MOST people are alert to the health hazards of Salmonella-infected poultry. However, few have even heard of Campylobacter infections. But I recently discovered that half of all chicken in our shops is contaminated with this bacterium.
At a conference held in Budapest earlier this year, the World Health Organization and the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization warned that food-borne illness is on the rise in Europe. Elliot Morley, the junior agriculture minister, tells me that finding ways to reduce the number of poultry infected with Campylobacter is a major challenge as not enough is known about it. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) is now funding research into the epidemiology of Campylobacter infection, the organism’s biology and practical control measures.
Following an interim report in 1995, the Advisory Committee on Microbiological Safety of Foods identified Campylobacter as an important topic for future work, but it didn’t set a target for reducing Campylobacter in poultry because it couldn’t see how reductions could be achieved. But the committee has now set up a working group to identify a strategy for reducing the incidence of Campylobacter food poisoning.
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Morley said that the Food Standards Agency (FSA) announced in 2000 that one of its aims was to halve the levels of Salmonella in chicken sold in Britain by April 2005, and to reduce by a fifth the incidence of food-borne illness – which would cover Campylobacter – by April 2006. To monitor progress towards achieving these targets, the agency has surveyed both domestic and imported chickens on sale to determine the levels of Salmonella and Campylobacter contamination. While Salmonella contamination has fallen, Campylobacter is still found in around 50 per cent of all chicken, said Morley.
The FSA has now established a consultative group, working with DEFRA, to assist in developing and implementing a strategy to reduce levels of Campylobacter in chickens and to further reduce Salmonella contamination. It won’t be easy. I hope that the research now under way and the other initiatives being taken will increase our knowledge of how to control these organisms.
BOB AINSWORTH is a junior Home Office minister with special responsibilities for action against drugs. He says it is important to view the proposed reclassification of cannabis from Class B to Class C under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 as only part of a package which recognises the importance of a partnership approach to drug misuse problems in which those in authority, the professionals in the field, parents and schools all have an essential part to play.
The Home Office is developing a communications campaign aimed at raising public awareness of the risks and dangers of all drugs, and in particularly Class A drugs. The aim is to tell young people about the realities of drug use and to provide the information that will enable them, their parents and carers to discuss drugs more effectively.
Changing the culture of drug-taking is not likely to happen overnight. Effective campaigns, such as regular reporting of drug-related crime, can help persuade people not to take drugs, and broaden support for anti-drugs strategies. For youngsters, their parents and carers, the National Drugs Helpline (0800 776600) is a credible and reliable source of information on drugs and the range of risks and dangers that they pose, said the minister.
My constituency experience leads me to believe that the Home Office will need to be at its most beguiling and persuasive to make this programme work.
