专家建议浇地或降雨24小时后再收获农产品以防止细菌

    American researchers say farmers should wait one day after a rain storm or watering their fields to harvest fresh fruits and vegetables. They say gathering the crops at least 24 hours after rainfall increases food safety. They say it also may be enough to protect those eating from fresh produce from food borne illnesses.
    美国研究人员表示,农民们应该在暴雨或浇地一天之后再收获他们的新鲜水果和蔬菜。他们说,在降雨24小时之后收获作物能提升食品安全。这可能也足以预防食用这些新鲜农产品的人患上
    食源性疾病。

    Listeria is a food borne bacteria. It grows best in wet conditions. Poisoning with Listeria monocytogenes can cause muscle pain. The person can also feel sick to the stomach and even experience diarrhea – the uncontrolled expulsion of wastes from the body.
    利斯特菌是一种食源性细菌。它在潮湿环境下生长。利斯特菌中毒会造成肌肉疼痛。中毒者还会感觉胃部不适甚至发生腹泻。

    Listeria can be a serious health threat for pregnant women and older adults. It can also threaten people with weak immune systems, like those with HIV, the virus responsible for the disease AIDS.
    利斯特菌对孕妇和老年人来说是一种严重的健康威胁。它还能威胁免疫系统薄弱的人群,像艾滋病毒携带人群。

    The bacterium is everywhere in the environment, but usually grows in water. So, crops that are harvested shortly after they have been watered are likely to contain unsafe levels of disease-causing Listeria.
    这种细菌在环境中无处不在,但是它们通常生活在水中。所以,被浇灌不久之后就收获的农作物可能会携带不安全水平的致病利斯特菌。

    Martin Wiedmann teaches food safety at Cornell University in New York State. He and other researchers are urging farmers to wait 24 hours after a rainfall or watering fields before they harvest crops. By waiting, he says, a field has enough time to dry out.
    马丁·韦德曼(Martin Wiedmann)在纽约州康奈尔大学教授食品安全。他和其他研究人员正督促农民们在降雨或浇地后等待24小时再收获农作物。通过等待,田地就有足够时间变干。

    "You're more likely to find Listeria for a very short time. After one day, it drops back more or less to the baseline normal level that we find (in the environment). So, we found this effect in water, but it's very short-lived. Within a day, you are back to normal."
    他说,“在短时间内你更可能发现利斯特菌。一天之后它就会降回正常水平甚至低于环境基本水平。所以我们发现了水的影响,但它很短暂。在一天之内就能恢复正常。”

    The findings were reported in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.
    这项研究结果发表在《应用与环境微生物学》杂志上。

    In crops like spinach, Listeria levels were 25 times greater when harvested immediately after the plants were watered.
    像菠菜这种作物,在浇灌后立即收获这种作物,利斯特菌水平要高出25倍。

    Martin Wiedmann says the bacterium can also be found in sandwich meat, especially when the meat is not kept to minus-four or minus-five degrees Celsius. He says there are a number of other settings where unsafe levels of Listeria can hide.
    韦德曼表示,这种细菌也在三明治肉馅中被发现,特别是当肉没有保存在零下四、五度的时候。他说,还有一些情况会隐藏着不安全水平的利斯特菌。

    "And so it's important to have the tools in place to control this organism everywhere from primary production, to food processing plants to retail, to helping consumers make smart decisions on what foods to eat and how to cook food."
    “所以让各种工具到位,控制这种从初级产品到食品加工厂到零售环节随处可见的微生物,从而帮助消费者就吃什么和如何烹饪食物做出明智选择,这点非常重要。”

    Martin Wiedmann notes that Listeria poisoning is less common in developing countries. In such areas, he adds, foods generally are not left in iceboxes or refrigeration equipment, another source of bacterial overgrowth.
    韦德曼指出,利斯特菌中毒在发展中国家并不常见。他补充说,在这些地区,食品一般不会保存在冰箱或制冷设备中,这是细菌过度生长的另一个来源。

    I'm Marsha James.
    我是玛莎·詹姆斯。(51VOA.COM对本文翻译保留全部权利,未经授权请勿转载,违者必究!)