Estimating risk associated with human norovirus and hepatitis A virus in fresh Australian leafy greens and berries at retail

Torok, V. A.; Hodgson, Kate R.; Jolley, Jessica; Turnbull, Alison; McLeod, Catherine

doi:10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2019.108327

Cited by 24 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…The presence of human enteric viruses in vegetables has been reported with markedly varying levels between studies [28][29][30][31][32]. Viral contamination that may be present on the product can spread throughout the production batch when the product is washed, warranting investigation about the levels of human enteric viruses in PW.…”

Section: Occurrence Of Coliphages and Human Enteric Viruses In Process Watermentioning

confidence: 99%

Occurrence and Accumulation of Human Enteric Viruses and Phages in Process Water from the Fresh Produce Industry

Cuevas-Ferrando

Allende

Pérez-Cataluña

et al. 2021

Foods

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The virological quality of process water (PW) used by the produce industry has received limited attention. As a first step to overcoming technical limitations in monitoring viruses in PW, the analytical performance of ultrafiltration was assessed to concentrate viral particles from 20 L of spiked PW. The selected method used for sample concentration of PW was carefully validated, thus enabling the accurate quantification and estimation of viral titers of human enteric viruses and phages. PW from the produce industry was collected periodically from the washing tanks of commercial facilities. The analysis of coliphages was performed by plaque assay, while the occurrence of enteric viruses and crAssphage was determined by molecular techniques. Significant differences in the physicochemical composition of PW, mostly due to the different nature of fresh produce types and differences in the sanitizer used in commercial operation, were observed. Accumulation of crAssphage and coliphages was observed in PW, but correlation with human enteric viruses was not possible due to the low prevalence of these pathogens in the PW analyzed. The obtained results showed that depending on the type of product washed, the product/water ratio and the residual concentrations of the sanitizers, the prevalence and concentration of bacteriophages changed significantly.

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Section: Occurrence Of Coliphages and Human Enteric Viruses In Process Watermentioning

confidence: 99%

Occurrence and Accumulation of Human Enteric Viruses and Phages in Process Water from the Fresh Produce Industry

Cuevas-Ferrando

Allende

Pérez-Cataluña

et al. 2021

Foods

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“…In Australia, the prevalence of HAV in berries and leafy greens at retail was estimated to be <2%, with no virus detected in produce during the survey. The risk associated with fresh Australian berries and leafy greens, evaluated using standard codex procedures and the Risk Ranger tool, was deemed to be low (Torok et al 2019).…”

Section: Prevalence Levels and Risk Associated With Hav In Foodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The risk associated with fresh Australian berries and leafy greens, evaluated using standard codex procedures and the Risk Ranger tool, was deemed to be low (Torok et al . 2019).…”

Section: Hav Detection In Foodmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hepatitis A infections from food

Randazzo

Sánchez

2020

J. Appl. Microbiol.

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Food contaminated by hepatitis A virus (HAV) is responsible of the 2-7% of all HAV outbreaks worldwide. This review provides a description of the HAV characteristics, its infectivity and epidemiological features. In addition, this review compiles existing original papers reporting HAV prevalence, viral titres in foodstuffs and the risk associated with food contamination. The purpose of this revision is to conduct a structured and systematic review of the published molecular procedures for HAV detection in food, including the assessment of its infectivity. based on the analysis of a 168-nucleotide segment of the VP1-2A region, HAV is classified in six genotypes. Genotypes I, II and III, have human origin and are divided into subtypes A and B, while genotypes IV, V and VI cause infections in simians (Desbois et al. 2010). Features of HAV infection The course of hepatitis A ranges from mild to severe, and is typically more severe in adults than in children (<6 years), that are often asymptomatic. Common symptoms associated with acute HAV infection are loss of appetite, fever, headache, nausea, diarrhoea, abdominal discomfort, anorexia, myalgia, dark-coloured urine and jaundice. HAV infection develops a lifelong immunity and does not result in chronic infection or chronic liver disease (Lemon et al. 2017). Adults with hepatitis A illness usually develop symptoms after a long incubation period of 14-28 days (up to 50 days) after the exposure, and a high numbers of virus particles are excreted reaching the maximum of up to 10 11 genome copies (gc) per gram of faeces just before the onset of symptoms. The fatality rate in HAV infections is lower than 0Á1%, although in elderly it may rise up to 1Á8-5Á4% (1Á8-5Á4%) (Bosch et al. 2016). Routes of transmission and epidemiology HAV is excreted in faeces and the main route of transmission is from person to person by the faecal-oral route

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“…Consistent with this, some food such as bivalve molluscan shellfish may be contaminated by sewage, leading to consumer diseases or economic losses by food destruction ( Savini et al, 2021 ). In these settings, human enteric viruses are frequently implicated in foodborne outbreaks ( Torok et al, 2019 ; Savini et al, 2021 ). However, characterization of human enteric viruses that have short RNA genomes is challenging due to the high levels of nucleic acids from cellular organisms, the low concentrations of some viruses, and the high number of unclassified sequences ( Greninger, 2018 ; Cobbin et al, 2021 ; Mazur et al, 2022 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Looking into sewage: how far can metagenomics help to detect human enteric viruses?

et al. 2023

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The impact of human sewage on environmental and food contamination constitutes an important safety issue. Indeed, human sewage reflects the microbiome of the local population, and a variety of human viruses can be detected in wastewater samples. Being able to describe the diversity of viruses present in sewage will provide information on the health of the surrounding population health and will help to prevent further transmission. Metagenomic developments, allowing the description of all the different genomes present in a sample, are very promising tools for virome analysis. However, looking for human enteric viruses with short RNA genomes which are present at low concentrations is challenging. In this study we demonstrate the benefits of performing technical replicates to improve viral identification by increasing contig length, and the set-up of quality criteria to increase confidence in results. Our approach was able to effectively identify some virus sequences and successfully describe the viral diversity. The method yielded full genomes either for norovirus, enterovirus and rotavirus, even if, for these segmented genomes, combining genes remain a difficult issue. Developing reliable viromic methods is important as wastewater sample analysis provides an important tool to prevent further virus transmission by raising alerts in case of viral outbreaks or emergence.

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Estimating risk associated with human norovirus and hepatitis A virus in fresh Australian leafy greens and berries at retail

Cited by 24 publications

References 32 publications

Occurrence and Accumulation of Human Enteric Viruses and Phages in Process Water from the Fresh Produce Industry

Occurrence and Accumulation of Human Enteric Viruses and Phages in Process Water from the Fresh Produce Industry

Hepatitis A infections from food

Looking into sewage: how far can metagenomics help to detect human enteric viruses?

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