to-date on critical food recalls," Secretary Sebelius said. "Consumers no longer will have to search around in different places trying to figure out which agency manages which food product. All the information that they will need will be one easy place at www.foodsafety.gov."
"This site focuses on prevention by highlighting the steps both businesses and consumers can take to avoid illness," said Food and Drug (FDA) Commissioner Margaret Hamburg. "It also will be a clearinghouse for information on the latest FDA rules and guidance."
"Health departments and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) rely on information from many places, including consumers, when it comes to tracking food-borne illnesses across the country and the world," said CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden. "With this new Web site, consumers will quickly know who to contact if they believe they became ill from eating a certain food. Those reports of illness can help us identify potential outbreaks sooner and strengthen our efforts to protect Americans from unsafe food and food-borne illness."
"Protecting the American people from food-borne illness is a critical mission of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Our work is designed to prevent outbreaks of food borne illness from occurring and to react quickly and decisively to contamination in the food supply," said Jerry Mande, Deputy Under Secretary for Food Safety at USDA. "The new foodsafety.gov site will provide families with a one-stop online shop for all the latest information they need to reduce the danger of food-borne illnesses."
SPAIN: River flow and temperature limit trout numbers
09.sep.09
FECYT - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology
SINC
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-09/f-sf-rfa090909.php
Over a 23-year study, Javier Lobón-Cerviá has found the mechanism that controls the number of salmonids found each year in Cantabrian rivers. His method has been to monitor population numbers in relation to river flow in March, when the juvenile fish emerge. He concludes that environmental conditions change each year and modify river flow, positively or negatively affecting survival rates. This information throws light on a long debate within ecological theory about the mechanisms that regulate the size of animal populations.
In 2000, populations of trout (Salmo trutta) in the rivers of north East Spain suffered an alarming decline, but fishing was never banned, and fish numbers fell still further. However, these populations recovered "naturally" within a very short time period. Javier Lobón-Cerviá, lead author of the research study and a researcher at the National Museum of Natural Sciences (CSIC) has the answer, and has published it in the journal Freshwater Biology.
"If we use a small measurement and calculate the amount of water that was flowing in March (when the fish eggs emerge), we can predict how many trout there will be now, how many there will be in two years, how many should be fished, how many females are going to reproduce – in other words, we can monitor the entire population perfectly", the researcher tells SINC.
It has taken him 23 years of study to arrive at this conclusion. Contrary to conventional theories, which hold that populations have endogenous mechanisms to respond to variations, and that these depend upon the density of individuals, Lobón-Cerviá says populations "simply respond to the environmental conditions that exist at the time".
Since 1986, the scientist has been studying the Chaballos river in the basin of the Esva river in Asturias, where environmental conditions have varied widely year-on-year up to 2007. "Information as simple as river flow in the month of March is enough to enable us to predict everything that will happen in the river", stresses Lobón-Cerviá.
Rain and temperature are natural factors that create the ideal conditions for young trout. The number of juveniles is highest when river flow is average, because there is an ideal amount of useable river area for the larvae. "If the amount of water flowing rises, this space is reduced, because water velocity increases too much, which is harmful to the larvae", says the scientist. However, drought is the worst condition for this species, because "river sections dry up".
The river is a vital space for larvae
Rain determines river flow, and creates useable area in rivers for a particular size of trout. "Small larvae live in a certain river area, but when they grow they move to deeper waters. The river's flow determines how much useable area is available for each size group of trout", explains the researcher.
Temperature regulates the so-called "embryonic stream", in other words the two months that fertilised salmonid eggs remain in the river. For this reason, an increase in temperature affects embryonic development. "Temperature also plays a role in the strength of recruitment, the number of juveniles, but there is an inverse relationship between river flow and temperature – when flow is very low, the water heats up more, and in years with much more water the river heats up less", adds the scientist. However, the great changes in temperature each year make it difficult to work out the direct relationship between this aspect and the number of juveniles born.
This research could also be applied to salmon (Salmo). Although they occupy different parts of the river, they have the same population dynamics processes as trout. Lobón-Cerviá is now looking at the possibility of a link between reproduction and reproductive success among populations swimming out into the Cantabrian Sea and those that swim into the Duero. "If this can be demonstrated, this study could be widely applied", the researcher concludes.
References:
Lobón-Cerviá, Javier. "Why, when and how do fish populations decline, collapse and recover? The example of brown trout (Salmo trutta) in Rio Chaballos (northwestern Spain)" Freshwater Biology 54(6): 1149-1162 junio de 2009.
High fruit and vegetable intake positively correlated with antioxidant status, cognitive performance
09.sep.09
IOS Press
Esther Mateike
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-09/ip-hf090809.php
Amsterdam -– Researchers at the Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology I of the Heinrich-Heine University, Düsseldorf, Germany, investigated the relationship between fruit and vegetable intake, plasma antioxidant micronutrient status and cognitive performance in healthy subjects aged 45 to 102 years. Their results, published in the August issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, indicated higher cognitive performance in individuals with high daily intake of fruits and vegetables.
Subjects with a high daily intake (about 400 g) of fruits and vegetables had higher antioxidant levels, lower indicators of free radical-induced damage against lipids as well as better cognitive performance compared to healthy subjects of any age consuming low amounts (< 100 g/day) of fruits and vegetables. Modification of nutritional habits aimed at increasing intake of fruits and vegetables, therefore, should be encouraged to lower the prevalence of cognitive impairment.
The work was performed in collaboration with the Department of Pharmacology at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Department of Geriatrics at Perugia University, Italy, and the Department of Neurology of the St. Elisabeth Hospital in Cologne, Germany.
Dr. M. Cristina Polidori, currently at the Department of Geriatrics, Marienhospital Herne, Ruhr-University of Bochum, Germany, explains: "It is known that there is a strong association between fruit and vegetable intake and the natural antioxidant defenses of the body against free radicals. It is also known that bad nutritional habits increase the risk of developing cognitive impairment with and without dementia. With this work we show a multiple link between fruit and vegetable intake, antioxidant defenses and cognitive performance, in the absence of disease and independent of age. Among other lifestyle habits, it is recommended to improve nutrition in general and fruit and vegetable intake in particular at any age, beginning as early as possible. This may increase our chances to remain free of dementia in advanced age."
These findings are independentof age, gender, body mass index, level of education, lipid profile and albumin levels, all factors able to influence cognitive and antioxidant status. The relevance of the findings is also strengthened by the large sample that included 193 healthy subjects.
Further studies are planned that will include larger subject cohorts, patients with Alzheimer's disease at different stages and patients with mild cognitive impairment without dementia.
Reference: Polidori MC, Pratico D, Mangialasche F, Mariani E, Aust O, Anlasik T, Mang N, Pientka L, Stahl W, Sies H, Nelles G. High fruit and vegetable intake is positively correlated with antioxidant status and cognitive performance in healthy subjects. J Alzheimers Dis 17:4 (August 2009).
US: No mistaking this bug with new insect ID technique
09.sep.09
ARS News Service
Jan Suskiw
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2009/090909.htm
Misidentifying boll weevils caught in pheromone traps could be easier to avoid, thanks to a new DNA fingerprinting method devised by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists and their collaborators.
Boll weevils-long-snouted, 2/10-inch-long beetles that damage cotton's lint-producing bolls-are familiar foes to growers. Indeed, since first being discovered in southern Texas in 1892, the boll weevil, Anthonomus grandis, has caused billions of dollars in losses to U.S. cotton. An eradication program that began in 1978 has eliminated the pest from 87 percent of the 15 million acres of American cotton.
Trapping, aided by the use of chemical insect attractants called pheromones, is a key component of the program that can tell where, when, and to what degree boll weevils are present, including those re-invading zones previously cleared of the pest. Field scouts checking pheromone traps sometimes encounter other weevil species, or pieces of trapped weevils that have been partially eaten by insect predators like ants, raising the risk of misidentification. That, in turn, can lead to unnecessary and costly insecticide spraying, according to entomologist Tom Sappington, in the ARS Corn Insects and Crop Genetics Research Unit at Ames, Iowa.
Capitalizing on findings from earlier population genetics studies of the boll weevil, Sappington and colleagues devised a method that uses microsatellite molecular markers to distinguish between the boll weevil and other related species, including pepper, cranberry and pecan weevils.
This characteristic DNA fingerprint, observed on a standard electrophoretic gel, appear as three separate bands, forming a unique barcode-like arrangement of DNA that's specific to boll weevils. These bands are of a specific size and are not shown by non-target weevil species. In tests, the method also identified boll weevils from partial remains, including legs and wings, and yielded results in two days.
Sappington coauthored a paper describing the method in the Journal of Economic Entomology, along with colleagues from Rutgers University in Chatsworth, N.J., Oklahoma State University at Stillwater and the Seoul National University in South Korea.
CHINA: Getting plants to rid themselves of pesticide residues
09.sep.09
American Chemical Society
Michael Woods
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-09/acs-gpt090909.php
Scientists in China are reporting the "intriguing" discovery that a natural plant hormone, applied to crops, can help plants eliminate residues of certain pesticides. The study is scheduled for the Sept. 23 issue of ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, a bi-weekly publication.
Jing Quan Yu and colleagues note that pesticides are essential for sustaining food production for the world's growing population. Farmers worldwide use about 2.5 million tons of pesticides each year. Scientists have been seeking new ways of minimizing pesticide residues that remain in food crops after harvest — with little success. Previous research suggested that plant hormones called brassinosteroids (BRs) might be an answer to the problem.
The scientists treated cucumber plants with one type of BR then treated the plants with various pesticides, including chloropyrifos (CPF), a broad-spectrum commercial insecticide. BR significantly reduced their toxicity and residues in the plants, they say. BRs may be "promising, environmentally friendly, natural substances suitable for wide application to reduce the risks of human and environmental exposure to pesticides," the scientists note. The substances do not appear to be harmful to people or other animals, they add.
ARTICLE #3 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
"Brassinosteroids Promote Metabolism of Pesticides in Cucumber"
DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT ARTICLE: http://pubs.acs.org/stoken/presspac/presspac/full/10.1021/jf901915a
'Dung of the devil' plant roots point to new swine flu drugs
09.sep.09
American Chemical Society
Michael Woods
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-09/acs-ot090909.php
Scientists in China have discovered that roots of a plant used a century ago during the great Spanish influenza pandemic contains substances with powerful effects in laboratory experiments in killing the H1N1 swine flu virus that now threatens the world. The plant has a pleasant onion-like taste when cooked, but when raw it has sap so foul-smelling that some call it the "Dung of the Devil" plant. Their report is scheduled for the Sept. 25 issue of ACS' Journal of Natural Products, a monthly publication.
In the study, Fang-Rong Chang and Yang-Chang Wu and colleagues note that the plant, Ferula assa-foetida, grows mainly in Iran, Afghanistan and mainland China. People used it as a possible remedy during the1918 Spanish flu pandemic that killed between 20 to 100 million people. Until now, however, nobody had determined whether the plant does produce natural antiviral compounds.
Chang and Wu identified a group of chemical compounds in extracts of the plant that showed greater potency against influenza A (H1N1) than a prescription antiviral drug available for the flu. "Overall, the present study has determined that sesquiterpene coumarins from F. assa-foetida may serve as promising lead components for new drug development against influenza A (H1N1) viral infection," the authors write.
ARTICLE #1 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
"Influenza A (H1N1) Antiviral and Cytotoxic Agents from Ferula assa-foetida"
DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT ARTICLE: http://pubs.acs.org/stoken/presspac/presspac/full/10.1021/np900158f
US: ARS scientists help sequence genome of potato late blight pathogen
09.sep.09
USDA's Agricultural Research Service
Stephanie Yao
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2009/090909.2.htm
The complete genome of the pathogen that caused the infamous Irish potato famine and the recent loss of potato and tomato crops in the eastern United States has been sequenced by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists and cooperators.
Phytophthora infestans is a fungus that causes the disease commonly known as late blight, the most destructive disease of potato. It can also infect tomatoes and other members of the Solanaceae family. Once the pathogen attacks, there is little a commercial grower or home gardener can do to save the crop, which can be completely destroyed in just one week. Additionally, the pathogen's ability to quickly mutate and develop resistance to current fungicides makes it difficult to control.
ARS plant pathologist Richard Jones, with the agency's Genetic Improvement of Fruits and Vegetables Laboratory in Beltsville, Md., led a group responsible for examining and annotating the genes that produce enzymes to degrade a plant's cell wall. Former postdoctoral researchers Stefano Costanzo, now a plant pathologist at the ARS Dale Bumpers National Rice Research Center in Stuttgart, Ark., and Manuel Ospina-Giraldo, now on the faculty of Lafayette College in Easton, Pa., contributed to this research. Ospina-Giraldo also conducted a significant amount of this research while with Lafayette College.
Jones and colleagues found several groups of enzymes located close to each other on the genome of P. infestans. The pathogen secretes these enzymes to attack the surface of the plant, allowing it to break through and begin feeding on the plant's nutrients. The scientists believe two of these enzyme groups may be used by the pathogen at the initial stage of infection.
The researchers were also the first to identify and report a unique pattern of gene segments called introns in the pathogen's genome that give the pathogen the ability to produce different proteins from the same gene and attack different compounds within the plant cell wall. This may further explain how the late blight pathogen is so successful in attacking plants, according to Jones.
This research is published in the scientific journal Nature.
ARS is the principal intramural scientific research agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
US: Public meeting to address agenda items for the 3rd session of the Codex Ad Hoc Intergovernmental Task Force on antimicrobial resistance
USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service
Bridgette Keefe
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/News_&_Events/NR_090909_01/index.asp
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today announced a public meeting to provide information and receive public comments on agenda items and draft U.S. positions that will be discussed at the 3rd Session of the Codex Ad Hoc Intergovernmental Task Force on antimicrobial resistance which will be held in Jeju, Republic of Korea, Oct. 12 - 16, 2009.
The public meeting is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 24, 2009, from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m., Room 107-A, USDA, Jamie L. Whitten Federal Building, 1200 Independence Ave., SW, Washington, DC 20250. Attendees will be required to present photo identification at the door.
Documents and agenda items related to the 3rd Session of the Codex Ad Hoc Intergovernmental Task Force on antimicrobial resistance will be accessible at http://www.codexalimentarius.net/current.asp.
Codex was created in 1963 by two United Nations organizations, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization. Codex develops food standards, guidelines and codes of practice in order to protect the health of consumers, to ensure fair food trade practices, and to promote the coordination of food standards undertaken by international governmental and non-governmental organizations.
The Codex Ad Hoc Intergovernmental Task Force on antimicrobial resistance was established by the 29th session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission in 2006 to help develop science-based guidelines to be used to assess the risks to human health that are associated with the presence of antimicrobial resistant microorganisms and antimicrobial resistant genes in food and feed, including aquaculture, and their transmission through food and feed. The Codex Ad Hoc Intergovernmental Task Force on antimicrobial resistance is hosted by the Republic of Korea.
Interested parties may submit written comments at the public meeting, or by e-mail to David G. White at David.White@fda.hhs.gov.
For further information about the public meeting or to request a sign language interpreter or any other special accommodation, contact Doreen Chen-Moulec, U.S. Codex Office, Food Safety and Inspection Service, USDA, by e-mail at Doreen.Chen-Moulec@fsis.usda.gov or uscodex@fsis.usda.gov or by phone at (202) 205-7760 or fax at (202) 720-3157.
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posted by Tom Karst @ 3:26 PM
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