My Department and the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, FSAI, have been aware of growing national and international concerns regarding the increase of food poisoning caused by campylobacter species, camplobacteriosos. In December 1999, the FSAI prepared a brief report for its Microbiology Sub-Committee. This report presented the facts and highlighted the gaps in knowledge. Last year the sub-committee convened a working group to examine the issues in detail and identify initiatives to combat this public health concern. The report from the FSAI will be published later this year.
Prior to the establishment of the Food Safety Promotion Board, the FSAI conducted a number of media campaigns directed at making the consumer aware of how to combat food poisoning. Currently the FSAI is focusing its attention on improving standards of hygiene within the food industry. In 2000, over 10,000 food samples were taken under the national microbiological sampling programme that is co-ordinated by the FSAI, at retail and catering level. Some 2,320 of these were chicken samples. Some 789 chicken samples were specifically analysed for the presence of campylobacter of which 16.6% were found to be positive.
Last year the FSAI in conjunction with the Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development commenced an enhanced poultry monitoring scheme. Over 3,000 samples of raw poultry, including domestic and imported product, were analysed during 2000 and approximately 54% of samples were positive for Camplyobacter. The poultry isolates and human isolates, from the same time period, are currently being characterised in detail, in order to determine the relationship between handling-consuming contaminated poultry and human illness. Unlike many of the other food pathogens, campylobacter does not tend to cause outbreaks but more frequently results in sporadic illness. This pattern of illness greatly hinders identification of a food vehicle. Hence the above comparison will enable the FSAI to determine if the campylobacter isolates in poultry are the same as those causing illness in humans. This study will also examine the level of antibiotic resistance in Irish campylobacter isolates.