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Milk Supplies — Brucella Abortus
Brucella abortus is the organism associated with contagious abortion in cattle and its transmission to man
occurs through drinking raw milk. As almost the entire supply of milk sold and consumed in Westminster is
heat-treated, no tests to determine the presence of this organism were carried out during the year.
Food and Drugs Act 1955 — Section 16
The number of premises registered with the City Council at 31st December, 1972 is shown in Table 23
page 71.
Food Poisoning
During the year information was received of 169 persons stated to be suffering from food poisoning and
a summary of the individual outbreaks affecting more than one person is as follows:—
A dinner at a London hotel was attended by 173 persons. The menu at the dinner included roast duck
with liver stuffing. Between 18 and 72 hours after the dinner at least 108 guests and one member of the
hotel kitchen staff became ill. Their symptoms were headache, fever, abdominal pain, backache and
diarrhoea. In many cases the illness was severe and prolonged. Its mean duration was 5 days with limits of 3
and 9 days. Eleven guests required hospital attention after dehydration. There were 50 recorded isolates of
salmonella typhimurium from those with symptoms. All these isolates were phage typed and found to be
phage type 4. Among those affected 85 people ate duck and stuffing, 20 ate duck only and 4 ate liver
stuffing only. At least 23 guests complained that their portions of duck were undercooked. Due to late
notification of the incident, no duck remained for bacteriological examination. During the investigation
one duck was purchased via each of the large wholesale traders from the duck farms whence the hotel
supply had originated. Salmonella typhimurium, phage type 4 was isolated from heart, liver, gizzard and
intestines of one of these. Apart from the member of the hotel kitchen staff who ate the duck the other
food handlers provided negative faecal specimens. Salmonella typhimurium, phage type 4 is historically
associated with ducks which are the commonest source of infection by this phage type.
The investigation disclosed that some or all of the ducks and/or stuffing forming the main dish were at
the time of service heavily infected with salmonella typhimurium, phage type 4 and were unfit for human
consumption. The cold storage facilities available were totally inadequate for the scale of catering carried
on. This has now been rectified.
The failure to exercise the temperature control requirements of the Food Hygiene (General) Regulations
1970 allowed food poisoning organisms present in the poultry to multiply sufficiently to produce an
infective dose beyond the resistance of those who later consumed the meal.
An outbreak involving two persons was not notified to this department until almost a month after the
occurrence. The incident came to the notice due to the continued illness of one of the two persons
affected who suffered recurrent diarrhoea. The onset of the infection due to salmonella organisms occurred
following a meal at a restaurant which included poultry. The subsequent investigation at the catering
premises concerned disclosed that a large number of birds were cooked at one time and that these were
stored in the warm atmosphere of the wash-up area in the kitchen during the day. The most seriously
affected patient continued excreting salmonella typhimurium organisms for some two months after the
occurrence but was eventually cleared of the infection. This appeared to be yet another instance where the
requirements of the Food Hygiene (General) Regulations 1970 in relation to temperature control had been
ignored which resulted in the growth of harmfull organisms.
Information was received concerning an outbreak of salmonella infection at a local hospital. A joint
investigation was undertaken with the hospital medical staff and stool specimens from a number of cases
were examined in the hospital laboratory. Positive specimens were obtained from both staff and patients for
salmonella enteritidis, but the investigation failed to disclose the vehicle of infection. The onset in most of
the cases was over a 48 hours period and this suggested the consumption of food to be the cause.
In a further outbreak two people notified as suffering from food poisoning left the country before an
investigation could be carried out and in another involving a family of four the symptoms were similar to
those associated with food poisoning but were in fact found to be the result of the inhalation of fumes from
a defective heating appliance.