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Thursday 26 March 2015

Britain - Hepatitis E and Norovirus in food under investigation


As regular readers know, we have been campaigning over the risks to human health from pigs infected with Hepatitis E for many years. The risks are not just in food.

Norovirus is also getting a long overdue airing in Britain.

One of Bill Marler's blogs in the USA was the first to tell us what was going on.

It is interesting to see just how much attention Britain is getting in zoonotic and food health circles abroad.

All these zoonotic diseases are an international issue in an increasingly interconnected world,

This story is not going to go away.

You can also find much of the history of these diseases in Britain and elsewhere on the British newsgroup uk.business.agriculture ( use google group's search ) and on this blog (use the searchbox at the head)  'Hepatitis' or  'Norovirus' will bring up dozens of articles and sources.

Be sure to read Marler's Food Safety Blog  in full here.

UK Foodborne Virus Reports Identify Areas Needing More Research


BY NEWS DESK | MARCH 26, 2015

...two reports published Wednesday on the status of viruses in the UK food chain.

The first, a report by Food Standards Agency (FSA) Chief Scientific Advisor Guy Poppy, explores what viruses in food are, how they cause disease, how FSA is working with others to use science to understand them, and some of the challenges around reducing the risks.

Two issues the report says the agency is working on are ways of detecting whether norovirus or Hepatitis E found in food is infectious and commissioning research on the heat stability of Hepatitis E due to uncertainty about how effective conventional cooking practices are in eliminating it from contaminated meat...