BOTULISM, NATIVE FOODS - USA: (ALASKA) 2007
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A ProMED-mail post
http://www.promedmail.org
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
http://www.isid.org
Date: 9 Aug 2008
Source: Anchorage Daily News [edited]
http://www.adn.com/life/story/488403.html
Rural Alaskans continued to experience a high rate of food-borne
infections, including botulism ... 10 cases of botulism were reported
in Alaska in 2007.
All but one of the botulism cases occurred in Southwest Alaska,
according to the state epidemiology section. Each case was traced to
traditionally prepared Alaska Native foods, including specific
problems with fermented beluga, fermented beaver tail, fermented seal
flipper, seal blubber, whale blubber and fermented fish heads. One
person died from botulism.
[Byline: George Bryson gbryson@adn.com
—
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail promed@promedmail.org
[Botulism is a rare but serious paralytic illness caused by a nerve
toxin that is produced by the bacterium _Clostridium botulinum_.
Foodborne botulism is caused by eating foods that contain the
botulism toxin. Foodborne botulism can be especially dangerous
because many people can be poisoned by eating a contaminated food.
Foodborne botulism has often been from home-canned foods with low
acid content, such as asparagus, green beans, beets and corn.
However, outbreaks of botulism also occur from more unusual sources,
such as chopped garlic in oil, chile peppers, tomatoes, carrot juice,
improperly handled baked potatoes wrapped in aluminum foil, and
home-canned or fermented fish. Persons who do home canning should
follow strict hygienic procedures to reduce contamination of foods.
Oils infused with garlic or herbs should be refrigerated. Potatoes
which have been baked while wrapped in aluminum foil should be kept
hot until served or refrigerated. Because the botulism toxin is
destroyed by high temperatures, persons who eat home-canned foods
should consider boiling the food for 10 minutes before eating it to
ensure safety; 9 of the 10 botulism cases in Alaska have been from
home-prepared food.
Portions of this comment have been extracted from
http://www.cdc.gov/nczved/dfbmd/disease_listing/botulism_gi.html
- Mod.TG
Location map of Alaska:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/LocationAlaska.png
State map of Alaska:
http://www.paleoresearch.com/Maps/USA%20States/Pics/Alaska.gif
Recipe for fermented seal flipper — Oogruk is the Inuit (Eskimo) name
for the Bearded Seal, _Erignathus barbatus_:
http://www.grouprecipes.com/12276/oogruk-flippers.html
Image of bearded seal, _Erignathus barbatus_:
http://instruct.uwo.ca/biology/342f/bearded%20seal.jpg
- Mod.JW]
Ummm. Fermented seal flipper. NOT! I’ll never understand what possesses people to eat such strange things—but then I can’t see eating my friends either—horses/dogs/goats. OTOH, I have no problem with cows/pigs/chickens. Guess it’s what you were raised with. lol
They say time flies when you’re having fun—must be having tons of it!
