Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 3 Jul 2001

Vol. 540 No. 1

Written Answers. - Food Poisoning.

Ivor Callely

Ceist:

256 Mr. Callely asked the Minister for Health and Children the level of food poisoning recorded here arising from poultry products; if comparative figures are available from our EU counterparts; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19655/01]

Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children (Dr. Moffatt)

The number of food poisoning cases due to bacteria other than salmonella here fell from 1,673 in 1999 to 1,552 in 2000. The incidence of salmonellosis fell from 962 in 1999 to 635 in 2000. During the period 1998 to 2000 the Food Safety Authority of Ireland received information on 101 outbreaks, that is cases involving two or more people, of infectious intestinal diseases which were investigated by public health specialists and environmental health officers in health boards. There were 36 outbreaks caused by salmonella affecting over 1,000 people. Of these 36 outbreaks poultry was linked with 21 outbreaks, of which chicken was linked to nine, shell eggs was linked to ten and turkey was linked to two outbreaks.

From data compiled by the National Disease Surveillance Centre the rate of salmonella infection in Ireland in 1999 was lower, only 27 per 100,000 population, than that in England and Wales which has a rate of 41 per 100,000, and many of the other EU countries which collaborate in ENTERNET, European collaboration of national reference laboratories and surveillance centres for Salmonella and E.Coli 0157. The rate of salmonella here has been decreasing steadily for the past three years, from a peak of 35 per 100,000 in 1998 to 17 per 100,000 in 2000.

The seventh report of the WHO Surveillance Programme for Control of Foodborne Infections and Intoxications in Europe which was published on 22 December 2000 contains details on the foods incriminated during outbreak investigations in several European countries. Comparisons should be made with caution as the methodology of surveillance systems differs significantly. Differences also exist in the categorisation of foods. The proportion of outbreaks where a food was identified due to poultry and-or poultry products varied widely and can be seen in the following table. These figures do not include outbreaks due to compound foods such as desserts, sauces and salads, which may contain ingredients such as raw egg.

Food vehicles incriminated during outbreak investigations in several European countries compiled from data in the WHO Surveillance Programme for Control of Food-borne Infections and Intoxications in Europe 1993-1998, 7th report and FSAI data from outbreak surveillance in Ireland.

Country	Years covered	Total number of outbreaks where food vehicle identified	Number of outbreaks due to poultry/eggs and products
Belgium	1995-98	227	113
Italy	1998	84	40
Ireland	1998-2000	49	21
England and Wales	1993-98	944	286
Finland	1993-98	242	22
Scotland	1996-98	33	2
Netherlands	1993-98	2,506	88
Germany	1993-98	714	26

Concern about the numbers of poultry product associated illnesses led the FSAI to initiate industry and public information campaigns that focused on the prevention of food-borne illness caused by these products. Initiatives such as the egg quality assurance scheme run by Bord Bia in co-operation with the Irish Egg Producers Association and FSAI, awareness campaigns highlighting the use of pasteurised liquid eggs in the catering and food processing sectors and public media campaigns, have all contributed towards the reduction in the incidence of illnesses associated with poultry products over the past year.

At the end of 1999 the FSAI, together with the Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, started an enhanced poultry monitoring programme. The purpose of the programme is to monitor the quality and safety of poultry products circulating on the Irish market. This ongoing programme consists of surveillance on the level of salmonella and campylobactor in raw poultry. This study was carried out last year and approximately 3,000 samples of raw poultry meat and 700 samples of cooked products were examined. All samples are tested for the presence of salmonella and campylobactor and any positive isolates are subjected to further typing techniques. The results will be published within the next few months. In an extension to this project the FSAI in 2001 is funding further work with the isolates of campylobacter from last year's surveillance work.

The FSAI has also contributed to the work of the World Health Organisation-Food and Agricultural Organisation on initiatives on microbial risk assessment. The outcome of these initiatives will be the publication later this year of the world's first international risk assessment into salmonella and poultry. This report should help to identify key hazards in the broiler industry that contribute towards human salmonellosis from poultry. Ultimately this will allow the FSAI to target and introduce hygiene measures aimed at reducing the incidence of salmonellosis.