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nation of conflicting information across the various guidelines, augmentation of guidance for pediatric care, more specific guidance for unique levels of care, and clearer delineation of the Role 1 phases of care (as well as which guidelines are most appropriate to each) should be considered as urgent priorities within the military medical community.

Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) is a perfluorinated alkyl substance used as a surfactant in a wide variety of industrial and consumer products. Over the past decade, concern has increased over the presence of PFOA in biosolids from wastewater treatment plants used as fertilizer on agricultural lands because of the potential for PFOA to enter the food chain. In this study, the uptake of 14C-PFOA from soil by alfalfa and 14C-PFOA bioavailability from consumption of this alfalfa was evaluated in Sprague-Dawley rats. Alfalfa leaves accumulated 14C-PFOA up to 4 to 5 μg/g of dry leaf, approximately 10 times higher than accumulation in the stem. Alfalfa was ground for feeding to 15 female Sprague-Dawley rats (175 to 200 g). Animals within metabolism cages were fed 10 g of feed (6 g of alfalfa plus 4 g of ground rat chow) twice daily for 14 days (equivalent to 50 μg of 14C-PFOA per kg per day). At the end of the feeding period, three rats were euthanized for sample collection on each of withdrawal days 0, 3, 7, 11, and 14. During the feeding and withdrawal phases, urine and feces were collected daily. At necropsy, blood, liver, kidney, adipose, muscle, skin, brain, heart, adrenal glands, spleen, lungs, and thymus were removed and assayed for 14C-PFOA by combustion and liquid scintillation counting. Rats had eliminated 72.8% ± 3.4% of the total dose via urine at 14 days, but urinary radioactivity fell below the level of detection by day 3 of the withdrawal period. Fecal elimination was 6.5% ± 1.2% of the dose and fell below the level of detection by day 2 of the withdrawal period. The rapid and high elimination via urine indicates that a majority of the dose was absorbed. The uptake of 14C-PFOA into alfalfa was low from soil with a high organic concentration; however, 14C-PFOA was highly bioavailable from the alfalfa when used as a feed component for rats. This study provides data for regulators investigating 14C-PFOA bioavailability and disposition in animals or animal products exposed to contaminated feed.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is developing an Establishment-based Risk Assessment (ERA) model for commercial and on-farm mills involved in the manufacture, storage, packaging, labeling, or distribution of livestock feed (ERA-Feed Mill model). This model will help inform the allocation of inspection resources on the basis of feed safety risk, including animal health and food safety risk. In a previous study, 34 risk factors, grouped into inherent, mitigation, and compliance clusters, along with assessment criteria were selected. The objective of this current study was to estimate the relative risk (RR) of the 203 assessment criteria on the basis of the impact on feed safety to design an ERA-Feed Mill model algorithm. Furthermore, the intent of this study was to assess the maximum increase or decrease of risk obtained when multiple criteria belonging to a same cluster were identified in a specific feed mill. To do so, a two-round face-to-face expert elicitation was conducted with 28 Canadian feed experts. Results showed no significant association between respondent profiles (years of experience and work sector) and estimated RR. Uniformity of answers between experts improved between rounds. Criteria having the highest increase in risk (median RR ≥ 4) included the presence of materials prohibited to be fed to ruminants in a facility that produces ruminant feed, the presence of multiple livestock species on-site, and historical noncompliances related to the inspection of the feed mill's process control and end-product control programs. Risk mitigation criteria having the highest impact on decreasing the risk were the implementation of feed safety certifications, the use of dedicated manufacturing lines (prohibited materials or medications), and having a hazard sampling plan in place for finished feed. The median RR assigned to each criterion and cluster will be used to build an algorithm of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's ERA-Feed Mill model.

Numerous outbreak investigations and case-control studies of campylobacteriosis have provided evidence that handling Campylobacter-contaminated chicken products is a high risk factor for infection and illness. In this study, the cross-contamination and transfer rates of Campylobacter jejuni from chicken to ready-to-eat food were determined in various food handling scenarios. Skinless raw chicken breasts were artificially contaminated with C. jejuni and diced on cutting boards of three different materials. learn more Whether cold water, cold water with detergent, or hot water was used, statistically significant differences were found between the transfer rates of C. jejuni to unwashed and washed cutting boards or hands, respectively. When both kitchen knife and cutting board were reused after dicing the artificially contaminated chicken, the transfer rates of C. jejuni to cucumber cut on bamboo, wooden, and plastic cutting boards were 16.28, 12.82, and 5.32%, respectively. The transfer rates from chicken to bread, a large lift-up water faucet handle, and a small twist faucet handle via unwashed hands were 0.49, 4.64, and 3.14%, respectively. This research provides scientific evidence that various types of contaminated kitchenware and cook's hands are vital potential vehicles for the cross-contamination of Campylobacter from raw chicken to ready-to-eat food and emphasizes the importance of timely and proper cleaning to prevent cross-contamination during food handling; therefore, high-quality consumer education to reduce the risk of foodborne infection is urgent and necessary.

Various methods exist for the enrichment and detection of Listeria spp. and Listeria monocytogenes from environmental samples. Procedures for the compositing of environmental samples are not as well defined. In this study, different enrichment procedures involving buffered Listeria enrichment broth (BLEB), University of Vermont medium (UVM), and Fraser broth (FB) were evaluated to determine the limits of detection (LODs) for L. monocytogenes from culture and from swabs of stainless steel and to assess the efficacy of composite sampling by wet (pooling of primary enrichments) and dry (pooling of swabs) procedures. For detection of cells in pure culture, the computed values for the LOD at 95% probability (LOD95) using a single-step BLEB or two-step UVM-FB enrichment were 0.33 and 0.49 CFU/225 mL enrichment, respectively. No significant differences in detection were observed for procedures using either two-step BLEB-FB or UVM-FB enrichments for swabs of stainless steel when L. monocytogenes was inoculated at 2 to 6 log CFU; the LOD95 values were 3.