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FDA warns against consumption of Sally Jackson cheese due to risk of E. coli O157:H7

The FDA, in cooperation with other state and local public health agencies, is warning consumers not to eat any Sally Jackson cheeses. The products were processed under conditions that create a significant risk of contamination of the unpasteurized raw milk and finished cheese, and Sally Jackson cheeses have been identified as one possible source of eight cases of E. coli O157 infections in an ongoing investigation.

20 Dec 2010

Sustainable Phosphorus Summit, Feb. 3-5, 2011

What element is commonly found in every living creature on Earth yet may become scarce in our lifetimes? If you answer phosphorus, you-d be one of only a few individuals in tune with scientists and governments aware of limitations in this mined resource.

17 Dec 2010

Three-day African food security forum opens in Accra

The 26th Annual Meeting of the Food Crisis Prevention Network, "which serves as the platform for deliberation on food production and food security in Africa," opened on Tuesday in Accra, Ghana, the Ghana News Agency reports. The three-day forum will examine "the agricultural and food situation for the 2010/2011 cropping season and come out with measures on tackling food crises," according to the news service.

16 Dec 2010

Series of papers highlights challenges with moving African-developed drugs, technology forward

"Africa is struggling to turn local discoveries into drugs and other health care inventions," according to studies published in Science and BMC International Health and Human Rights, Nature News reports (Nordling, 12/12).

14 Dec 2010

Haitian cholera pathogen closely related to 'El Tor O1' variant from South Asia

Scientists from Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc. and Harvard Medical School have successfully employed single molecule, real-time (SMRT™) DNA sequencing technology to rapidly characterize the pathogen responsible for the recent deadly cholera epidemic in Haiti. Published online Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, the results provide the first whole genome sequence analysis and most detailed genetic profile to date of the Haitian Vibrio cholerae outbreak strain.

10 Dec 2010

Video games effective in improving diet behaviors of children

Obesity in youngsters has risen dramatically in recent decades. Fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption and increased water intake can lower the risk of obesity, as can increased physical activity, but it is not always easy to convince children to eat better and exercise more. In a new study published in the January 2011 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers found that video games designed to encourage these behaviors were effective.

8 Dec 2010

Nanoparticles could combat Listeria

A Purdue University research team developed a nanoparticle that can hold and release an antimicrobial agent as needed for extending the shelf life of foods susceptible to Listeria monocytogenes.

8 Dec 2010

Most of world's poorest still live in rural areas, despite progress over last decade, U.N. report says

A report from the U.N.'s International Fund for Agricultural Development found that approximately 350 million people living in rural areas have escaped extreme poverty over the past decade, but most of the world's poorest citizens continue to live in rural regions, the BBC reports (Melik, 12/6).

8 Dec 2010

Virally structured nano-electrodes boost energy capacity ten-fold

Viruses have a bad rep—and rightly so. The ability of a virus to quickly and precisely replicate itself makes it a destructive scourge to animals and plants alike. Now an interdisciplinary team of researchers at the University of Maryland's A. James Clark School of Engineering and College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, brought together by Professor Reza Ghodssi, is turning the tables, harnessing and exploiting the "self-renewing" and "self-assembling" properties of viruses for a higher purpose: to build a new generation of small, powerful and highly efficient batteries and fuel cells.

7 Dec 2010

East African Community leaders pledge to combat climate change to promote development, food security

Leaders of the five-nation East African Community (EAC) on Friday at the 12th Summit on Food Security and Climate Change issued a declaration pledging to combat climate change to reduce its impact on development, PANA/Afrique en ligne reports.

7 Dec 2010

Nemours commends House and Senate for passage of child nutrition legislation

Nemours, a premier, integrated child health system, congratulates the United States House of Representatives for passing the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, legislation that reauthorizes critical child nutrition programs. We applaud Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Hoyer, and Chairman Miller for their leadership in working with the Senate to pass legislation that will protect and promote the health of children. House passage of the bill has cleared the way for the President to sign it into law.

3 Dec 2010

NIAID researchers develop new method to detect prion diseases

A fast test to diagnose fatal brain conditions such as mad cow disease in cattle and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans could be on the horizon, according to a new study from National Institutes of Health scientists. Researchers at NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) have developed a highly sensitive and rapid new method to detect and measure infectious agents called prions that cause these diseases.

3 Dec 2010

Fourteen cases identified on E. coli infection related to raw milk consumption in Connecticut

Raw milk is consumed by an estimated 1-3 percent of the United States population. Raw milk and raw cheeses are responsible for almost 70 percent of reported dairy outbreaks. On July 16, 2008, the Connecticut Department of Public Health identified two unrelated children who had experienced hemolytic uremic syndrome after consuming raw milk from the same farm. The authors investigated the situation further and found more cases of people affected by raw milk from the same farm.

3 Dec 2010

Africa can produce enough food to feed itself, study says

Africa is capable of producing enough food to feed itself within a single generation, according to "a study released to coincide with a meeting of several African leaders in Tanzania on Thursday, as well as U.N. talks on slowing climate change in Cancun, Mexico," Reuters reports (Doyle, 12/2).

3 Dec 2010

Today's Op-Eds: Preventing hospital errors; myths about the reform law; Medicare and the independent payment advisory board

Greenbay Press Gazette: No matter what happens with health care reform, the principles we've been discussing the past few months still hold true. Health care systems should continue to focus on quality and cost.

2 Dec 2010

New book on interactions between HIV and rural livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa

AIDS epidemics continue to threaten the livelihoods of millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa. Three decades after the disease was first recognized, the annual death toll from AIDS exceeds that from wars, famine and floods combined. Yet despite millions of dollars of aid and research, there has previously been little detailed on-the-ground analysis of the multifaceted impacts on rural people.

2 Dec 2010

Pelosi calls for House passage of child nutrition reauthorization legislation

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy, Congressman Jim McGovern and Senator Blanche Lincoln held a press conference call this afternoon to urge House passage of child nutrition reauthorization legislation, which the Senate has already passed. Below are the Speaker's remarks:

1 Dec 2010

Arsenic contamination of drinking water in Bangladesh leads to slow-developing diseases

The well-reported arsenic contamination of drinking water in Bangladesh called the "largest mass poisoning of a population in history" by the World Health Organization and known to be responsible for a host of slow-developing diseases has now been shown to have an immediate and toxic effect on the struggling nation's economy.

1 Dec 2010

African agriculture fund designates $135M to expand food production

The African Agriculture Fund (AAF) announced Monday that it has designated $135 million for expanded food production, agricultural processing and distribution, especially for small holder farms, PANA/Afrique en ligne reports.

1 Dec 2010

Washington Post examines development experts' reactions to draft QDDR

The Washington Post examines development experts' "mixed reactions" to the recent roll out of the State Department's draft Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR), which would give USAID "a bigger role in running President [Barack] Obama's two main foreign aid initiatives - health and agriculture."

30 Nov 2010

Agriculture News and Research

FDA warns against consumption of Sally Jackson cheese due to risk of E. coli O157:H7

Sustainable Phosphorus Summit, Feb. 3-5, 2011

Three-day African food security forum opens in Accra

Series of papers highlights challenges with moving African-developed drugs, technology forward

Haitian cholera pathogen closely related to 'El Tor O1' variant from South Asia

Video games effective in improving diet behaviors of children

Nanoparticles could combat Listeria

Most of world's poorest still live in rural areas, despite progress over last decade, U.N. report says

Virally structured nano-electrodes boost energy capacity ten-fold

East African Community leaders pledge to combat climate change to promote development, food security

Nemours commends House and Senate for passage of child nutrition legislation

NIAID researchers develop new method to detect prion diseases

Fourteen cases identified on E. coli infection related to raw milk consumption in Connecticut

Africa can produce enough food to feed itself, study says

Today's Op-Eds: Preventing hospital errors; myths about the reform law; Medicare and the independent payment advisory board

New book on interactions between HIV and rural livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa

Pelosi calls for House passage of child nutrition reauthorization legislation

Arsenic contamination of drinking water in Bangladesh leads to slow-developing diseases

African agriculture fund designates $135M to expand food production

Washington Post examines development experts' reactions to draft QDDR

Designing fluidic architecture for scalable diagnostic platforms

Evaluating new approaches for rare disease genomics

Expanding access to NMR with the Fourier 80 Duo

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