UK ZOONOSES REPORT 2003 PUBLISHED

Originally from: mona parr
                        
UK ZOONOSES REPORT 2003 PUBLISHED http://www.defra.gov.uk/news/2004/041122e.htm

 
The United Kingdom Zoonoses Report 2003 was published today at a meeting to discuss the results of an abattoir-based study of Foodborne Pathogens in Cattle, Sheep & Pigs in Great Britain, being held at the Veterinary Laboratories Agency, Weybridge, Surrey.

Member States of the EU are required to produce reports similar to the UK Zoonoses Report. However, the UK is one of the leading European countries in carrying out such surveys and reporting these results in an open way. This work is crucial to one of the aims of Defra's Animal Health and Welfare Strategy – to reduce the incidence and/or effects of endemic diseases and other zoonotic organisms by taking appropriate risk-based action on the basis of scientific evidence where this is justified.

Zoonoses are diseases and infections which are transmitted naturally between vertebrate animals and man. The report describes how surveillance is undertaken in the UK and draws together information from a number of sources on zoonoses and zoonotic agents in man, food and animals and, where appropriate, provides comparable data from previous years.

Zoonoses covered include the major food and water-borne zoonoses – Campylobacter, Salmonella, vero-cytotoxin producing E. coli O157 (VTEC O157) and Cryptosporidium, and the main notifiable zoonotic diseases of animals – bovine tuberculosis, brucellosis, anthrax, rabies and BSE. There is a short section on Avian Influenza as a zoonotic agent and on West Nile virus, both of which have been reported recently on mainland Europe. Selected references are given to help those who need more detail.

The 2003 Report was produced by a joint Working Group consisting of representatives from Defra, the Department of Health (DH), the Food Standards Agency (FSA), the Health Protection Agency (HPA), the Devolved Administrations, Veterinary Laboratories Agency (VLA), Scottish Agricultural College, Scottish Centre for Infection and Environmental Health and Communicable Disease Surveillance Centres. The Working Group was chaired by Dr Brian Smyth who commented:-

"This is a unique report highlighting trends at a national level but also variations and trends within the UK as zoonotic infections are not uniformly distributed throughout the UK. Rates of campylobacter food poisoning continue to decrease. The number of salmonella reports last year was approximately half that noted in the mid- 90s.
 However there has been a rise in certain strains of Salmonella enteritidis and these have been associated with a number of outbreaks linked to the consumption of imported eggs.
Rates of E. coli O157 infection in Scotland continue to decline from previously high levels. The report also describes the control measures in Northern Ireland in response to the outbreak of brucellosis. "

Notes for editors

Ministers agreed in 1999 to the production of an annual Zoonoses Report to make UK data on specific zoonotic organisms found in humans, animals, feedingstuffs and food required by the Zoonoses Directive (92/117/EC) more accessible. The first annual Report was for the year 1998, and annual reports have been published since then. All are available on the Defra website at www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/diseases/zoonoses/reports.htm.

The report aims to be useful to the professionals who deal with zoonotic diseases, and to give the non-specialist an insight into Zoonoses, their prevalence and importance. Whilst much of the information is available and published elsewhere it is most useful in bringing together basic information on Zoonoses in the one place.

Further information: The report will appear shortly on the Defra website at www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/diseases/zoonoses/reports.htm. Hard copies can be obtained by emailing ....