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Animal Products and Food-borne Illness

Food-borne illness is increasing worldwide. In most cases, animal products are implicated as the main source of infection. Reactions can range from mild to fatal, with symptoms often including vomiting and diarrhea. The following graph outlines five of the bacteria most often implicated with food-borne diseases. This graph is adapted from the book Diet and Health by Dr. Walter J. Veith.

Bacteria Source Symptoms Statistics
Salmonella
  1. Eggs
  2. Cheese
  3. Improperly pasturized Milk
  4. Contagious between people
  1. Sudden onset of symptoms
  2. Severe headache
  3. Abdominal cramps
  4. Vomiting
  5. Diarrhea
  6. Fever
  7. Flu-like symptoms
  8. Loss of appetite
  1. Up to 3.7 million cases per year in the US
  2. Up to 7041 deaths per year in the US
Campylobacter
  1. Poultry
  2. Milk
  1. Abdominal pain & cramps
  2. Bloody diarrhea
  3. Fever
  1. Causes more diarrhea cases in Canada than Salmonella
  2. Up to 30,000 cases per year in England and Wales
Listeria
  1. Milk
  2. Cheese
  3. Seafood
  4. Poultry
  5. Other foods
  1. Range from mild flu to chronic septicemia
  2. Occasional stillbirth or birth defects
 Has caused more deaths in Canada than any other food-borne bacteria
E. Coli
  1. Milk
  2. Beef
 Intestinal Infections
  1. Most frequent causative agent of hemorrhagic diarrhea in North America
  2. A massive outbreak in Japan in 1996 affected more than 8000 people
Yersinia
  1. Milk
  2. Other Animal Products
 Acute gastroenteritis
  1. In Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Australia and parts of Germany, infections from this organism are as common as Salmonella infections
  2. Can grow at temperatures as low as 0 degrees Celsius

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