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The prevalence of salmonella in meat and poultry products decreased
in 2002, which could translate into fewer illnesses and deaths
due to the bacterium, according to a report.
Some 58,085 samples of meat and poultry were tested for salmonella
in 2002. Of them, 4.3 percent had salmonella, compared with
five percent of 45,941 samples in 2001.
Salmonella, which causes 1,000 deaths and 40,000 cases of
salmonellosis each year, can be found of different types of
food, including raw meat, eggs, dairy products and seafood.
Children, the elderly, and people with weak immune systems
are especially vulnerable to the illness, which causes diarrhea,
fever and abdominal cramps.
According to officials, the decrease is due to a government
meat safety program started in 1998. The program requires
plants to come up with strategies for preventing salmonella
and E. coli, a bacteria that causes food poisoning, from affecting
products. The plants are then inspected for compliance.
Despite an overall decline, the prevalence of salmonella
on ground chicken increased from 19.5 percent of 262 samples
in 2001 to 29.1 percent of 429 samples in 2002.
According to a spokesman for the National Chicken Council,
the process for preventing salmonella in chickens is improved,
and chickens are now sterilized in chlorinated water after
slaughter.
Advocates of one watchdog group said the report might be
unreliable because it left out information from plants with
repeated salmonella incidents. However, officials say the
report is not an official study but one used to gauge whether
or not plants are preventing bacteria.
Yahoo
News, April 2003
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