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 Professor Walter J. Veith.

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