Friday’s House Floor Amendment Poses Health Risks for Texans Who Eat Raw Oysters

May 6, 1999

Contact:
Reggie James
(512) 477-4431

Friday’s House floor amendment poses
health risks for Texans who eat raw oysters

AUSTIN, TX — A floor amendment to be introduced in the House on Friday to a bill regulating oysters could subject Texans to a higher risk of infection from bacteria that causes acute gastroenteritis, Consumers Union said today.

The amendment to HB 1971, by Rep. Zeb Zbranek, D-Winnie, would limit the ability of the Texas Department of Health (TDH) to respond adequately to illness related to the Vibrio parahaemolyticus bacteria. Vibrio infections occur more frequently during the summer months when water temperatures and salinity levels are higher. According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a person can become ill from eating a single infected oyster.

Last year, hundreds of people in Texas and in a dozen other states became ill after eating oysters. Of the more than 400 cases in the Galveston Bay area, fourteen people were hospitalized. Those affected were typically sick for five days with serious diarrhea, nausea and cramping; some also suffered fevers.

"We remain convinced that the amendment currently on the table will not adequately protect public health," said Reggie James, director of the Consumers Union Southwest Regional Office, in a letter to Rep. Zbranek.

The anticipated floor amendment would:

• Require TDH to close harvest areas based on standards that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has deemed to be "not sufficiently protective of public health."
• Mandates the TDH to reopen oyster harvest areas if 25 shellfish meat samples from a harvest area do not contain the strain of pathogen that caused the infection. A virulent strain of the bacteria is rare, and will probably not be detected by such a small sample.
• Eliminates TDH’s ability to keep a harvesting area closed after an outbreak if the Department determines that environmental conditions are still conducive to the growth and spread of the bacteria, but the bacteria is not found in the 25 shellfish meat samples.
• Requires TDH to reopen the bay even if virulent strains of Vibrio parahaemolyticus are found in samples, the strain is not the one that caused the outbreak.

"We believe the best way to preserve the integrity of our public health system is to allow the Texas Department of Health to base its determination of bay closures and reopening on a combination of statistically significant sampling and environmental monitoring," James said. He added that if it is too costly to collect and test a statistically significant sample of oysters that shows confidence that bay oysters are safe once again, then TDH should be allowed to keep the Bay close until salinity and temperature are less conducive to the spread of the bacteria.

According to a report by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, people who ate raw oysters were aware of the risks associated with their consumption, as well as of the seasonality of Vibrios. Those who became ill from eating oysters used the rationale that: 1) they had never been sick from eating raw oysters before, and 2) they perceived that if a restaurant serves oysters it must be safe.

"While most people know the risks from eating raw oysters may be higher in the summer, they assume that the oysters served to them in a restaurant or purchased fresh from their local grocery are safe," James said. "They assume this because we have a reasonably effective public health system designed to respond quickly to an outbreak and ensure that once oysters are again available, they are again safe."

Facts About Sickness from Oysters

• Most meats are cooked before eating. Some, like chicken, must be cooked thoroughly because they contain bacterium that make people sick. Oysters are frequently eaten raw, and therefore must be harvested and handled with particular care for the public health.
• Vibrio parahaemolyticus (Vp) is a naturally occurring bacterium that causes acute gastroenteritis (diarrhea, nausea, vomiting) that typically lasts five days. In 1997 and 1998, this pathogen-transmitted primarily by eating raw oysters-caused sickness in hundreds of people in the Pacific Northwest and along the Gulf Coast, and fourteen people were hospitalized.
• Investigations of the Texas outbreak demonstrated a direct relationship between illness and raw oyster consumption. More than 400 illnesses were associated with Galveston Bay oysters. Accounts from some patients indicated that illness may result from the consumption of a single infected oyster, suggesting the possibility of a highly virulent strain. This is a significant new public health concern.
• Because this is a naturally occurring pathogen, it is likely to multiply in warm Gulf Coast waters as long as the environmental conditions are right. TDH doesn’t know the pathogen is there until people start getting sick. According to the Centers for Disease Control, Vibrio infections are more common in the summer months when water temperatures and salinity levels are higher. Although people who eat raw oysters in the summer are generally aware of the higher risks, they eat them anyway because they assume that food served in a restaurant or grocery is safe.
• The Texas Department of Health responds to reports of food borne illness by investigating the immediate source of the food. TDH looks at refrigeration and other possible reasons why the food might have been bad. If the Department gets two or more reports of illness, and the oysters come from different places and got there by different transportation routes, then it is likely that the pathogen originates in the Gulf coast harvest area. TDH closes the oyster harvest until it can determine that the shellfish will be safe to eat again.
• According to FDA, the Interim Control Plan for Vibrio parahaemolyticus developed by the Interstate Shellfish Sanitation Conference is not sufficiently protective of public health, and therefore it should not be used as the basis for Bay closures. TDH should continue to investigate cases of food borne illness as it currently does, and close the Bay when it finds cases that originate in the Gulf rather than in restaurants or distributors.
• In the case of last year’s outbreak, the oyster industry voluntarily closed the harvest areas twelve days after TDH first became aware of an outbreak. Late in the summer, the oyster harvesters felt the Bay should be reopened.
• The determination to reopen a harvest area is very difficult. A virulent strain of the Vp pathogen might be rare, and therefore rarely show up in samples of shellfish picked randomly from the bay. However, once harvesting begins again there could be hundreds of tainted oysters-leading to hundreds of illnesses-in the tens of thousands of oysters harvested for restaurants and grocery stores across the state.
• TDH must look at sampling data, but it also must be able to analyze environmental and other conditions that might indicate the continued presence of Vp, and reopen the bay when all factors taken into consideration together indicate that oysters will be safe to eat again.

MEMO

Date: May 5, 1999

Re: HB 1971

Thank you for working with us to try and find common ground where the needs of the oyster industry and our public health concerns could be resolved together.

Unfortunately, we have been unable to find that common ground. We remain convinced that the amendment currently on the table will not adequately protect public health. Therefore, we will actively oppose any attempt to amend HB 1971 to institute the Interim Control Plan for Bay closures and the proposed sampling requirements for reopening.

As you well know, hundreds of people in Texas and in a dozen other states became ill last year after eating oysters. These people were typically sick for five days with serious diarrhea, nausea, and cramping. Some suffered fevers. Fourteen were hospitalized. Research by the Department of Health indicates that a person can become ill from eating a single infected oyster.

While there is certainly a need for additional research on the conditions that spur the growth of this pathogen, we believe that certain things are reasonably well understood. Vibrio infections are more common during the summer months when the water is warmer and saltier. Most people, while they know that the risks from eating raw oysters may be higher in the summer, assume that the oysters served to them in a restaurant, or purchased fresh from their local grocery, are safe. They assume this because we have a reasonably effective public health system designed to respond quickly to an outbreak, and ensure that once oysters are again available, they are again safe.

We believe the best way to preserve the integrity of our public health system is to allow the Texas Department of Health to base its determination of bay closures and reopening on a combination of statistically significant sampling and environmental monitoring. If it is cost prohibitive to collect and test a statistically significant sample of oysters that will show with confidence that bay oysters are safe once again, then the Department must be allowed to keep the bay closed until salinity and temperature are less conducive to the spread of the pathogen.

Thank you for working with us on this issue, and we hope we can work with you on this again in the future.