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The Wyoming Department of Health got word of two sheep ranch employees who were infected with Campylobacter jejuni and suffered from abdominal symptoms. Both eventually recovered, although one was hospitalized for a day. The Center for Disease Control issued a report.
During June, both patients had participated in a multiday event to castrate and dock tails of 1,600 lambs. Both men reported having used their teeth to castrate some of the lambs. Among the 12 persons who participated in the event, the patients are the only two known to have used their teeth to castrate lambs. During the multiday event, a few lambs reportedly had a mild diarrheal illness. Neither patient with laboratory-confirmed illness reported consumption of poultry or unpasteurized dairy products, which are common sources of exposure to C. jejuni (1). The patients resided in separate houses and did not share food or water; none of their contacts became ill.
Ranch owners and workers were advised to use only standard techniques for lamb castration. Link -via Improbable Research
(Unrelated image credit: Flickr user EssjayNZ)
A while back, John told us of the official US government’s advice on surviving the zombie apocalypse by the Centers for Disease Control. Now, the CDC is back, this time with this: Preparedness 101: Zombie Pandemic.
A few select images after the jump (you can view the entire comic [PDF] from the CDC’s website): more …
Fido may be cute – but according to epidemiologist Judy Stevens of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) injury center, it is also a walking and barking hazard to your health:
America’s dogs and cats, it turns out, can be blamed for injuries caused in an estimated 86,000 falls treated each year in the country’s emergency rooms, federal health officials said today.
Nearly 88 percent of those injuries come at the paws of man’s best friend, who’s more apt to wound the fairer sex, epidemiologists report in today’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). About a quarter of those spills occur when a pet owner is walking his or her dog, and twice as many women as men are hurt.
