Food, Water and Environmental Microbiology Services, United Kingdom Health Security Agency, London, UK.
Department of Infection Biology, Faculty of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
J Appl Microbiol. 2022 Dec;133(6):3391-3403. doi: 10.1111/jam.15761. Epub 2022 Sep 13.
Norovirus remains the most significant virological risk that is transmitted via food and the environment to cause acute gastroenteritis. This study aimed to investigate the hypothesis that the contamination of the commercial food production environment with norovirus will be higher in premises that have recently reported a foodborne norovirus outbreak than those that have not.
Sampling of commercial food production environments was carried out across a 16-month period between January 2015 and April 2016 in the South East and the North West of England by local authority environmental health departments as part of routine surveillance visits to premises. A total of 2982 samples, 2038 virological and 944 bacteriological, were collected from 256 premises. Sixteen of these premises, six from South East and ten from North West England, were sampled as part of a public health outbreak investigation.
RESULTS & CONCLUSIONS: Overall, 2038 swabs were submitted for norovirus testing, with an average of eight swabs per premises (range 4 to 23) and a median of seven. Of the premises sampled, 11.7% (30/256) yielded at least one norovirus-positive sample (environmental, and/or food handler hand swab), and 2.5% of the swabs were positive for norovirus. A peak in the positivity rate was seen in the South East in April 2016. No associations were found between norovirus positivity and bacteriology indicators, or between bacteriology indicators and hygiene ratings.
This study demonstrates that food premises and food handlers remain a potential source of norovirus transmission and outbreaks.
诺如病毒仍然是通过食物和环境传播导致急性肠胃炎的最重要的病毒学风险因素。本研究旨在验证以下假设，即在最近报告有食源性诺如病毒暴发的场所，商业食品生产环境受到诺如病毒污染的可能性高于未报告暴发的场所。
在 2015 年 1 月至 2016 年 4 月期间，英格兰东南部和西北部的地方当局环境卫生部门作为对场所的例行监测访问的一部分，对商业食品生产环境进行了为期 16 个月的采样。共从 256 个场所采集了 2982 个样本，其中 2038 个为病毒学样本，944 个为细菌学样本。其中 16 个场所（6 个来自英格兰东南部，10 个来自英格兰西北部）作为公共卫生暴发调查的一部分进行了采样。
总体而言，有 2038 个拭子提交进行诺如病毒检测，每个场所平均有 8 个拭子（范围为 4 到 23 个），中位数为 7 个。在所采样的场所中，有 11.7%（30/256）至少有一个诺如病毒阳性样本（环境样本和/或食品处理人员手部拭子），2.5%的拭子诺如病毒检测阳性。2016 年 4 月，东南部的阳性率达到峰值。未发现诺如病毒阳性与细菌学指标之间存在关联，也未发现细菌学指标与卫生评分之间存在关联。
本研究表明，食品场所和食品处理人员仍然是诺如病毒传播和暴发的潜在来源。
