In the News: Virus Swarms and a (New) Paelo Diet

Fig.1. Child receiving polio vaccine (Credit: USAID Bangladesh)

"Mutant viral swarms," heirloom culture collections, and stone tools from 32,000 years ago are all in the science news this week. Read more to learn how emerging viral diseases and food security are studied using novel approaches to scientific collections:

"From [DNA] to Plate, Make Food Safe"

Fig.1. Scanning electron microscope image of Campylobacter jejuni bacteria, a top cause of bacterial food-related gastrointestinal illness in the United States (Credit: De Wood, Pooley, USDA, 2008).

Every year, foodborne illnesses kill nearly 2 million people around the world. These illnesses are caused by harmful bacteria, viruses, parasites, or chemical substances and present a very real danger to food security and health care. Food safety is the topic of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) World Health Day, today on April 7, with the slogan "From farm to plate, make food safe." In an effort to promote food safety, the WHO released guidelines to prevent food contamination that can create a vicious cycle of disease and malnutrition.

No Man is an Island

Fig.1. Salmonella bacteria can cause food poisoning and typhoid fever

One mild September day around 4 p.m. nearly two years ago, members of FDA’s Coordinated Outbreak Response and Evaluation (CORE) Network sat down with their state and federal partners to talk about a Salmonella outbreak. They quickly traced the outbreak’s source to a brand of peanut butter sold in Trader Joe’s. By 8 p.m. EDT that evening, they had a call with Trader Joe’s corporate offices, and by 9:40 p.m., Trader Joe’s issued a nationwide advisory to remove the product from their shelves.