Professional paper
Noroviruses in bivalve shellsh as the acute problem of these days
Ines Škoko
Eddy Listeš
Irena Listeš
Lidija Kozačinski
Abstract
Cultivation of marine organisms has a long tradition that dates from the 19th century along the Adriatic coast. Nutritional value
of shellfish is based on the proteins and fat, with large amounts of glycogen. Except for the great value of sea organisms, they are
also a real danger to human health. Mussels lter large amounts of water to feed, and in that way they bioaccumulate a variety of
pathogens, of human faeces origin. By the adoption of the European regulation (European regulation 91/492/EC), which prescribes
an acceptable amount of bacterial pathogens, the impact of bacteria on the outbreak of gastroenteritis is significantly reduced, as op-
posed to the outbreaks caused by viral pathogens. Norovirus (NoV, “Norwalk-like virus”) is the most important cause of non-bacterial
gastroenteritis in the world. In the industrialized world NoV is probably responsible for more than 80% of all gastroenteritis outbreaks.
NoV belongs to the family Caliciviridae and is divided into ve genogroups (GI-GV); genogroups GI, GII and GIV are known to cause
disease in humans. After infection of people with contaminated shellsh, the epidemic is spreading by fecal-oral route, although
the disease can get transmitted by the direct contact from person to person, or by viral particles in aerosol. Gastroenteritis is mostly
mild and self-limiting, but it can be serious in patients with some other health problems. There are four basic problems in detection
of NoV from shellsh: low levels of viral contamination, high variability of the virus, the presence of substances that inhibit molecular
detection and genetic variability of NoV. There are two steps in detection of enteroviruses from contaminated shellfish; the first is
extraction and concentration of viruses from the shellfish hepatopancreas and the detection of viruses by reverse transcription (RT)
PCR. Due to the risk assessment strategy, analyzing of shellsh for the presence of NoV should be implemented. In Europe (CEN), there
was established a working group of experts for the development and validation of reference method for the horizontal detection of
NoV in food, including shellsh.
Keywords
bivalve shellfish; norovirus: gastroenteritis
Hrčak ID:
62081
URI
Publication date:
1.5.2010.
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