FOOD MICRO 2002
Reported by Lars Axelsson, MATFORSK Norwegian Food Research Institute; and Viggo Hasseltvedt, Nasjonalt folkehelseinstitutt (Norwegian Institute of Public Health), Norway, on behalf of the Food Micro 2002 Scientific Committee.

'Friends and Foes' was the subject of Food Micro 2002, the 18th symposium of the International Committee on Food Microbiology and Hygiene (ICFMH), held in Lillehammer, Norway, from 18 to 23 August 2002. The conference highlighted the message that food associated micro-organisms can be our friends, as in fermented foods; or our enemies, as in spoilage or causing foodborne infections. MATFORSK, the Norwegian Food Research Institute (http://www.matforsk.no/), hosted the event in which over 300 scientists from the medical, veterinary, surveillance, epidemiological, and quality assurance of the food chain fields took part. Review articles for the symposium have been published in a special issue of International Journal of Food Microbiology (1).

At the conference Dr Robert Tauxe from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States spoke on the theme of "Emerging foodborne pathogens". He outlined features of the American as well as the global experience in this field. Referring to US estimates from 1997 of cases of foodborne infections by agent, the most important group was the one caused by calici/Norwalk-like viruses with a total of 9.2 million cases estimated that year. Campylobacteriosis accounted for around 1.9 million cases, salmonellosis (of the non-typhoid group) for 1.3 million cases. E. coli O157:H7 or other non O157 strains accounted for 92 000 cases, Shigella spp. and Yersinina enterocolitica were estimated to have caused 90 000 and 87 000 cases respectively (2). The American investigation revealed that the causative agent was microbiologically confirmed in only one fifth of the reported cases despite increased knowledge and improved surveillance systems.

Tauxe also showed that the number of infections caused by Salmonella Enteritidis worldwide has grown whereas the number of infections caused by S. Typhimurium has decreased. The emergence of multiresistant strains of S. Typhimurium such as phage-type DT 104 was noted. In 2000 the proportion of human strains of Salmonella serovars in the US that were resistant to at least five antibiotics was 11%. In 2002 it was demonstrated that some of the pentaresitant strains have also acquired resistance to gentamicin and third generation cephalosporins.

In a brief presentation of PulseNet, the US molecular subtyping network for foodborne disease (http://www.cdc.gov/pulsenet), the system's technique of identifying foodborne pathogens by molecular methods was demonstrated.

Tauxe urged his audience to continue to expect the unexpected. The detection of new pathogens is ongoing and well known pathogens will continue to be found in novel food vehicles. The process of globalisation combined with ageing populations in industrialised countries will bring further challenges. (3).

Rapid detection systems will continue to play an important role in food microbiology. Molecular microbiological methods were examined in a plenary lecture, an afternoon parallel session and a workshop. The main talk on the topic was given by Knut Rudi, MATFORSK, Norway. He gave an overview of recently developed methods for analysing microbial communities in food and addressed the problems of polymerase chain reaction based techniques such as sample preparation and the distinction between living and dead cells (4).

Food Micro 2004 - New Tools for Improvement of Microbial Food Safety and Quality will be held in Bled, Slovenia (http://www.cd-cc.si/foodmicro2004/index.html).

References:

  1. Axelsson L, editor. Necessary and unwanted bacteria in food - microbial adaption to changing environments. Int J Food Microbiol 2002; 78: 1-194. (http://www.elsevier.com/gej-ng/10/19/57/107/27/show/toc.htt).
  2. Mead PS, Slutsker L, Dietz V, McCaig LF, Bresee JS, Shapiro C, et al. Food-related illness and death in the United States. Emerg Infect Dis 1999; 5: 607-25. (http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol5no5/pdf/mead.pdf)
  3. Tauxe RV. Emerging foodborne pathogens. Int J Food Microbiol 2002; 78: 31-41. (http://www.elsevier.com/gej-ng/10/19/57/107/27/show/toc.htt)
  4. Rudi K, Nogva HK, Moen B, Nissen H, Bredholt S, Møretrø T, et al. Development and application of new nucleic acid-based technologies for microbial community analyses in foods. Int J Food Microbiol 2002; 78: 171-80.