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As of April 25, 2018, 84 people infected with the outbreak strain of E. coli O157:H7 have been reported from 19 states (Alaska 5, Arizona 5, California 13, Colorado 2, Connecticut 2, Georgia 1, Idaho 10, Illinois 1, Louisiana 1, Michigan 2, Missouri 1, Montana 7, New Jersey 7, New York 2, Ohio 3, Pennsylvania 18, South Dakota 1, Virginia 1, Washington 2). Forty-two ill people have been hospitalized, including nine people who developed hemolytic uremic syndrome. The information available to date points to romaine lettuce grown in Yuma Arizona, contaminated with E. coli O157:H7. No common grower, supplier, distributor or brand of romaine lettuce was identified as the source. @ https://www.cdc.gov/ecoli/2018/o157h7-04-18/index.html

Enhancements in organism recovery would assist in implementing Pathogen Environmental monitoring FSMA requirements. A sonicating swab device was demonstrated to remove biofilm from stainless steel more efficiently than a standard cotton swab. The performance of the sonicating swab was compared to that of the standard cotton swab for the recovery of Listeria monocytogenes from inoculated surfaces (plastic cutting board, wood cutting board, vinyl floor tile, and quarry clay floor tile). The sonicating swab captured significantly (P ≤ 0.05) more L. monocytogenes than the cotton swab. This study expands upon the capabilities of the sonicating swab technology to recover cells from multiple surface types with increased performance over traditional swabbing methods as a tool to further assist in the prevention of foodborne illness outbreaks. @ http://aem.asm.org/content/84/9/e00208-18.abstract

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University of Georgia food scientist Xiangyu Deng has created a system that can identify foodborne pathogens much faster than traditional methods. Dr. Deng had combined the detection step and the identification of pathogens into a single step in a process called “metagenomics analysis”. He used Immunomagnetic separation (IMS) beads to capture the pathogens followed by the amplification of the DNA. “Using a new, very small sequencing tool that’s about the size of a USB drive, we can sequence while capturing the data in real time,” Deng said. The sequencer generates results in 1- 1.5 hours. The process was tested on raw chicken breast, lettuce and black peppercorn samples inoculated with salmonella and retail chicken parts that were naturally contaminated with different serotypes of salmonella. In one case, a small amount of salmonella was detected and subtyped from lettuce samples within 24 hours.@http://www.caes.uga.edu/newswire/story.html?storyid=7552