Eighty-six people at a St. Patrick’s Day celebration developed diarrhea, cramps, and vomiting after eating a traditional dinner of corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, and ice cream. Symptoms appeared within 10 hours of eating, on average. Of those afflicted, 85 had eaten corned beef and one had not. The corned beef had been cooked in an oven the day before the event, stored in the refrigerator, and sliced and placed under heat lamps 1½ hours before serving.
a. Use this information to diagnose the food poisoning agent.
b. What sorts of lab tests could one do to verify it as this bacterium?
c. What would you have done to prevent this incident?