The 1- and 2-year-old grandsons of Ray and Stephanie Bogucki have been in Children's Hospital in Cincinnati since Monday, Ray Bogucki said on Thursday.

“The 1-year-old is showing signs of improvement. He has received two units of blood and seems to be getting better. The 2-year-old is on his third unit of blood and has had dialysis treatment.” he said. “His blood pressure was high and he is being treated for that.”

According to officials at Robertson County Health Department, no cases have been reported to their office, but local rumors of the two children being very ill had reached the office.

In some cases, small children who contract E. coli infections can develop hemolytic uremic syndrome, a serious complication that can cause kidney failure, stroke or coma, health officials said.

“Kidney failure is what they are worried about right now,” Bogucki said.

“The 1-year-old is out of the intensive care unit, but the 2-year-old, it is hard to see him with all those tubes, he is normally a very active child; he is still in ICU and a very sick boy, but he is doing better,” Bogucki said.

• 5- and 10- lb. boxes of 2-, 2.6-, 3-, and 4- oz. “Town & Country Foods XL Hamburg Patties”
• 5- and 10- lb. boxes of 2-, 2.6-, 3-, and 4- oz. “Town & Country Foods Hamburg Patties”
• 10- lb. box containing variously weighted bags of “Town & Country Beef for Stewing”
• 6-, 8-, and 10- oz. “Town & Country Beef Sirloin Filets”
• 5- and 10- lb. boxes containing variously weighted bags of “Town and Country Hamburg”
• 5- and 10- lb. boxes containing variously weighted bags of “Town and Country XL Hamburg”

Each case bears a label with the establishment number “EST. 9710” inside the USDA mark of inspection. Additionally, the products contain the following packaging codes: 10952, 10962, 10972, 11002, and 11012. The products subject to recall were produced between April 4, 2012 and April 10, 2012 and were shipped to wholesale and retail establishments in Maine. When available, the retail distribution list(s) will be posted on FSIS' website at www.fsis.usda.gov/FSIS_Recalls/ Open_Federal_Cases/index.asp.

The problem was discovered through company lab testing which confirmed a positive result for E.coli O157:H7. The company did not hold product pending test results, resulting in this recall. FSIS and the company have received no reports of illnesses associated with consumption of these products. Individuals concerned about an illness should contact a health care provider.

The state Department of Health and Senior Services also said Saturday that one new case is from a Boone County resident who had recently been in St. Louis.

The department is trying to determine if two other cases in Boone County are connected to the St. Louis outbreak.

Jackson was released from Sunrise Children's Hospital in Las Vegas March 7. His mom, Sherry Jackson, said his kidneys are functioning at about 70 percent. He returns to Las Vegas Monday for a follow-up visit.

"He's still not out of the woods yet," Sherry said.

Justice is currently on medication for high blood pressure, which he could suffer from permanently, and he is on a highly regimented sodium-restrictive diet.

"He's not a normal 14-year-old anymore," his mom said. Sherry said her son was disappointed to miss a tournament last weekend where his Coyotes basketball team placed second. He also missed tryouts for the baseball team.

Journal of Food Protection, Vol. 74, No. 2, 2011, Pages 228–239 Copyright G, International Association for Food Protection

ABSTRACT:  Numerous foodborne outbreaks are attributed to Shiga toxin–producing Escherichia coli (STEC) and have been recognized for causing gastrointestinal disease in humans. Beef products have been considered the principal source of STEC. A multiplex PCR assay enabling simultaneous detection of STEC O103, O91, O113, O145, O111, O157, and O26 was developed and evaluated in artificially contaminated beef carcass swabs, beef trim, and ground beef after overnight enrichment. Individual serogroups were experimentally inoculated at low (1 to 10 CFU/ml) and high (11 to 100 CFU/ml) levels, and with a cocktail of strains belonging to two, four, and six serogroups. There was no significant difference in detecting single STEC strains under the different conditions. Only when strains were combined were there significant differences in detection of all cocktail isolates in some of the beef products. To address this issue, four serogroups were experimentally inoculated together at three different estimated levels (10, 102, and 103 CFU/ml) in all three beef products. Results yielded no significant difference in detecting STEC at the three inoculation levels (10, 102, and 103 CFU/ml) in trim and carcass swabs, but there was a significant difference in detecting STEC at the lowest levels (10 and 102 CFU/ml) in the 80:20 nonirradiated ground beef, and in the detection of STEC in irradiated ground beef. The findings from this study could provide industry and government agencies with a tool to evaluate the prevalence and incidence of STEC in beef products and their processing environments.

In late December, the health department identified four people who became sick after eating E. coli-infected smoked meat products purchased at Zillman. The shop conducted a thorough cleaning at that time.

The additional cases identified today by the health department involve meat products purchased before the time of the original announcement. According to the release, the cases involved meat products purchased in Wausau that were shared with family members in Michigan.

Three of the five are hospitalized, according to a Huron County Health Department press release.  Cindy Rochefort, Huron County Health Services Director, said the source of the infections has not been found, and the heath department will share the information with the community if the source is identified.

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.

He’s one of the 5 to 10 percent of E. coli patients who develop a potentially life-threatening complication, hemolytic uremic syndrome, which develops when E. coli bacteria lodged in the digestive tract make toxins that enter the bloodstream and start to destroy red blood cells.

He’s unconscious and on dialysis and had a rough run last week as doctors attempted to wean him from the pain medication he’s been receiving, his mother said.

Denman said Monday doctors were starting over on the weaning process after deciding they decreased dosages too quickly.

She said she’s grateful for all of the “wonderful work that has been done for Bubba,” but said the Houston hospital has a nephrologist with state-of the-art equipment to help with the youngster’s kidneys as well as a pain management team to take over the process of weaning from medication.

She said he will also require physical therapy.

Goldthwaite residents have been holding carwashes and other benefits, selling T-shirts and praying for the youngster since learning of Bubba’s plight.

Word of the little boy’s fight has spread well beyond the town of 1,800 however, thanks to a Facebook page, Bubba’s Angels, which had more than 4,600 followers from around the country Monday.

Health department officials in Minnesota this month reported five E. coli O157:H7 infections linked to drinking raw milk from a dairy in Gibbon, Minnesota. All of the sick were infected with a strain of bacteria that has the same “pulsed field gel electrophoresis” (PFGE) pattern, or DNA fingerprint. One infected child developed Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS), a potentially deadly complication.

Counting Colorado and Minnesota, there have now been at least ten outbreaks of illness tied to raw milk since January 2010. The other states with outbreaks include Nevada, Utah (two outbreaks), New York, and Pennsylvania. There was also a multistate outbreak with illnesses confirmed in Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois. Washington has had two as well. And, even worse, these outbreaks involved at least three different pathogens: E. coli O157:H7; Salmonella, and Campylobacter. More specifically:

• In January, a dairy farm in New York was linked to five Campylobacter infections.

• Another outbreak of Campylobacter was reported in February in Pennsylvania. State health officials there said approximately ten people became ill after drinking raw milk. One of the ill developed Guillain - Barre Syndrome, became paralyzed, and is still hospitalized.

• In March, raw milk caused at least seventeen Campylobacter infections in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana.

• In April, Utah was the site of Salmonella and Campylobacter outbreaks tied to raw milk. The first cluster included nine reported cases of Campylobacter infection. The second cluster included six reported cases of Salmonella.

• In May, Nevada health officials reported that a child became seriously ill with a Campylobacter infection after eating homemade raw milk cheese that was illegally sold door-to-door.

• Washington has had two E. coli O157:H7 outbreaks both linked to the same dairy.

Raw Milk Dairy is having a problem and it needs to be fixed.

(Kansas City, Kan., June 9, 2010) - EPA Region 7 has taken a series of civil enforcement actions against three beef feedlot operations in Iowa for violations of the Clean Water Act, as part of a continuing enforcement emphasis aimed at ending harmful discharges of pollutants from concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) into the region’s rivers and streams.

“In some instances, we are finding harmful bacteria such as E.coli in wastewater discharged by feedlots at levels that are exponentially higher than the levels at which EPA permits municipal wastewater treatment systems to discharge their treated wastewater,” EPA Regional Administrator Karl Brooks said. “This is just one measure of the harm that can come when feedlots fail to operate within the law.”

Runoff from CAFOs may contain such pollutants as pathogens and sediment, as well as nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous, all of which can harm aquatic life and impact water quality.

Of the three most recent enforcement actions, one involves a civil penalty against a CAFO for failure to comply with its national Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit. Bruce Feedlot, of Hastings, Iowa, has agreed to pay a $31,573 civil penalty for its unauthorized discharges of pollutants to Indian Creek and its tributaries in Mills County, Iowa. EPA’s settlement with Bruce Feedlot is subject to a 40-day public comment period before it becomes final.

The remaining two enforcement actions involve administrative compliance orders issued to medium-sized CAFOs, which are feedlots that confine between 300 and 999 cattle. EPA has documented significant water quality problems associated with medium CAFOs and is making enforcement at these operations a priority:

Groeneweg Farm, of Rock Valley, Iowa, must apply for an NPDES permit and complete wastewater controls at its facilities by October 31, 2011, to end unauthorized discharges of pollutants into an unnamed tributary of the Rock River in Sioux County, Iowa.

Gradert/Cla-Don/Winterfeld Feedlot, of Ireton, Iowa, must apply for an NPDES permit and complete wastewater controls at its facilities by October 31, 2011, to end unauthorized discharges of pollutants into Six Mile Creek in Sioux County, Iowa.

The food giant has already trialled remote video auditing (RVA) at 10 beef-harvesting facilities in the US, and the results are said to have been “terrific”, with a higher compliance rate already identified and competition between plants over performance scores.

The system is now being introduced at the beef facility in Fresno, California. Auditors from Arrowsight Inc. will monitor on how consistently workers perform tasks in near-real time, and provide statistical feedback to management.

For the pilot, Cargill is focusing on the stages where workers clean and sanitise knives and other equipment. It will also look at dressing procedures to check proper protocol is followed.

Live Nation and KeyArena are asking ticketholders to keep their tickets until more information is available. The concerts, originally scheduled for Nov. 4 and 7, may be rescheduled. Well, I am going to be in China anyway.

L. Hannah Gould, 1, Linda Demma, 1, Timothy F. Jones, 3, Sharon Hurd, 4, Duc J. Vugia, 5, Kirk Smith, 6, Beletshachew Shiferaw, 7, Suzanne Segler, 2, Amanda Palmer, 8, Shelley Zansky, 9, Patricia M. Griffin, 1, and the Emerging Infections Program FoodNet Working Group

Background. Hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) is a life‐threatening illness usually caused by infection with Shiga toxin–producing Escherichia coli O157 (STEC O157). We evaluated the age‐specific rate of HUS and death among persons with STEC O157 infection and the risk factors associated with developing HUS.

Methods. STEC O157 infections and HUS cases were reported from 8 sites participating in the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network during 2000–2006. For each case of STEC O157 infection and HUS, demographic and clinical outcomes were reported. The proportion of STEC O157 infections resulting in HUS was determined.

Results. A total of 3464 STEC O157 infections were ascertained; 218 persons (6.3%) developed HUS. The highest proportion of HUS cases (15.3%) occurred among children aged <5 years. Death occurred in 0.6% of all patients with STEC O157 infection and in 4.6% of those with HUS. With or without HUS, persons aged 60 years had the highest rate of death due to STEC O157 infection. Twelve (3.1%) of 390 persons aged 60 years died, including 5 (33.3%) of 15 persons with HUS and 7 (1.9%) of 375 without. Among children aged <5 years, death occurred in 4 (3.0%) of those with HUS and 2 (0.3%) of those without.

Conclusions. Young children and females had an increased risk of HUS after STEC O157 infection. With or without HUS, elderly persons had the highest proportion of deaths associated with STEC O157 infection. These data support recommendations for aggressive supportive care of young children and the elderly early during illness due to STEC O157.

1 Enteric Diseases Epidemiology Branch, National Center for Zoonotic, Vector‐Borne, and Enteric Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and 2 Georgia Emerging Infections Program, Atlanta, Georgia; 3 Tennessee Department of Health, Nashville; 4 Connecticut Emerging Infections Program, New Haven; 5 California Department of Public Health, Richmond; 6 Minnesota Department of Health, St. Paul; 7 Oregon Department of Human Services, Portland; 8 Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Baltimore; and 9 New York State Department of Health, Albany.

To understand the significance of these regulations, a little background information is useful. The Food Safety and Inspection Service’s (FSIS) stated mission renders it “responsible for ensuring that the nation's commercial supply of meat, poultry, and egg products is safe, wholesome, and correctly labeled and packaged.” FSIS operates as part of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). To promote its mission, FSIS has the power—under the Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA)—to, among other things, seek the recall of products that have been deemed “adulterated.” FSIS drastically shifted how it interpreted and enforced the FMIA in 1994 when, following the Jack in the Box outbreak, the agency declared E. coli O157:H7 to be an adulterant. This marked a dramatic change from its previous stance that pathogens in raw meat were not adulterants.

The declaration of E. coli O157:H7 as an adulterant was met with strong opposition from the meat industry. In a lawsuit filed soon after the 1994 declaration, the industry accused the USDA of not following proper rulemaking procedures and of acting in an arbitrary and capricious manner beyond its legal authority. The United States District Court held, however, that the USDA was allowed to interpret the FMIA and that the USDA has the power to declare substances to be adulterants with the intended purpose of spurring the meat industry to create and implement preventative measures.

During the early part of this decade, however, it became readily apparent that O157:H7 was not the only deadly pathogen in E. coli family—in fact, far from it. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recognized this fact when, in 2000, the agency made all Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) nationally notifiable. The CDC subsequently referred to non-O157 STEC as emerging pathogens that pose a significant health threat, with more strains reported every year. Still, FSIS remained steadfast in its stance that O157:H7 is the only enterohemorrhagic E. coli strain that should be deemed to be an adulterant.

So what’s wrong with FSIS’s position regarding E. coli O157:H7? The simple answer is this: the people of this nation do not deserve another Jack in the Box-sized catastrophe as a pre-requisite for currently needed agency action. The scientific and medical communities have recognized the dangers of all enterohemorrhagic E. coli, not just O157:H7, again and again. Representatives of the CDC estimate that non-O157 STEC causes 36,700 illnesses, 1,100 hospitalizations, and 30 deaths annually. Nearly two years ago today, on October 17, 2007, the CDC and FSIS even went so far as to hold a public meeting to consider the public health significance of non-O157 STEC. In the Notice of the meeting, FSIS referred to the “growing awareness that STECs other than E. coli O157:H7 (non-O157:H7 STECs) cause sporadic and outbreak-associated illnesses.” Nevertheless, following the meeting, FSIS failed to re-interpret its policies.

This brings us to today. We’re nearing the end of 2009, closing in on seventeen years since the Jack in the Box outbreak. Millions of Americans have suffered foodborne illnesses, injuries, and deaths in that time, thousands of them likely due to enterohemorrhagic E. coli other than O157:H7. It is on behalf of those persons that the law firm of Marler Clark has authored a petition to FSIS requesting the agency to issue an interpretive rule declaring all enterohemorrhagic STEC, including non-O157:H7 serotypes, to be adulterants within the meaning of the Federal Meat Inspection Act.

The petition details the scientific and legal bases for the requested action, but perhaps more importantly it details the suffering that food contaminated with non-O157:H7 enterohemorrhagic E. coli inflicted upon three individuals: June Dunning, Megan Richards, and Shiloh Johnson. Ms. Dunning, whose infection was caused by E. coli O146:H21, unfortunately succumbed to her illness, passing in 2006. Ms. Richards and Ms. Johnson endured lengthy hospitalizations, kidney failure, and will both endure a lifetime of medical complications as a result of their E. coli O121:H19 and E. coli O111 infections (respectively).

It would be naïve to assume that a change to FSIS policy will immediately rid the world of all foodborne E. coli infections. It has been unequivocally proven, however, that all enterohemorrhagic E. coli are potentially lethal pathogens that we must fight tooth and nail to keep out of this nation’s food supply. If we trust science, and do our part to push government agencies to enact regulations to require better monitoring, we can no doubt begin to prevent further harm. In the end, after all, the requisite wading through the mess of bureaucracy required to change federal regulation is all worth it, so long as the outcome prevents at least one more case like that of June Dunning, Megan Richards, or Shiloh Johnson.

At Kansas State University, researchers have found that "cattle production systems" do not affect E. coli prevalence in beef.  The study looked at organic and "natural production systems" and apparently found that antibiotic susceptibility of Escherichia coli 0157:H7 was unchanged.

We think a better way to communicate what KSU researchers are talking about would be to think of "natural" as standard operating procedure.   The standard method cattle ranchers use to employ some antibiotics and hormones, and use non-organic feeds that are regulated only by the owner of the brand name.

The organic method uses only organic feeds as regulated by the United States Department of Agriculture and do not use antibiotics, hormones or other veterinary products.

"The prevalences of E. coli 0157:H7 that we observed in organically and naturally (SOP) raised cattle were similar in the previously reported prevalence in conventionally raised cattle," the researchers said. "No major differences in antibiotic susceptibility patterns among the isolates were observed."

There more on the KSU study in Foodstuffs, the weekly newspaper of agribusiness.

Sixteen years have passed, but the big hamburger chains are still getting those kind of complaints. In the UK, McDonald’s submitted information to the Food Standards Agency (FSA) about possible reduction in cooking times.

The government’s Advisory Committee on the Microbiological Safety of Food requires that hamburgers be cooked for two minutes at 158 degrees Fahrenheit. However, other times and temperatures can be used when procedures are proven to be safe.

That’s what McDonald’s was up to in the UK when the victim’s rights group known as HUSH requested a copy of the information that the world’s biggest hamburger chain had submitted to weaken the rule.   FSA refused to give up the information to HUSH.

On appeal, however, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) upheld the HUSH complaint. HUSH argued it could not contribute to the consultation without all the facts.

McDonald’s said its “top priority” is customer safety and that it “fully complies” with FSA guidelines.

Interestingly, Nestle continued processing other food products at the Danville factory while the cookie dough production was shut down. 

Questions continue to swirl around the outbreak, as no source has yet been identified in the E. coli contamination of the Nestle Cookie Dough product.  Now the multiple strains of E. coli connected to the outbreak add another layer of mystery - and yet, production resumes.

KSFY Action News in Sioux Falls, South Dakota  where Sanford Children's is located reports its possible Isaiah is a victim of the the E. coli O157:H7 outbreak blamed on the Greeley Beef Plant owned by the JBS Swift Company.

Post-diarrheal Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (D+HUS) is a severe, life-threatening complication that occurs in about 10 percent of those infected with E. coli O157:H7 or other Shiga toxin (Stx) producing E. coli. D+HUS was first described in 1955, but was not known to be secondary to E. coli infections until 1982. It is now recognized as the most common cause of acute kidney failure in infants and young children. Adolescents and adults are also susceptible, as are the elderly who often succumb to the disease.

According to KSFY: "A few weeks ago Isaiah started with basic diarrhea, then vomiting. There was an E. coli test done, but it came back negative. He developed HUS this past weekend, which commonly forms from E. coli. While not every child that gets E. coli, also gets HUS, there is a small percentage that does. It attacks the red blood cells in the body and that leads to kidney failure. Isaiah has been on dialysis and had a number of other tests done to track his progress."