Occurrence of Human Enteric Viruses in Shellfish along the Production and Distribution Chain in Sicily, Italy

Abstract

Contamination of bivalve mollusks with human pathogenic viruses represents a recognized food safety risk. Thus, monitoring programs for shellfish quality along the entire food chain could help to finally preserve the health of consumers. The aim of the present study was to provide up-to-date data on the prevalence of enteric virus contamination along the shellfish production and distribution chain in Sicily. To this end, 162 batches of mollusks were collected between 2017 and 2019 from harvesting areas, depuration and dispatch centers (n = 63), restaurants (n = 6) and retail stores (n = 93) distributed all over the island. Samples were processed according to ISO 15216 standard method, and the presence of genogroup GI and GII norovirus (NoV), hepatitis A and E viruses (HAV, HEV), rotavirus and adenovirus was investigated by real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (real-time-RT PCR), nested (RT)-PCR and molecular genotyping. Our findings show that 5.56% of samples were contaminated with at least one NoV, HAV and/or HEV. Contaminated shellfish were sampled at production sites and retail stores and their origin was traced back to Spain and several municipalities in Italy. In conclusion, our study highlights the need to implement routine monitoring programs along the whole food chain as an effective measure to prevent foodborne transmission of enteric viruses.

The One Health concept for the threat of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 to marine ecosystems

“…Viral pathogens in the marine environment are known threats to public health, including enterovirus, adenovirus, astrovirus, reovirus, rotavirus, calicivirus, and Norovirus. Infections by viruses in the latter genus represent 21% of enteric viral illnesses [5] and are responsible for many notifiable diseases in humans due to ingesting contaminated water or seafood [45]. Coronaviruses are enteric viruses and are associated with gastroenteritis in humans [46].…”

“…Further, shellfish, such as oysters and other bivalves, are vulnerable to contamination by enteric viruses in surrounding waters [83]. Moreover, shellfish may threaten human health due ability to filter and bioaccumulate pathogens [45]. Viral foodborne outbreaks are associated with raw or undercooked shellfish consumption [83].…”

Exploring the Astrovirome of Shellfish Matrices Using Nanopore Sequencing

“…Accordingly, they represent a valuable target to use to explore the diversity of the AstV population, or “astrovirome”. As a proof of concept, we applied the panastrovirus protocol to shellfish samples, since consumption of raw mollusks (mussels, clams, oysters) represents an important source of infection for human populations with enteric (rotavirus, norovirus, astrovirus) and hepatotropic viruses (hepatitis A and E) [ 25 , 26 , 27 ]. We therefore coupled AstV-targeted RT-PCR enrichment with a deep-sequencing Nanopore platform to assess the potential of an astroviromic implementation in food or environmental virology.…”

Molecular characterization of rotavirus in oysters from Oualidia lagoon in Morocco

“…In addition, they have been suggested for estimating the prevalence of viral diseases in populations living in coastal areas, for hepatitis A virus (HAV) (7,8) and more recently SARS-CoV-2. Norovirus (NoV), rotavirus (RV), adenovirus (AdV), hepatitis A (HAV) and hepatitis E virus (HEV) are the causative agents of gastroenteritis, meningitis and hepatitis (9).…”