The withdrawal represents the administration’s latest missed opportunity to protect public health, food safety experts said. It was applauded by the poultry industry, which said the measure would have imposed a financial burden on producers without doing much to reduce contamination risk.

The USDA last month eliminated two committees that advised it on food safety, while the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently suspended a quality control program for testing milk and other dairy products.

Salmonellae are bacteria that live in animal and human intestines and are shed through feces. People usually become infected by consuming contaminated water or food, and symptoms include diarrhea and fever.

The proposal, which the Biden administration announced last summer, would have set final standards to determine whether raw poultry products are contaminated with certain Salmonella. It also sought to require poultry facilities to use certain procedures to monitor and document their processes for preventing contamination.

The proposal took three years to develop and included input from one of the two suspended food safety committees, the USDA said last year.

It represented a critical shift from reacting to outbreaks toward preventing them, said Darin Detwiler, an associate teaching professor at Northeastern University and food safety adviser.

“The proposal would have, for the first time, set enforceable limits on contamination,” he said. “This proposal was a long-overdue step toward aligning poultry safety regulations with modern science and consumer expectations.”

The USDA said in an emailed statement that the proposal would have been burdensome for U.S. businesses and consumers and that it did not offer an effective approach to address Salmonella in poultry.

Consumer advocacy group Consumer Reports said the withdrawal will weaken the agency’s ability to respond to outbreaks of foodborne illness.

The CDC estimates Salmonella causes about 1.35 million infections in the United States annually, though only 1 in 30 infections is diagnosed. Resistance to antibiotics is increasing in Salmonella, which can limit treatment options for people with severe infections, according to the CDC.

—Additional reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington

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The U.S. is working with manufacturers to allow more importation of baby formula, Biden told reporters in the Rose Garden. “We’re going to be, in a matter of weeks or less, getting significantly more formula on shelves,” he said.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner Dr. Robert Califf said earlier Friday the FDA will announce plans next week detailing how manufacturers and suppliers abroad will be able to import their products into the United States, as well as new options for U.S. companies.

The FDA is aiming for a streamlined process that will get more products on U.S. shelves while meeting safety, quality and labeling standards, Carliff said. The US$4 billion annual U.S. baby formula market is dominated by domestic producers, with imports limited and subject to high tariffs .

“Our data indicates that in stock rates in retail stores are stabilizing but we continue to work around the clock to further increase availability,” Carliff said on Twitter.

The Biden administration this week has come under increasing pressure to address the problem, which has roots in a February recall of some formulas by one of the nation’s main manufacturers, Abbott Laboratories.

U.S. agencies have been investigating bacterial infections caused by the infant formula manufactured at Abbott’s Sturgis facility in Michigan.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has now closed its investigation on Abbott’s formula, with no additional cases of infections, according to a notice posted Friday on the FDA website.

According to Health Canada, which oversaw a parallel recall of Abbott formula in the Canadian market, the recalls were based on the potential risk of contamination with salmonella and Cronobacter sakazakii. The latter is “not commonly linked to human illness (but) in rare cases it can cause serious or fatal infections.”

Many U.S. parents rely on baby formula. Fewer than half of babies born in the United States were exclusively breast-fed through their first three months, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2020 Breastfeeding Report Card.

Abbott’s recall affected formulas, including certain Similac products, made at a Michigan plant after complaints about bacterial infections in infants who had consumed the products.

The shortages have been compounded by supply-chain snags and historic inflation, leaving about 40 per cent of baby formula products out of stock nationwide, data firm Datasembly said.

Biden met on Thursday with executives from infant formula manufacturers and retailers, pressing them to do everything possible to get families access.

Retailers said their top ask is more flexibility on the types of formula they can sell, while consumers need more flexibility on the types they can buy, particularly through the ‘WIC’ program for low-income families, the White House said.

The nutrition program for Women, Infants and Children is a federal assistance scheme administered by U.S. states. Biden told reporters retailers such as Walmart were also looking for flexibility about the amounts of formula WIC users could buy.

Abbott said on Friday it has shipped millions of cans of infant formula powder into the United States from its Ireland facility, particularly to serve consumers who use the WIC program for low-income families.

In states where Abbott has the WIC contract, the company said it will pay rebates on competing products if Similac is not available through August.

About half of infant formula nationwide is purchased by participants using WIC benefits, the White House said, and rules set by individual states have a big effect on the availability and distribution of infant formula.

“The shortage has taken an especially dangerous toll on women and children from underserved communities,” U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.

The House of Representatives next week will bring up a bill to grant emergency authority to the WIC program to address supply-chain disruptions and recalls by relaxing non-safety-related regulations, she said in a statement on Friday.

Pelosi also said an emergency spending bill to address the infant formula shortage would advance in the House.

In other measures on Capitol Hill, the House Oversight Committee said it plans to investigate the four largest manufacturers of baby formula and seek answers on how to ramp up production and avoid any future shortage.

The committee said on Friday it sent letters seeking information to Abbott Nutrition, Mead Johnson Nutrition, Nestle and Perrigo.

The shortage poses a threat to families throughout the country, the letter said, “particularly those with less income who have historically experienced health in equities.”

Two other House committees — Energy and Commerce, and Appropriations — planned hearings on the issue.

— Reporting for Reuters by Doina Chiacu, Susan Heavey, Jeff Mason and Richard Cowan in Washington and Ankur Banerjee and Leroy Leo in Bangalore. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

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The warnings about the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s first update of inspection procedures at hog slaughterhouses in more than 50 years come after several high-profile recalls in the meat sector.

USDA earlier on Tuesday published a final version of rules that will eliminate limits on how fast companies such as Tyson Foods and WH Group’s Smithfield Foods can slaughter pigs — a change long sought by meatpackers.

The companies can instead determine their own slaughter speeds based on their ability to prevent fecal contamination and minimize bacteria, according to the rules.

Packers can also have employees, rather than USDA workers, remove meat with certain defects from the slaughtering process. Government inspectors will continue to check all live animals before they are killed as well as meat products after slaughter.

The changes could contribute to food contamination, said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of advocacy group Food + Water Watch.

“The implementation of the rule will result in the fox guarding the henhouse,” Hauter said.

Tyson Foods, the biggest U.S. meat producer, slowed chicken processing to protect food safety this year after it recalled millions of pounds of poultry products over concerns they contained extraneous materials like rubber and metal.

Tyson and Smithfield did not immediately respond to requests for comment on USDA’s new rules. The North American Meat Institute, which represents the packers, said companies will continue to produce safe pork.

Slower processing leads to higher costs for companies and limits profits, but advocates say extra caution protects workers.

“Increasing pork plant line speeds is a reckless corporate giveaway that would put thousands of workers in harm’s way as they are forced to meet impossible demands,” said Marc Perrone, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers International union, which represents slaughterhouse employees.

USDA ran a pilot program for the new rules that was announced in 1997. Participating slaughterhouses do not operate significantly faster than the current maximum speed of 1,106 pigs per hour, according to the agency.

The pilot program showed the rules are unlikely to cause a higher prevalence of salmonella on pork and may reduce the prevalence of salmonella, USDA said. Under the new rules, the agency will require hog slaughterhouses to establish procedures to prevent meat from being contaminated by certain pathogens and fecal material.

“This regulatory change allows us to ensure food safety while eliminating outdated rules and allowing for companies to innovate,” USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue said.

— Tom Polansek reports on agriculture and ag commodities for Reuters from Chicago.

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The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said March 12 it will require processors to identify salmonella as a hazard likely to occur in these products — and to “implement changes in order to produce an end product that reduces salmonella to below a detectable amount.”

The industry gets a 12-month “implementation period” to work with the CFIA to make such changes, starting immediately, the agency said.

Products covered under the requirement include any frozen raw breaded chicken products such as chicken nuggets, chicken fingers, chicken strips, popcorn chicken and chicken burgers that appear “ready to eat” and are packaged for retail sale. Turkey, duck and quail products aren’t included.

Frozen raw breaded “stuffed” chicken products won’t be included under the requirement “at this time,” the agency said, adding it plans to work with industry “to ensure a common understanding of which products are affected and which are not.”

The new requirements follow “extensive efforts” by food safety officials and industry to boost consumer awareness that the products in question need to be fully cooked before consumption, CFIA said. It also noted “significant attempts by the industry to improve labelling and cooking instructions on packages.”

Despite those moves, the agency said, “frozen raw breaded chicken products continue to be identified as a source of salmonella infection in Canada.”

Incidence of salmonella illness in Canada has “steadily increased” over the last 10 years, the agency said, driven by salmonella enteritidis (SE), which is the most common strain in the food supply and often associated with poultry.

The most recent such outbreak under federal and provincial investigation so far involves 30 people sickened with SE between May 2017 and last month across four provinces, including 17 in Ontario. Of the 30, four were hospitalized.

According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, investigation findings so far point to exposure to poultry, including frozen raw breaded chicken products, as a source of the illness.

While frozen raw breaded chicken products often look like they’re “pre-cooked” or “ready-to-eat,” CFIA said, they still contain raw chicken and are meant to be handled the same way as other raw poultry.

Frozen raw breaded chicken products and raw poultry pieces must be cooked to an internal temperature of at least 74 C (165 F) to ensure they’re safe to eat, according to PHAC.

Messaging

The new requirement announced March 12 “focuses the responsibility on the poultry industry and represents a fundamental change to existing requirements for frozen raw breaded chicken products,” CFIA said.

The industry in 2015 already voluntarily added labelling on frozen raw breaded chicken products with more “prominent and consistent messaging,” CFIA said, using wording such as “raw,” “uncooked” or “must be cooked.”

The new labeling, CFIA said, had also included “explicit” instructions not to microwave the product. The industry also voluntarily added cooking instructions on the products’ inner-packaging bags.

“The poultry industry’s objective is to provide consumers with affordable, safe poultry products, every day,” Robin Horel, CEO of the Canadian Poultry and Egg Processors Council, said March 12 in CFIA’s release. “We will continue to work with CFIA to ensure consumers have access to safe frozen raw breaded chicken products.” — AGCanada.com Network

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Health Canada has published regulations in the Canada Gazette which add fresh and frozen ground beef to the short list of irradiated foods, such as potatoes, onions, spices and flour, that are permitted for sale, effective immediately on publication.

“Permitting this technology will give the beef industry another tool to enhance food safety,” Health Canada said Wednesday in a release.

Any foods treated with irradiation must be labelled as such on its packaging, including a written description and the distinctive “Radura” symbol (shown below). Unpackaged foods must have signage displaying the same information at point of sale.

Irradiated foods are treated with low levels of ionizing radiation, which have been shown to reduce levels of harmful bacteria, such as E. coli, salmonella and campylobacter, prevent premature spoilage and extend foods’ shelf lives, the department said.

Irradiation of food by gamma rays, x-rays or high-energy electrons under approved conditions does not cause food to become radioactive, nor does the food come in contact with the radioactive source, the department said.

The process, Health Canada said, “is intended to complement rather than replace existing food safety practices, such as appropriate handling, storage and sanitation.”

The process will not be made mandatory, Health Canada said, and can be applied within permissible amounts “at the discretion of food producers.”

The U.S. has allowed the sale of irradiated ground beef since 1999, Health Canada noted, and 23 other countries including Brazil, South Africa, Saudi Arabia and Russia also allow irradiation of meats. The European Union overall doesn’t allow irradiation for ground beef but member nations such as the U.K., France, Belgium and the Netherlands allow it on chicken meat and poultry.

Health Canada said it reviewed an application in 1998 seeking approval for irradiation of ground beef to reduce microbial load, but the regulatory process wasn’t completed at that time, “due to the large number of questions received expressing concerns related to the safety of the food irradiation process in general.”

A new application “nearly identical to the 1998 submission” was submitted in May 2013, Health Canada said. The department’s safety and efficacy evaluation found the “available scientific data support the safety of irradiating fresh and frozen raw ground beef as described in the current submission” as well as the process’ efficacy in reducing pathogen load.

Among the differences in the 2013 application over the 1998 submission, Health Canada noted, was a request for a higher maximum operating energy level for X-ray machine sources of radiation at 7.5 million electron volts, up from five million. The higher level lines up with the level approved in the U.S.

While the maximum energy level is higher, Health Canada said, the maximum absorbed dose of ionizing radiation in the beef remains the same: 4.5 kilograys for fresh raw ground beef and seven kGy for frozen raw ground beef.

Health Canada’s Food Directorate “has not identified a safety concern with the proposed change to the maximum energy level.”

Health Canada cautioned that irradiation “cannot guarantee the absence of disease-causing microorganisms, but it greatly reduces their number… Irradiated food must still be handled, stored and cooked properly like all other foods.”

The 2013 application came from the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, which at the time said that “combined with food safety interventions already in use, irradiation could essentially eliminate E. coli-related illness associated with ground beef… (which is) reason enough to support making this choice available to Canadians.”

The CCA said Wednesday buying irradiated ground beef “is now a choice for Canadian consumers, the same choice that has been available in the U.S. for more than a decade.”

That said, the CCA added, the availability of irradiated beef “will take time to establish and will depend on consumer demand for this type of product.”

The Canadian Meat Council, which supported the CCA’s application, said at the time the process could help “reduce human illness and suffering; decrease healthcare expenditures; improve confidence in Canada’s food safety system; benefit Canadians economically; and, finally, provide Canadian consumers with the opportunity to exercise individual choice, a freedom which (U.S.) consumers have long held.”

The CMC at the time said it would also encourage Health Canada to give “prompt consideration to science-based  proposals on irradiation as an effective food safety technology for other meat products such as beef trim as well as chicken meat and poultry.”

During consultations last year on the proposed regulatory changes, Canada’s National Farmers Union came out opposed, saying larger beef packers such as Cargill and JBS, could turn to irradiation as a cost-cutting food safety measure, further undercutting smaller packers on beef pricing.

The NFU at the time said it was also concerned packers and processors might use irradiation as a crutch “to compensate for unsanitary conditions and inadequate procedures (and) instil a false confidence in the meat’s safety.”

Processors, the NFU said, could use irradiation to control “fecal contamination of carcasses that occurs when processing high volumes at high speeds without adequate inspection of production lines.” — AGCanada.com Network

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There have been 23 cases of Salmonella Dublin in 15 herds reported in Ontario since 2012, but the numbers have been increasing each year. There were eight cases reported in 2015 and four in 2016 through August.

Dr. Dave Renaud, a veterinarian completing his doctorate in the department of population medicine at the Ontario Veterinary College, told the recent Healthy Calf Conference — held in Stratford by the Veal Farmers of Ontario — that the disease is difficult to diagnose and to treat.

“It can cause massive devastation in a herd,” he said.

The strain has been found in New York state for more than 20 years and has been seen in Quebec since 2011.

A more recent study in Quebec showed it is found across the province and, in a survey of 169 dairy herds, 8.9 per cent of herds had at least one cow that was a carrier of the disease.

In Ontario, cases have been focused in southwestern Ontario. It has also been found in Alberta, said Renaud.

The disease mostly affects calves between two and five months of age, which is different from most calfhood diseases which are at their most lethal in young calves.

Most salmonella bacteria wreak their havoc in the guts of animals, causing diarrhea that results in dehydration. Salmonella Dublin mostly shows up as septicemia and pneumonia. Septicemia is when blood is poisoned due to toxins caused by a bacterial infection. It is difficult to treat when the strain is resistant to many common antimicrobials.

The pneumonia is even more difficult to diagnose as its symptoms are common to other pneumonia cases. That means diagnosis is only possible through testing, and there is no lab yet in Ontario that conducts the blood ELISA test for Salmonella Dublin.

Tests have showed that 75 per cent of the strains have ampicillin, ampicillin-sulbactam, ceftiofur and tetracycline resistance.

“Strains are showing resistance to common antibiotics,” said Renaud. “It leads to very poor response to treatment.”

The biggest issues are on veal or dairy beef farms, as they bring in calves from multiple sources, with multiple disease statuses.

Cows can be healthy and be carriers of Salmonella Dublin and can then shed the vaccine, which creates challenges for monitoring and eliminating the bacteria on a farm.

Bumping up biosecurity

The best defence for farmers is better biosecurity, Renaud said. Areas he identified where biosecurity can be improved include:

• Maintain a closed herd, or purchase from low-risk herds
• Quarantine newly arrived cattle
• Minimize stress in newly arrived cattle
• Maintain a clean, well-sanitized maternity area
• Avoid adult-to-calf contact
• Minimize fecal contamination
• Limit bird, rodent and waterfowl exposure
• Disinfect and clean high-risk areas

— John Greig is a field editor for Glacier FarmMedia based at Ailsa Craig, Ont. Follow him at @jgreig on Twitter.

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Salmonella can cause food-borne illness in humans. However, canola meal is mainly shipped to the U.S. for use in animal feed, especially in the California dairy industry.

The U.S. is by far Canada’s biggest canola meal export market, importing about three million tonnes in 2015, or 96 per cent of the country’s exports, according to Canadian government data published by the Canola Council of Canada.

Shipments that were halted over salmonella concerns interrupted trade between half a dozen Canadian canola meal processing plants and U.S. buyers in 2009 and 2010.

A search of the FDA’s online records for 2015 did not show other such refusals from Canadian canola plants.

Spokespersons for Bunge and the FDA could not be immediately reached.

— Rod Nickel is a Reuters correspondent covering the agriculture and mining sectors from Winnipeg.

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In a rare case of criminal prosecution linked to food contamination, Stewart Parnell, the former owner of Peanut Corporation of America, and his brother, Michael Parnell, who was a food broker on behalf of the company, were convicted on federal conspiracy charges in September 2014 for knowingly shipping salmonella-tainted peanuts to customers.

Contamination at the company’s plant in Blakely, Georgia, led to one of the largest food recalls in U.S. history and forced the company into liquidation.

— Reporting for Reuters by Rich McKay.

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The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) said Monday it’s so far investigating 17 cases of illness in people in Alberta, 13 in British Columbia and four in Saskatchewan.

In all cases, PHAC said, the people are reported to have had contact with live baby poultry — and, in most cases, live baby chickens from a specific hatchery in Alberta.

PHAC emphasized Monday the risk to Canadians is “low,” but urged people who’ve had contact with live poultry to “take precautions to protect their health.”

Contact with live poultry can be a source of salmonella entereditis, even if a bird appears healthy and clean, PHAC said. The infection can be picked up from the bird, its droppings or from “environments where birds have been.”

Base level

There’s always a low “base level” for the chance of salmonella infection from handling live birds, according to Dr. Gerald Hauer, the province’s chief veterinarian in Edmonton.

In this instance, however, Hauer said he hasn’t previously seen such a spike in human cases, and “something’s happened to make this (level) go up.” There was no change in the hatchery’s suppliers leading up to this outbreak either, he said.

There’s no additional risk to consumers of properly prepared eggs and poultry, he said, but people working around baby chicks need to take care to avoid infections.

PHAC urged anyone in contact with live birds to always wash their hands “immediately after handling birds, cleaning up after them or being in an area where birds have been.”

Alberta Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Development is leading the animal health investigation and is “working closely” with the unnamed hatchery to determine the source of the infection, PHAC said.

Provincial officials will be sampling birds and the environments where they’ve been, Hauer said, and will run genetic analysis of the salmonella bacteria, in an effort to learn where the hatchery picked up an increased infective load.

Neither PHAC nor Hauer would name the hatchery or its general location, but PHAC said the hatchery will be directly notifying customers who have ordered live baby poultry dating back to March 1.

No snuggling

People particularly at risk for infection with salmonellosis from live chicks include children five years of age and under, pregnant women, the elderly and those with weaker immune systems.

Young children, whose immune systems are still developing, are at higher risk of infection, PHAC said, because they often enjoy handling and interacting with live baby poultry and may not wash their hands before putting their fingers or other contaminated items in or near their mouths.

AAFRD, in a recent posting on safe handling of live birds, recommended those at risk not handle or touch live poultry at all, and urged adults to help kids wash their hands thoroughly with soap and water if they touch live birds or anything else in spots where birds have been.

Anyone handling live chicks should keep their faces away from the chicks and should not “snuggle or kiss” the birds, AAFRD said. Only one chick should be handled at a time, and held with both hands, “but be careful not to squeeze.”

People handling chicks should also keep their hands away from their faces while handling chicks, and until the hands are washed, the department said.

Live poultry and poultry equipment should also be kept outside the home, and away from places where people eat or make food. — AGCanada.com Network

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