Achievement V – Methods for breaking the transmission of pathogens along the food chain

Abstract

Traditionally the focus for control of food-borne disease has been bacteria. During the last decade viruses have emerged as important sources of food borne human disease. Since the traditional bacteriological indicators, are not reliable for viral contamination, new methods are needed. PCR has enhanced the detection of virus in food. A challenge for developing detection reliable methods for viruses in food is that food matrices vary in composition, high sequence variability and inhibitors may be present. Therefore it is necessary to develop assays that have high diagnostic sensitivity, are broad and robust, and combine sample concentration and removal of inhibitors.

New approaches in microbial pathogen detection

“…The sensitivity and specifi city of RT-PCR assays depends mainly on primer selection (Atmar and Estes, 2001). The major obstacle in NV detection with PCR arises from the very high genomic diversity of NV since new variants continue to evolve constantly (Widen et al , 2011). Therefore, it is diffi cult to select a single or even a small number of probes that can detect all possible NV variants (Atmar and Estes, 2001).…”

“…The hepatitis E virus (HEV), one of the major causes of viral hepatitis other than HAV, causes infection with a high rate of mortality particularly in pregnant women (Widen et al , 2011;Ahn et al , 2005). A HEV, similar to a HAV, is a small, non-enveloped, positive sense, single-stranded RNA virus, reclassifi ed in the genus Hepevirus of the family Hepeviridae although previously classifi ed as a member of Caliciviridae family (Berke and Matson, 2000;Gyarmati et al , 2007).…”

Assessment of the efficiency of virus extraction from food matrices and the frequency of occurrence of contaminated products in the retail network

“…Долгое время основное внимание в области микробиологического контроля продуктов питания уделялось только бактериальным патогенам, в то время как вирусные возбудители заболеваний вызывали меньший интерес [1,2]. Причиной тому являлась не только сложность обнаружения вирусов, но и тот факт, что присутствие вирусов в пищевых продуктах обычно не связано с изменениями органолептических или сенсорных свойств продукта [3,4]. Меры, применяемые при микробиологическом контроле, не эффективны в случае вирусного заражения.…”