B.C. death raises listeriosis outbreak toll to 9

The nationwide outbreak of listeriosis is being blamed for a ninth death, public health officials said Friday afternoon.

The death occurred in British Columbia and is the first fatality outside of Ontario since news of the outbreak emerged nearly two weeks ago.

Six other people — four in Ontario, one in Saskatchewan and one in B.C. — who died had the outbreak strain of listeria, but health officials are still investigating to determine whether the food-borne bacteria caused or contributed to their deaths.

In total, 29 cases of listeriosis have been tied to the outbreak and tainted meat from a Toronto plant run by Maple Leaf Foods. A further 35 cases of the infection are being examined to find out whether they, too, were spawned by the outbreak.

Hundreds of meat and meat-containing products have been recalled. An additional 50 items were added Friday to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's list because they may contain contaminated Maple Leaf Foods meat. The new recalls include:

• Hospitality and party trays, submarine sandwiches and wraps, with best-before dates up to and including Aug. 25, 26 and 27 and sold in Sobeys and Foodland stores throughout Atlantic Canada.
• 10 kinds of sandwiches containing turkey, made and sold in Ontario at Loblaws, Loblaw Superstore and Real Canadian Superstore outlets. The items carry a best-before date up to and including Aug. 25.
• Three varieties of submarine sandwiches made and sold at Loblaws and Provigo stores in Quebec.
• Four sandwich products sold in Quebec at IGA, Bonichoix, Tradition and Omni stores.
• Another seven sandwich products sold at Sobeys and IGA outlets in B.C., Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, with best-before dates up to and including Aug. 26.

More recalls could be on the way, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz stressed.

"There'll be a few more as we get out into the secondary processors and some of the third line," Ritz said Friday during a news conference in Ottawa. "Some of this product went out somewhere and other sandwiches were made out of it; that's the nature of the recalls as they grow."

The Public Health Agency of Canada repeated its advisory that those most at risk from listeriosis are newborns, the elderly, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems.

The agency has placed ads, which will begin appearing Saturday in newspapers nationwide, warning about the illness, it said.

Walkerton mayor calls for inquiry

Earlier Friday, the mayor of Walkerton, the southern Ontario town where a deadly E. coli disaster struck eight years ago, called for a public inquiry into the listeriosis outbreak.

Charlie Bagnato told the Canadian Press he was "shocked" the federal government hadn't learned lessons from his town's tragedy. Seven people died and thousands of others became ill when E. coli entered the community's water supply in May 2000.

Bagnato said food security and public safety should never be sacrificed in the name of cutting costs.

SARS lessons led to listeria detection

Also Friday, Ontario's top medical official commented that the listeria outbreak might have gone undetected if not for the health-tracking system put in place after the 2003 SARS outbreak, which killed 44 people.

Dr. David Williams, acting chief medical officer of health, said the outbreak would have been "very hard" to spot under the old, paper-based system because the listeriosis cases were spread throughout Ontario.

The SARS outbreak led to a revamp of how Ontario public health units report to the province.

Canada opposed tougher listeria rules: reports

In further news Friday, the Globe and Mail reported that Canada strongly opposed tougher U.S. rules to prevent listeria and pushed for that country to accept Canada's more lenient standards.

The newspaper said internal briefing notes prepared by the CFIA for a 2006 meeting with the Canadian Meat Council board of directors outline how both industry and the Canadian government were frustrated with the increased precautions demanded by the U.S.

Canada was specifically opposed to daily inspection visits and testing finished products for listeria, the Globe and Mail reported.

"The CFIA is working at bilateral levels to convince the USDA that its system is equivalent to theirs in order to minimize the need for extra import rules," the document says, according to the Globe and Mail.

Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz, who is responsible for the CFIA, hinted this week that Canada might move toward U.S. practices for preventing listeria, such as the pasteurization of packaged meat.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has not backed down from its requirement that all producers of ready-to-eat meat must pasteurize or boil products in the package to kill Listeria monocytogenes, add chemicals to prevent the bacteria, or allow more rigorous plant inspections.

Seniors homes unaware of listeria dangers

A food expert is questioning why federal health officials don't do a better job of informing people at risk, particularly seniors, of the ongoing dangers of listeria.

Since 2005, Health Canada has cautioned that at-risk individuals should avoid eating non-dried deli meats.

All the people who have died of listeriosis so far were living at long-term-care facilities, but some seniors homes seemed unaware of the Health Canada recommendation.

Officials at Stirling Manor Nursing Home, in the southern Ontario community of Stirling, say they were unaware of any such suggestion. Even now, home administrator Charmaine Jordan said that while Maple Leaf meats were pulled from the menu, other deli meats are still being consumed.

The Ontario Association of Non-Profit Homes and Services for Seniors, an umbrella group, was also unaware of the recommendation.

"We've contacted dietitians that have long-standing experience in our homes and they've never been warned about listeriosis or deli meats being a huge issue or that they should be avoided," said association executive director Donna Rubin.

Ottawa should be more aggressive: expert

It's a problem one food safety expert says the government must address.

"The Canadian government needs to be a little more aggressive in informing Canadians of the risks associated with refrigerated ready-to-eat foods like deli meats," said Doug Powell of the International Food Safety Network.

He suggested that warning labels on products may be the solution.

An Ontario Health Ministry spokesman said it has no specific policy against serving sliced meats in nursing homes, and Health Canada officials said banning certain foods from seniors homes is not in its jurisdiction.

"The provinces and territories require staff in these institutions to have a standard level of knowledge about food-borne illnesses such as listeria," Dr. Jeff Farber of Health Canada said.

Advice from the federal health agency should be considered information, not a warning, he said.

Symptoms of listeriosis — which include high fever, severe headache, neck stiffness and nausea — can occur up to 70 days after consuming contaminated food, though the average incubation period is 30 days.

Public health and Maple Leaf Foods officials have said the exact source of the outbreak may never be determined, since listeria is widespread and commonly found in the environment, including in soil and in water.