Tauxe believes that there are a number of factors helping the
decline. “Among them is a change in the way that food safety in
meat slaughter, animal slaughter and processing is managed,” he
explained. In 1997 the Department of Agriculture began
implementing a new pathogen-reduction strategy for regulating
meat and poultry slaughter and processing plants, and these
declines in Yersinia, Listeria, Campylobacter and Salmonella are
happening at the same time, Tauxe said. However, Tauxe cautioned
that not all infections are decreasing. “We have not observed a
sustained decline in E. coli O157. And some strains of
Salmonella are actually increasing, while others are going
down.” Dr. Merle Pierson, deputy undersecretary of food safety
for the USDA, said that HACCP implementations have driven down
the prevalence of Salmonella. “We are strongly encouraging
specific interventions for raw meat and poultry in order to
further reduce the level and incidence of pathogens such as
Salmonella in these products. We feel that t