Meat + Poultry - September 2004 - 87

FSI INSIGHTS

testing the delivery of other infectious
foodborne bacteria in varying amounts
to determine the combination needed to
produce the most potent vaccine.

FSI TRENDS

Dairies face new
air-quality regulation
EMPLOYING
NUTRITIONISTS
■ Thirty-eight percent of
American supermarkets
provided some kind of
nutritional counseling
last year, up from 35 percent in 2002, according
to the Food Marketing
Institute.

ORGANIC FOR SPARKY
■ Organic pet food
sales, up 63 percent last
year, are growing at
nearly three times the
rate of human organic
food sales, the Organic
Trade Association reports. Only organic meat
sales are growing faster.
ACCEPTANCE
CLIMBING
■ A recent study found
that 69 percent of
consumers were willing
to buy
irradiated
foods in
2003 compared with 29
percent in 1993. Consumers also said they
would buy 25 percent
more beef, 25 percent
more poultry and 24.4
percent more pork if it
were irradiated and
labeled.

14 FSI FOOD SYSTEMS ınsıder

Researchers move
closer to vaccine for
food poisoning
■ Ohio researchers hope to add bacterial
food poisoning to the list of the world's
preventable diseases, and scientists in
Ohio and Texas have moved closer to that
goal by developing a vaccine that is 100
percent effective in preventing Salmonella and Listeria infection in mice.
John Gunn, PhD, associate professor
of molecular virology, immunology and
medical genetics at The Ohio State University Medical Center, and colleagues
seek to develop a vaccine that will trigger
a protective immune response against
diseases acquired through the intestinal
tract, which also include infections
caused by E. coli and Campylobacter.
The researchers are using a live but
crippled strain of Salmonella that carries
pieces of other foodborne pathogenic
bacteria that are expressed in the intestinal immune system. "The weakened Salmonella can persist long enough in the
intestine to induce immunity, but not to
cause disease," Gunn says. "The Salmonella is acting sort of like a Trojan horse
carrying these other pieces of foodborne
pathogens directly to the intestinal immune system."
To date, a single oral dose of the
vaccine in mice provided 100 percent protection against lethal doses of
Salmonella and Listeria for six months.
The scientists are continuing the work,

SEPTEMBER 2004

■ The nation's first regulation to reduce
smog- and particulate-forming emissions
from the waste generated by dairy cows
was adopted in August.
"Our region's dairies generate more
than 1 million tons of manure every year.
Emissions from that manure contribute
to ozone and fine-particulate pollution,
which must be reduced to meet federal
health-based air-quality standards," says
Barry Wallerstein, executive officer of the
South Coast Air Quality Management
District.
The regulation will be phased in this
December and apply to more than 300
dairies in the Chino region, which is considered to have the highest concentration of dairy cows in the nation.
The rule is expected to cost the dairy
industry a total of about $3.5 million per
year or about $15,000 per dairy annually.
"With the way that the industry is
moving through the more stringent
regulations and rules, it doesn't make
economic sense to continue in Southern
California," Art Marquez, a third-generation dairy farmer who is considering a
move, said in an Associated Press article.
Bob Feenstra, executive director of
the Milk Producers Council, a trade group
representing Southern California dairies,
says the manure problem will solve itself
as farms are forced to sell out to developers. But that
won't end the region's air-quality
problems, "For
every cow that
leaves this
valley, you're
gonna get two
cars in return,"
he told the AP.

Meat + Poultry - September 2004

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