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Outbreaks associated with microbial pathogens in the Canadian beef industry have raised awareness regarding pathogen dissemination throughout the farm-to-fork continuum. Canadian beef processing represents a conjoined effort by federally-licensed and provinciallylicensed processing establishments. Although federal facilities must adhere to rigorous standards because of the large-scale distribution of beef, they do not necessarily correlate with the standards of provincial facilities, which are governed by provincial regulatory bodies. This could lead to discrepancies in regulation and perceptions of risk between provinces. Six meat safety experts from the Ministries of Agriculture or Health from five Canadian provinces were interviewed about risks, risk mitigation strategies, and limitations within these strategies throughout all stages of beef production. The most commonly identified risk was temperature abuse, identified by all five provinces. Existing policy and regulation, along with proper inspection and standardized procedures, served as dominant factors in mitigating risks. The experts also identified a variety of limitations within the current mitigation strategies, including a lack of standardized procedures within and between provinces, the absence of HACCP requirements, and lack of frequent inspection. Based on these accounts, it is concluded that provincial processing facilities require additional efforts (e.g., enhanced inspection, continual training, greater information sharing) to streamline current risk mitigation practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the food insecurity problem in British Columbia. It notes that more than 8% of British Columbians experience food insecurity and food bank use has increase to more than 20% since 2008. It mentions that people who are at risk of experiencing food insecurity, which include single-parent families, recent immigrants and people living on disability assistance. The importance for medical personnel to consider food insecurity in treatment plans for patients is also emphasized.

Johne's disease, caused by Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP), is a chronic, progressive bacterial enteritis of ruminants that can cause serious losses in both livestock and exotic species. Infection risk in exotic ruminants is associated with maternal infection status, but the effect of other herdmates on risk of infection has not been reported, to our knowledge. We conducted a retrospective cohort study to evaluate the association between MAP infection status and early-life contact with infected herdmates. The study population included 3,234 individuals representing 128 species at San Diego Zoo Global facilities between 1991 and 2010. Animal movement, health, and pathology records were used to trace enclosure-sharing contacts between members of the study population and any MAP-infected animal. Contact-days were counted by age of the reference animal and the number of unique infected individuals contacted. Herdmate infection status was stratified by stage of infection (180 d prior to diagnosis), age, and whether relevant lesions were found at autopsy. Having an infected herdmate was a strong risk factor for infection (OR = 4.4; 95% CI: 1.9-10.3), and each method of defining herdmate infection status showed significant differences in infection risk. The best predictor was number of contact-days within the first week of life, with a 2-fold increase in risk associated with each doubling in the number of contact-days (OR = 2.1; 95% CI: 1.1-4.0). We conclude that early contact with infected animals is an important predictor of MAP infection risk, although the effect size is smaller than that previously described for maternal infection status.