Discovered: Cosmic Rays from a Mysterious, Nearby Object

Nov. 19, 2008: An international team of researchers has discovered a puzzling surplus of high-energy electrons bombarding Earth from space. The source of these cosmic rays is unknown, but it must be close to the solar system and it could be made of dark matter. Their results are being reported in the Nov. 20th issue of the journal Nature.

“This is a big discovery,” says co-author John Wefel of Louisiana State University. “It’s the first time we’ve seen a discrete source of accelerated cosmic rays standing out from the general galactic background.”

Galactic cosmic rays are subatomic particles accelerated to almost light speed by distant supernova explosions and other violent events. They swarm through the Milky Way, forming a haze of high energy particles that enter the solar system from all directions. Cosmic rays consist mostly of protons and heavier atomic nuclei with a dash of electrons and photons spicing the mix.

To study the most powerful and interesting cosmic rays, Wefel and colleagues have spent the last eight years flying a series of balloons through the stratosphere over Antarctica. Each time the payload was a NASA-funded cosmic ray detector named ATIC, short for Advanced Thin Ionization Calorimeter. The team expected ATIC to tally the usual mix of particles, mainly protons and ions, but the calorimeter found something extra: an abundance of high-energy electrons.

Wefel likens it to driving down a freeway among family sedans, mini-vans and trucks—when suddenly a bunch of Lamborghinis bursts through the normal traffic. “You don’t expect to see so many race cars on the road—or so many high-energy electrons in the mix of cosmic rays.” During five weeks of ballooning in 2000 and 2003, ATIC counted 70 excess electrons in the energy range 300-800 GeV. (“Excess” means over and above the usual number expected from the galactic background.) Seventy electrons may not sound like a great number, but like seventy Lamborghinis on the freeway, it’s a significant surplus.

Above: ATIC high-energy electron counts. The triangular curve fitted to the data comes from a model of dark-matter annihilation featuring a Kaluza-Klein particle of mass near 620 GeV. Details may be found in the Nov. 20, 2008, edition of Nature: “An excess of cosmic ray electrons at energies of 300-800 Gev,” by J. Chang et al. [Larger image]

“The source of these exotic electrons must be relatively close to the solar system—no more than a kiloparsec away,” says co-author Jim Adams of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.

Why must the source be nearby? Adams explains: “High-energy electrons lose energy rapidly as they fly through the galaxy. They give up energy in two main ways: (1) when they collide with lower-energy photons, a process called inverse Compton scattering, and (2) when they radiate away some of their energy by spiraling through the galaxy’s magnetic field.” By the time an electron has traveled a whole kiloparsec, it isn’t so ‘high energy’ any more.

High-energy electrons are therefore local. Some members of the research team believe the source could be less than a few hundred parsecs away. For comparison, the disk of the spiral Milky Way galaxy is about thirty thousand parsecs wide. (One parsec approximately equals three light years.)

“Unfortunately,” says Wefel, “we can’t pinpoint the source in the sky.” Although ATIC does measure the direction of incoming particles, it’s difficult to translate those arrival angles into celestial coordinates. For one thing, the detector was in the basket of a balloon bobbing around the South Pole in a turbulent vortex of high-altitude winds; that makes pointing tricky. Moreover, the incoming electrons have had their directions scrambled to some degree by galactic magnetic fields. “The best ATIC could hope to do is measure a general anisotropy—one side of the sky versus the other.”

Right: The ATIC cosmic ray detector ascends to the stratosphere tethered to a high-altitude research balloon. More launch images: #1, #2, #3.

This uncertainty gives free rein to the imagination. The least exotic possibilities include, e.g., a nearby pulsar, a ‘microquasar’ or a stellar-mass black hole—all are capable of accelerating electrons to these energies. It is possible that such a source lurks undetected not far away. NASA’s recently-launched Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is only just beginning to survey the sky with sufficient sensitivity to reveal some of these objects.

An even more tantalizing possibility is dark matter.

There is a class of physical theories called “Kaluza-Klein theories” which seek to reconcile gravity with other fundamental forces by positing extra dimensions. In addition to the familiar 3D of human experience, there could be as many as eight more dimensions woven into the space around us. A popular yet unproven explanation for dark matter is that dark matter particles inhabit the extra dimensions. We feel their presence via the force of gravity, but do not sense them in any other way.

How does this produce excess cosmic rays? Kaluza-Klein particles have the curious property (one of many) that they are their own anti-particle. When two collide, they annihilate one another, producing a spray of high-energy photons and electrons. The electrons are not lost in hidden dimensions, however, they materialize in the 3-dimensions of the real world where ATIC can detect them as “cosmic rays.”

“Our data could be explained by a cloud or clump of dark matter in the neighborhood of the solar system,” says Wefel. “In particular, there is a hypothesized Kaluza-Klein particle with a mass near 620 GeV which, when annihilated, should produce electrons with the same spectrum of energies we observed.”

Testing this possibility is nontrivial because dark matter is so, well, dark. But it may be possible to find the cloud by looking for other annihilation products, such as gamma-rays. Again, the Fermi Space Telescope may have the best chance of pinpointing the source.

“Whatever it is,” says Adams, “it’s going to be amazing.”

For more information about this research, see “An excess of cosmic ray electrons at energies of 300-800 Gev,” by J. Chang et al. in the Nov. 20, 2008, issue of Nature.

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/19nov_cosmicrays.htm?list889783

EU clashes on authorising Monsanto GM soybean

BRUSSELS, Nov 19 (Reuters) – EU farm ministers fell short of a consensus agreement on Wednesday to allow imports of a genetically modified (GM) soybean developed by Monsanto (MON.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), paving the way for a default approval, an EU official said.

The soybean, a second-generation GM product known by its code number MON 89788 and commercially as Roundup RReady2Yield, is designed to resist glyphosate Roundup Ready herbicides and produce increased yields for farmers.

Monsanto’s application for European Union approval is for its use in food and feed, not for growing in European fields.

The application will now return to the European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm, and most probably will receive a default 10-year approval in the coming weeks.

EU law allows for rubber-stamp GMO authorisations when ministers cannot agree after a certain time. Since 2004, the Brussels-based Commission has approved a string of GM products, nearly all maize, in this way, outraging green groups.

Monsanto’s approval request landed on the ministers’ agenda after a meeting of EU national experts in September also failed to reach agreement under the complex EU weighted voting system.

There were 13 countries in favour of approval: Belgium, Britain, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, the Czech Republic and Netherlands.

Eight voted against — Austria, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta and Poland. The rest abstained.

Europe’s livestock and feed manufacturing industries have a keen interest in the EU authorising more soybean imports since they depend heavily on shipments of soy products — beans, meal — as a source of protein-rich and high-quality feed.

EU countries produce a minimal amount of soybeans in terms of overall EU consumption, so imports are crucial. Soybean meal is the primary source of protein for the EU animal feed market, representing more than 60 percent of vegetable protein.

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSLJ62153620081119

Four bodies found in Toronto house, police say

TORONTO — Toronto police have sealed off a street in the east end of the city where four bodies have been found inside a house.

Police, however, have not yet indicated if they are dealing with a quadruple homicide or if a suicide might be involved.

“Officers from the homicide squad are on scene.” Constable Tony Vella. “It’s a large scale investigation.”

While police did not initially confirm any arrests, a neighbour said police took a man away from the scene in handcuffs.

It was too early to release any information about the ages or genders of the four people or the causes of death, Constable Vella added.

“We’re waiting for officers on scene to give us a call to give us an update,” he said.

The house on Welwyn Avenue is in the middle of a residential neighbourhood marked by bungalows.

One media report said a couple in their 50s lived in the home with their son, who is in his 30s.

Police responded to a call about 8:20 a.m.

There was no information yet on whether any arrests had been made or if police have any suspects, Constable Vella said.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081119.whomicide1119/BNStory/National/home

Lesbians, condoms go wild in attack on Christian church

Worshippers at a Bible-teaching church in Lansing, Mich., were stunned Sunday when members of a pro-homosexual, pro-anarchy organization named Bash Back interrupted their service to fling propaganda and condoms around the sanctuary, drape a profane banner from the balcony and feature two lesbians making out at the pulpit.

According to a blog posting by Nick De Leeuw on Right Michigan, the Bash Back organization orchestrated a protest in front of Mount Hope Church to draw the church’s security staff away from the sanctuary.

Then Bash Backers who had dressed up and mixed in with church worshippers took action.

According to De Leeuw, “Prayer had just finished when men and women stood up in pockets across the congregation, on the main floor and in the balcony.

“‘Jesus was gay,’ they shouted among other profanities and blasphemies as they rushed the stage. Some forced their way through rows of women and kids to try to hang a profane banner from the balcony while others began tossing fliers into the air. Two women made their way to the pulpit and began to kiss,” he wrote.

He cited the Bash Back organization’s own announcement of other items members brought into the church, including “a megaphone, noise makers, condoms, glitter by the bucket load, confetti, pink fabric. …”

According to the alternative Lansing City Pulse – which reported it was notified of the protest ahead of time and sent a reporter along instead of warning the church – the protesters also screamed at parishioners and pulled the church facility’s fire alarm. Printed material protesters distributed said, “We specialize in confronting homophobia, transphobia and every and all other forms of oppression.”

The report said Bash Back issued a statement today confirming it targeted Mount Hope, which has about 5,000 church participants, because it participates in “the repression of queers.”

On the newspaper’s forum page, a contributor commented, “Homosexuals and anarchists. A perfect combination of human beings with no hope, no morals, no future.”

Many demonstrators fled and the rest were quiet after sheriff’s officers were summoned.

“Mount Hope churchgoers were unclear as to what the purpose of the demonstration was,” said a statement from David Williams, a spokesman for the church.

“The leadership of Mount Hope Church does not attempt to identify the church as anti-homosexual, anti-choice, or right wing. The church does take the Bible at face value and believes what the Bible says to be the truth,” Williams’ statement continued.

“According to the Bible, Mount Hope Church believes homosexuality to be a sin, just as fornication, stealing, drunkenness, and lying are sins. No sin greater than the next. Mount Hope Church strives to follow Jesus’ example of loving the sinner but not the sin while helping people change their lives for God’s glory and their improved quality of life. Mount Hope Church also recognizes that to each person God grants freewill.”

The church then offered help for people “caught up in unwanted sexual sin, drug abuse, and many other areas.”

De Leeuw reported “the ‘open minded’ and ‘tolerant’ liberals ran down the aisles and across the pews, hoping against hope to catch a ‘right winger’ on tape daring to push back (none did).

“This is what we’re up against,” De Leeuw wrote. “Amidst worshiping congregants and following unifying prayers that our president-elect be granted wisdom as he prepares to lead our nation through difficult global, social and economic challenges, the Michigan left declared open war on peaceful churchgoers.

“Mount Hope, for the record, is an evangelical, Bible believing church whose members provide free 24-hour counseling, prayer lines, catastrophic care for families dealing with medical emergencies, support groups for men, women and children dealing with a wide variety of life’s troubles, crisis intervention, marriage ministries, regular, organized volunteer work in and around the city, missions in dozens of countries across the globe, a construction ministry that has built over 100 churches, schools, orphanages and other projects all over the world and an in-depth prison ministry that reaches out, touches and helps the men and women the rest of society fears the most. They also teach respect for all human life and the Biblical sanctity of marriage as an institution between one man and one woman,” De Leeuw wrote.

“The church’s response? After things settled down, the blasphemy ended, the lewd props removed and the families safe from fear of additional men and women running into and past them the pastor took the stage and led the congregation in one more prayer … not for retribution, or divine justice or a celestial comeuppance (that’s what I’d have prayed for) but instead that the troubled individuals who’d just defiled the Lord’s house, so full of anger and hate, would know Jesus’ love in their lives and God’s peace that exceeds human understanding,” De Leeuw wrote.

His blog attracted dozens of comments, including one that said it was just as well the protesters hadn’t picked his church.

“It was well within the church members’ rights to respond with non-lethal force to put an immediate end to this assault. It this happened in my house, I’d have every right to throw someone out a window or two.”

In a statement posted on the Internet, Bash Back confirmed its “operatives” were in the service, “stood up, declared themselves fags, and began screaming loudly. … Another group threw over a thousand fliers to the entire … congregation. The fire alarm was pulled. Queers began making out in front of the pastor. And within a matter of minutes, everyone had evaded the guards and made their escapes.”

The statement continued, “Let is be known: So long as bigots kill us in the streets, this pack of wolves will continue to BASH BACK!”

The report comes just a day after video documentation of pro-homosexual protesters in California challenging a 69-year-old woman to a fight because she was affirming the biblical perspective of homosexuality.

“This screaming and shouting, name-calling and pushing by homosexual activists is not unlike a small child throwing a fit because he doesn’t get his way,” said Randy Thomasson, chief of the Campaign for Children and Families, a leading California-based pro-family group. “The public is getting a clue that homosexual activists don’t like democracy and are willing to trample anyone and anything that gets in their way.”

California voters by nearly 53 percent to 47 percent last week adopted a state constitutional amendment limiting marriage to one man and one woman.

Thomasson also has issued an analysis and a challenge called “How Shall We Live Under President-Elect Obama?” in which he describes the “moral free fall” encompassing the United States.

“America’s greatness has been in people’s self responsiblity, strong work ethic, moral character and knowledge of the proper role of government. But now a majority of Americans don’t have these virtues and don’t vote according to moral standards,” he said.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/?pageId=80743

FDA silence on latest cancer cure

It works 100% of the time to eradicate cancer completely, and cancer does not recur even years later. That is how researchers describe the most convincing cancer cure ever announced.

The weekly injection of just 100 billionths of a gram of a harmless glyco-protein (a naturally-produced molecule with a sugar component and a protein component) activates the human immune system and cures cancer for good, according to human studies among breast cancer and colon cancer patients, producing complete remissions lasting 4 and 7 years respectively. This glyco-protein cure is totally without side effect but currently goes unused by cancer doctors.

Normal Gc protein (also called Vitamin-D binding protein) , an abundant glyco-protein found in human blood serum, becomes the molecular switch to activate macrophages when it is converted to its active form, called Gc macrophage activating factor (Gc-MAF). Gc protein is normally activated by conversion to Gc-MAF with the help of the B and T cells (bone marrow-made and thymus gland-made white blood cells). But, as researchers explain it themselves, cancer cells secrete an enzyme known as alpha-N-acetylgalactosaminidase (also called Nagalase) that completely blocks conversion of Gc protein to Gc-MAF, preventing tumor-cell killing by the macrophages. This is the way cancer cells escape detection and destruction, by disengaging the human immune system. This also leaves cancer patients prone to infections and many then succumb to pneumonia or other infections.

The once-weekly injection of minute amounts of Gc-MAF, just 100 nanograms (billionths of a gram), activates macrophages and allows the immune system to pursue cancer cells with vigor, sufficient to produce total long-term cures in humans.

Nobuto Yamamoto, director of the Division of Cancer Immunology and Molecular Biology, Socrates Institute for Therapeutic Immunology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, says this is “probably the most potent macrophage activating factor ever discovered.”

Once a sufficient number of activated macrophages are produced, another Gc-MAF injection is not needed for a week because macrophages have a half-life of about six days. After 16-22 weekly doses of Gc-MAF the amount of Nagalase enzyme fell to levels found in healthy people, which serves as evidence tumors have been completely eliminated. The treatment was fool-proof – - – it worked in 100% of 16 breast cancer patients and there were no recurrent tumors over a period of 4 years, says a report in the January 15 issue of the International Journal of Cancer. [International Journal Cancer.2008 January15; 122(2):461-7]

In another startling follow-up report by Dr. Yamamoto and colleagues, published in the upcoming July issue of Cancer Immunology Immunotherapy, Gc-MAF therapy totally abolished tumors in 8 colon cancer patients who had already undergone surgery but still exhibited circulating cancer cells (metastases). After 32-50 weekly injections, ”all colorectal cancer patients exhibited healthy control levels of the serum Nagalase activity, indicating eradication of metastatic tumor cells,”said researchers, an effect that lasted 7 years with no indication of cancer recurrence either by enzyme activity or CT scans, said researchers. [Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy Volume 57, Number 7 / July 2008] Published in an early online edition of this journal, this confirming report has received no attention by the new media so far, despite its striking importance.

Gc-MAF treatment for cancer has been agonizingly slow to develop. Dr. Yamamoto first described this immuno-therapy in 1993. [The Journal of Immunology, 1993 151 (5); 2794-2802]

In a similar animal experiment published in 2003, researchers in Germany, Japan and the United States collaborated to successfully demonstrate that after they had injected macrophage activating factor (Gc-MAF) into tumor-bearing mice, it totally eradicated tumors. [Neoplasia 2003 January; 5(1): 32–40]

In 1997 Dr. Yamamoto injected GcMAF protein into tumor-bearing mice, with the same startling results. A single enzyme injection doubled the survival of these mice and just four enzyme injections increased survival by 6-fold. [Cancer Research 1997 Jun 1; 57(11):2187-92]

In 1996 Dr. Yamamoto reported that all 52 cancer patients he had studied carried elevated blood plasma levels of the immune inactivating alpha-N-acetylgalactosaminidase enzyme (Nagalase), whereas healthy humans had very low levels of this enzyme. [Cancer Research 1996 Jun 15; 56(12):2827-31]

In the early 1990s, Dr. Yamamoto first described how the human immune system is disengaged by enzymes secreted from cancer cells, even filing a patent on the proposed therapy. [US Patent 5326749, July 1994; Cancer Research 1996 June 15; 56: 2827-31]

Activated Gc protein has been used in humans at much higher doses without side effect. This Gc macrophage activating factor (Gc-MAF) has been shown to be effective against a variety of cancers including breast, prostate, stomach, liver, lung, uterus, ovary, brain, skin, head/neck cancer, and leukemia.

Although GcMAF is also called Vitamin-D binding protein, the activation of macrophages does not require Vitamin D.

It cannot be said the Gc-MAF cancer cure has gone unheralded. Reuters News covered this developing story in January. But the news story still did not receive top billing nor did it fully elucidate the importance of the discovery, actually made years ago, that the human body is capable of abolishing cancer once its immune system is properly activated.

GcMAF is a naturally made molecule and is not patentable, though its manufacturing process is patent protected. There is no evidence of any current effort to commercialize this therapy or put it into practice. Should such an effective treatment for cancer come into common practice, the income stream from health-insurance plans for every oncology office and cancer center in the world Would likely be reduced to the point of financial insolvency and hundreds of thousands of jobs would be eliminated.

The National Cancer Institute estimates cancer care in the U.S. costs ~$72 billion annually (2004). Furthermore, about $55 billion of cancer drugs are used annually, none which have not significantly improved survival rates throughout the history of their use. If a typical cancer patient had to undergo 30 GcMAF injections at a cost of $150 per injection, that would cost ~$4500, not counting doctor’s office visits and follow-up testing. For comparison, gene-targeted cancer drugs range from $13,000 to $100,000 in cost per year and produce only marginal improvements in survival (weeks to months). [Targeted Oncology 2007 April, 2 (2); 113-19]

Up to this point, the National Cancer Institute is totally silent on this discovery and there is no evidence the cancer care industry plans to quickly mobilize to use this otherwise harmless treatment.

Addendum: Sadly, the treatment you have just read about is not available anywhere. Its inventor is attempting to patent a version of it to profiteer off of it even though there is no need to improve upon the GcMAF molecule – - it worked without failure to completely cure four different types of cancer with no long-term remissions and without side effect. While GcMAF is produced by every healthy adult, there are no centers available to extract it from blood samples and inject it into patients with malignancies. Hopefully, someday, doctors will write protocols to do this and submit them to institutional review boards so GcMAF treatment can be performed on an experimental basis. GcMAF is a naturally-made molecule that cannot be patented. This article was written to reveal that there are proven cancer cures that go unused. Of interest, not one oncologist has requested information about GcMAF since this article was written, while I have been barraged with inquires from cancer patients, their families and some interested physicians who are not cancer doctors.

http://www.thenhf.com/articles/articles_792/articles_792.htm

Tainted meats point to superbug C. diff in food

*American meat…gross.*

A potentially deadly intestinal germ increasingly found in hospitals is also showing up in a more unsavory setting: grocery store meats.

More than 40 percent of packaged meats sampled from three Arizona chain stores tested positive for Clostridium difficile, a gut bug known as C. diff., according to newly complete analysis of 2006 data collected by a University of Arizona scientist.

Nearly 30 percent of the contaminated samples of ground beef, pork and turkey and ready-to-eat meats like summer sausage were identical or closely related to a super-toxic strain of C. diff blamed for growing rates of illness and death in the U.S. — raising the possibility that the bacterial infections may be transmitted through food.

“These data suggest that domestic animals, by way of retail meats, may be a source of C. difficile for human infection,” said J. Glenn Songer, a professor of veterinary science at the Tucson school, who talked with msnbc.com about work now under review by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But specialists from the CDC and scientists who study C. diff said the connection between the presence of C. diff bacteria and infection has not been established and that there’s not enough evidence about food transmission to warrant public alarm.

“There are no documented cases of people getting Clostridium difficile infection from eating food that contains C. difficile,” said Dr. L. Clifford McDonald, chief of prevention and response for a division of the CDC. “However, because C. difficile has been found in some retail meats, that possibility does exist.”

Songer’s samples included brands sold in grocery stores across the nation. Contamination ranged from 41 percent of pork products and 44 percent of turkey products to 50 percent of ground beef samples and more than 62 percent of samples of braunschweiger, a type of liverwurst.

Nearly three-quarters of the C. diff spores were toxinotype V, a type linked to illness in pigs and calves and, increasingly, in humans, Songer noted.

80 percent of infections occur in hospitals
C. diff has long been a common, usually benign bug associated with simple, easily treated diarrhea in older patients in hospitals and nursing homes. About 3 percent of healthy adults harbor the bacteria with no problem. But overuse of antibiotics has allowed the germ to develop resistance in recent years, doctors said, creating the toxic new type that stumps traditional treatment.

About 80 percent of C. difficile infections now occur in hospital or health care settings — and the number of infections is rising. About 13 in every 1,000 hospital patients is infected or colonized with the bacteria, a rate between 6.5 and 20 times higher than previously estimated, according to figures released last week by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, or APIC.

Every day, those infections likely cost $32 million, on average, and claim more than 300 lives, the study showed.

Especially worrisome has been a new, more virulent strain, called NAP1, which produces about 20 times the toxins of ordinary strains. It can cause severe, repeated diarrhea that resists all but the most powerful drugs. In worst cases, C. diff infection can destroy the colon and lead to blood poisoning and death.

It’s not clear, however, where the remaining infections — those that occur outside health settings, in the community — originate. Recent victims have included a 10-year-old girl with no history of antibiotic use who became very ill but recovered and a 31-year-old woman pregnant with twins who spontaneously aborted her babies and then died after becoming infected, according to a 2005 review by the CDC.

“For these community-associated sources, there has to be a source outside the hospitals,” Songer said. “It may well be that retail meats are a source or the main source.”

C. diff is a tricky bug, hard to kill with anything but bleach in the hospital and able to survive most cooking techniques in the kitchen. And, unlike scary infections like E. coli 0157:H7, which has transmitted illness through foods from ground beef to fresh spinach, C. diff can’t be traced quickly to its source.

“With difficile, you can eat a nice, thick braunschweiger sandwich today, then two weeks from now you get strep throat, take antibiotics and develop difficile-related disease,” Songer explained. “You’re weeks separated from the event.”

Songer detected C. diff in every type of meat he tested, including uncooked ground beef, pork and turkey; pork sausage and chorizo; and ready-to-eat products including beef summer sausage and pork braunschweiger, a spreadable liver sausage luncheon meat.

He collected 88 samples of retail packaged meats bought from large chain stores near Tucson on three occasions during a two-month period in 2006. Earlier analysis indicated that about 30 percent of samples showed C. diff, but that percentage increased under closer review, Songer said.

Thirty-seven of the samples, or nearly 42 percent, showed evidence of C. diff, including about 40 percent of the cooked products and nearly 48 percent of the ready-to-eat products.

Contamination could be nationwide
All of the samples collected were national brands available in grocery stores across the country, except the pork chorizo, which was locally made. Songer declined to identify the specific brands, saying that it would unfairly target a single producer when the problem is likely endemic to all.

“My perspective on this is not to blow the whistle on the meat production or meat processing agencies but to point out that we may have a problem and if we do we should work together to solve it,” he said.

At least one meat industry official said Songer’s findings served as a warning to producers, but that the research hasn’t been replicated. Liz Wagstrom, assistant vice president of science and technology for the National Pork Board, said she’s awaiting confirmation from the CDC and other sources.

“I feel very confident in the safety of our product,” she said. “If there is any animal-to-human transmission, it is a very small part of the picture.”

James “Bo” Reagan, chairman of the Beef Industry Food Safety Council, declined to discuss specific strategies for addressing C. diff. Instead, in an e-mail to msnbc.com, he said beef producers have spent $27 million on research to identify new food safety technologies and processes.

“Our efforts have resulted in new safeguards throughout the beef production chain and we continue to work with our partners in beef production to find ways to ensure beef is safe,” Reagan wrote in an e-mail.

‘Yes, it’s there’
Songer’s study follows a 2007 report in the CDC journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, which showed Canadian researchers detected C. diff in 12 — or 20 percent — of 60 retail meat samples collected in 2005.

Neither report, however, definitively answers questions about C. diff in the food supply, said the study’s lead researcher J. Scott Weese, an associate professor of pathobiology at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada.

“Yes, it’s there,” he said. “But we need to find out how much is there.”

Processed meats like those Songer studied may be more likely to show contamination because they combine sources of meat and because they require more handling than, for instance, a pork chop from a single pig, Weese said.

In addition, scientists don’t know when C. diff exposure sparks infection in people — or how much of a dose is necessary to cause infection, said Dr. Dale N. Gerding, a national expert in C. diff epidemiology and a professor with the Stritch School of Medicine at Loyola University in Chicago.

“With a real susceptible source, it only takes a few spores,” he said.

Bug might be in water, soil — even vegetables
But Gerding also noted that C. diff has been found in many places other than hospitals and meat counters, including water sources and soil.

“We actually wouldn’t know if a carrot in the dirt would have it just as much as hamburger,” Gerding said.

That’s little comfort to Mary Woodard, 51, of Rock Falls, Ill., whose 6-year-old granddaughter, Nichole Lilly, contracted a C. diff infection in October. The child hadn’t had antibiotics for six months and she’d been nowhere near a hospital or health center. But she wound up doubled over on the floor with severe cramps and diarrhea for nearly two weeks, until a clinic cultured her stool and diagnosed the illness.

Woodard is scared the infection will return, or that it will strike one of her other grandchildren. Word that C. diff has been detected in meat made Woodard think twice, despite CDC assurances to the contrary.

“I’ll cut back, probably, on my meat eating,” she said. “After seeing her with the bad cramping, I don’t want to see her like that again.”

Most consumers worried about C. diff infection should pay closest attention to hospitals and health care settings, Gerding said. Lax hand hygiene, improperly cleaned hospital rooms and overuse of antibiotics are far more likely to transmit C. diff than food products.

Although C. diff spores can be hard to kill, even Songer said most healthy consumers don’t need to change their diets because of the bug.

“To bring it right down to personal terms, I haven’t changed my eating habits one bit,” said Songer, who admits he’s a lifelong braunschweiger fan. “I’ve got about 40 pounds in my freezer that I’m eating.”

Further research will clarify the link between C. diff detection in food animals and infection in humans, Gerding said.

“The connection between the animal, the food and the disease has not been made,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean it’s not there.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27774614