The Irish agricultural research agency, Teagasc, is to co-ordinate an EU initiative to ensure more effective monitoring and prevention of the often fatal food poisoning bug, E coli 0157.
A multi-disciplinary team of 31 medical, veterinary and food research scientists from throughout the EU met at the National Food Centre in Dublin yesterday to start the three-year project.
It was initiated in response to increasing outbreaks caused by the emerging pathogen - an organism that causes disease - which can cause severe kidney damage and death among the young, the immuno-suppressed, and older people.
The main purpose of the £500,000 initiative is to share research and co-ordinate future investigations, according to Dr Vivion Tarrant, National Food Centre director. It would be particularly beneficial to Ireland as E coli research here had yet to reach a critical mass, to enable effective control of a microbe that threatened all in the food industry.
The study, which is headed by NFC food scientist Dr Geraldine Duffy, is concentrated on E coli strains that produce harmful "verotoxins". They are classified as VTEC, of which E coli 0157:H7 is the most notorious serotype.
The scientists will evaluate the epidemiology of VTEC infection in Europe, including sources and transmission routes, elimination strategies, how the toxin is produced and mechanisms by which the organism attaches to the human gut. It is easily killed by proper cooking but only a few of the microbes are necessary for severe infection.
They will also consider the key issue of farm controls given its prevalence in the gut of cattle, the possibility that probiotic, or beneficial, microbes might be used to eliminate the bug, and the merits of vaccination.
Within the food industry, the team will look at the effectiveness of processing. Despite the ease with which it can be eliminated, the bug has unusual features in that it has tolerance to acidity and low temperatures and does not harm cattle.
Meanwhile, in Wexford, Ms Rosalie Prendergast of the Eastern Health Board said there is an urgent need to establish the prevalence of E coli 0157 in Irish farm herds. She was addressing the Environmental Health Officers' Association conference. She said hospital laboratories also needed to routinely screen all faecal samples for the bacteria.
It may be 16 years since the bug emerged but many questions remained unanswered. The risk would appear to be "present, growing and great," she said, with no reason why Ireland could avoid an outbreak like that which killed 20 people in Scotland.
