Investigation of a foodborne outbreak of Shigella sonnei in Ireland and Northern Ireland, December 2016: the benefits of cross-border collaboration and commercial sales data

The utilisation of tools to facilitate cross-border communication during international food safety events, 1995–2020: a realist synthesis

“…Gaining support from high-level government officials for the participation in international communication activities, with clear roles and responsibilities agreed (including agreement on the type of information to be shared), has been identified as a key element required to improve international cooperation and collaboration using established systems such as INFOSAN [ 35 ]. Food safety investigations rely on the willingness of multiple agencies involved within various countries to share information and to collaborate [ 52 ] and without senior or management level support, technical staff may not feel empowered to share information. The investigation into a large and prolonged outbreak of hepatitis A virus (HAV) infections in several European countries in 2013 and 2014 demonstrated the importance of having strong management support and coordination capability at the national level, noting that administrative hurdles and communication problems can lead to delays in notification of events [ 53 ].…”

“…During international foodborne disease outbreaks, there is an inherent reliance on the comparability of data in order to determine if disparate cases of illness are related. In this way, standardisation is essential in terms of molecular methods for comparing foodborne bacterial strains, for example [ 52 ]. During the investigation into cases of Salmonella Goldcoast in Italy and Hungary in 2009 and 2010, implementing the use of standardised protocols for Salmonella strain typing between human and veterinary laboratories was critical in order to generate hypotheses about a possible zoonotic connection of the outbreak cases in both countries to the pork production chain [ 61 ].…”

“…Utilising data from epidemiological studies, laboratory investigations of food and clinical samples, as well as data and information from traceback or trace-forward activities, is an integral part of investigating food safety events and supports the use of international communication tools, as demonstrated in multiple outbreak reports [ 48 , 52 , 53 , 66 ]. For example, upon investigating three simultaneous outbreaks of HAV infections in Europe in 2013, Gossner and Severi [ 48 ] emphasised the necessity for extensive international collaboration between countries and intersectoral collaboration between public health and food sectors in order to identify possible vehicles of infection and implement timely control measures.…”

“…Similar outcomes were reported following an outbreak of Salmonella Anatum infections in France and the UK in 1997 during which rapid communication was facilitated by the same international Salmonella surveillance network [ 74 ]. Since outbreak reports such as these first started to demonstrate the value of international collaboration, responses to international food safety events have continued to highlight the usefulness of establishing and maintaining information-sharing networks globally that enables the rapid exchange of information between food regulatory agencies worldwide [ 52 , 63 , 75 – 78 ]. For example, in 2002, an outbreak of norovirus infections in Italy and France was linked to oyster consumption, resulting in 327 cases between the two countries.…”

“…For example, during an international outbreak of Salmonella infections linked to eggs from Poland, the utilisation of RASFF, EPIS-FWD and PulseNet enabled the rapid exchange of information internationally between public health authorities [ 63 ]. During the investigation of a foodborne outbreak of Shigella sonnei infections in Ireland and Northern Ireland in 2016, cross-border information sharing using EPIS-FWD facilitated the efficient identification of the outbreak, the early generation of a hypothesis and the rapid implementation of control measures [ 52 ].…”