Bacteria commonly linked to raw milk and poultry is causing more and more food poisonings, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report released Thursday.
A crackdown on slaughterhouses has helped cut rates of certain types of food poisoning, but other causes of stomach upset are on the rise - a trend that indicates better regulation of meat from hoof to plate is needed, as well as stricter regulation of produce and processed food, the CDC says.
However, the report was only based on foodborne infections in 10 states which is roughly 15 percent of the American population. But it is seen as a good indicator of food poisoning trends.
"The U.S. food supply remains one of the safest in the world," said CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. "However, some foodborne diseases continue to pose a challenge. We have the ability, through investments in emerging technologies, to identify outbreaks even more quickly and implement interventions even faster to protect people from the dangers posed by contaminated food."
Overall, food poisonings held fairly steady in recent years. There were no significant jumps in cases from most other food bugs, including salmonella and E. coli. But campylobacter rose, and last year accounted for more than a third of food poisoning illnesses in those states and about a 10th of the deaths.
Salmonella remains the pathogen most often linked to food-borne illness, accounting for 7,800 cases of the 19,531 food-borne illnesses reported in 2012 at the 10 monitoring stations that make up the CDC's surveillance network (a system which captures about 15% of the U.S. population).Campylobacter comes in a close second, followed distantly by Shigella, Cryptosporidium, Escherichia coli, Vibrio, Yersinia, Listeria and Cyclosporidium.
