EU scientists call for better control of zoonoses in the food chain
The European Union's scientific committee on veterinary measures relating to public health is calling for tighter controls and improved monitoring to reverse the current trend towards an increase in zoonotic disease spreading through the food chain. Zoonoses are infections that are transmitted from animals to man and, right now, according to the scientific committee, there are seven food-borne zoonoses that are of particularly cause for concern: Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes, Campylobacter, Verotoxigenic escherichia coli, Cryptosporidium, Echinococcus granulosus and Trichinella spiralis. Zoonoses are particularly hard to control say the scientists, The organisms responsible for spreading them are ubiquitous and difficult to eliminate from the food chain. The committee describes current measures to control food-borne infections as 'insufficient', with epidemiological data as currently collected in the Member States being incomplete and not fully comparable. What the data does reveal though, is that food-borne zoonotic disease has increased over the last 20 years. As a result, the committee recommends a number of risk management options and ways to improve current food monitoring arrangements. The European Commission has taken notice of these warnings and in its White Paper on food safety it announces a series of measures for the second half of 2000 to improve the monitoring and reporting system and to set up a framework to reduce the prevalence of certain zoonoses. Specific new measures to combat listeria and salmonella are also planned. Mr David Byrne, the European Commissioner for Health and Consumer protection agrees that monitoring and surveillance of zoonoses must be stepped up in the Member States. 'The legislative action plan in the White Paper on food safety foresees that we put into place a coherent system of monitoring and controls in the EU covering the entire food chain, from the farm to the fork by 2002,' he added.