emerging issues: focus on seafood safety · emerging risks sharing analyse and filter collecting...

EFSA’s work on emerging issues: Focus on seafood safety Tobin Robinson, HoU Scientific Committee and Emerging Risks

EMERGING RISKS

sharing

Analyse and

filter

Collecting and

collating

Article 34

Identification of emerging risks

1. The Authority shall establish monitoring procedures for systematic

searching for, collecting, collating and analysing information and data with a

view to the identification of emerging risks in the fields within its mission.

DEFINITION

ESFA, 2007. Definition and description of « emerging risks » within the

EFSA’s mandate. Statement of the Scientific Committee, 10 July 2007.

New Hazard

Known Hazard

Emerging Risk

Significant exposure

New Exposure

Increased susceptibility

WHAT DO WE HOPE TO ACHIEVE ?

Emerging Risk !

New RA methods

Difficult

problems

Elephants

Cross-cutting

Homeless

WHAT DO WE HOPE TO ACHIEVE ?

Early identification of new problems (not

neccessarily incidents or crises), to better

anticipate risk assessment needs:

• Research

• Data generation (and methods for doing this)

• Risk assessment methodology development

NETWORKING PROCESS

Data monitoring

Stakeholders CG

Emerging Risks Network and the Advisory Forum

SWG SC

Recommendation Monitoring, Data

gathering, risk assessment, research

EFSA Panels, Units

EMRISK

Other (EP, EC ...)

Issue generation and data

gathering

Scientific

Committee

WHY DO EMERGING RISKS OCCUR ?

Drivers - anthropogenic

Consumer preferences – international trade

Primary production – organic farming

Food ingredients – new risks

Food preparation – poor training

Technology – unknown risks

Contamination – from unrelated industries

Climate change

WHY DO EMERGING RISKS OCCUR ?

Drivers - Natural

Evolution – response to changing environment

Migration – response to changing environment

WHERE IN THE FOOD CHAIN ?

Primary production

Harvesting

Processing

Packaging

Storage

Distribution

Consumption Illegal activities

- Consumer preferences

- Preparation issues

Natural processes,

contamination, new agricultural

practices ………

EXAMPLES

Fish fraud

Aquaculture

Vibrio

Marine Biotox

Plastic soup

FISH FRAUD

Global consumption of fish is rising

Testing has revealed significant mislabelling:

• UK: 7% of cod and haddock sold in ‘fish and chip’ shops

were substitued by cheaper types of fish.

• Ireland: 19% of fish products were mislabelled.

• USA: 25% of fish sold in restaurants in new York were

‘mis-labelled’

• Brussels (2015): 30% of fish sold in restaurants mis-

labelled

- Once processed, very difficult to identify fish (DNA testing).

- Significant differences in price of fish.

Risks ?

Lost traceability, lower safety assurance


Primary production

Harvesting

Processing

Packaging

Storage

Distribution




Natural processes,


practices ………

EXAMPLES: AQUACULTURE IN DEVELOPING ECONOMIES

Stenotrophomonas maltophilia – an emerging opportunistic pathogen

associated with cultured channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) in China

(Geng et al., 2010). .

A widespread opportunistic pathogen that has been associated with

nosocomial colonization and infection in humans.

Overcrowding, fighting and changes in the environment and diet are

believed to be predisposing factors for the fish infection.

Role of this bacterium in animal diseases is less clear than in humans,

and its control poses great challenges because of its high resistance to

most authorized antibiotics.

The channel catfish was introduced in most Provinces of China in 1984

and now is widely grown in this country where annual production

reached 150,000 tons in 2008 (China Fishery Bureau, 2009).


Recently, channel catfish in China (Sichuan Province) have been

reported with the “infectious intrussusception syndrome” IIS (Wang et al.,

2006) which is lethal to the infected animals. This syndrome has been

associated with the presence of the opportunistic pathogen

Stenotrophomonas maltophilia (Geng et al., 2010).

Isolated strains were resistant to all penicillins, cephalosporins,

aminoglycosides, ambramycin, erythromycin and rifampicin and only

susceptible to some fluoroquinolones, but only oxolinic acid and

flumequin are allowed to be used in China.


Data from RASFF:

In South East Asia:

Cyclic reporting of antibiotic residues in farmed fish

(Pangasius) and Listeria monocytogenes.


Primary production

Harvesting

Processing

Packaging

Storage

Distribution




Natural processes,


practices ………

EXAMPLES: VIBRIO

Vibrio spp. is a bacterium that lives in coastal waters worldwide

and causes gastroenteritis in humans;

The proliferation of Vibrio spp. populations in sea water is

strongly influenced by the presence of warm water (Sedas, 2007)

In Europe, it has been suggested that human incidence of V.

vulnificus and V. parahaemolyticus is increasing, while at the

same time is underestimated, due to lack of surveillance

information (Baker-Austin et al., 2010), and lack of specific and

harmonised detection methods (EC, 2001; Fabbro et al. 2009).

Sporadic outbreaks have been reported in Spain in 2004

(Lozano-Leon et al., 2006) and several other European countries

including Germany in 2006, Greece and Italy in 2008 and Spain

in 2009 (Baker-Austin et al., 2010)

EXAMPLES: VIBRIO

In the USA, Vibrio parahaemolyticus is the leading cause of

bacterial illness associated with raw or undercooked seafood

consumption and in particular oysters (Nordstrom et al., 2007);

Emergent highly virulent strains of V. parahaemolyticus obtained

from patients originally in Asian countries, but currently spreading

into North America, have been termed pandemic strains.

One of this V. parahaemolyticus pandemic strains has been

isolated from a marine water sample during a sampling campaign

in the Northern Adriatic sea (Carbulotto et al., 2008)

EXAMPLES: VIBRIO

Thought …………

• Warming EU waters

• More global travel (people, boats, produce ….)

• Consumer trend for more raw seafood

…………………. Future scenario ?

EXAMPLES: VIBRIO AND MARINE BIOTOXINS

Growth of Vibrio spp in Northern Waters and detection of

pufferfish toxin tetrodotoxin in European bivalves

Report of study, carried out by the UK Centre for Environment Fisheries and

Aquaculture Science and University of Hull published in Eurosurveillance on 15

January 2015.

29 shellfish samples (Mylitus edulis and Crassostrea giggs) harvested

between February 2014 and October 2014 from two sites on the south

coast of England.

Researchers report first detection of tetrodotoxin (TTX) in European

bivalve shellfish:

The TTX toxins have previously been assumed not to occur in

bivalve molluscs, particularly in temperate waters.

Additionally, eleven of these 29 shellfish samples were found to contain

V paraheamolyticus in the shellfish tissue.

EXAMPLES: MARINE BIOTOXINS

Vibrio spp. has been reported to be associated with TTX production:

The detection of TTX in all but one of the V. paraheamolyticus cultures

isolated may be significant, providing additional compelling evidence for

the production of TTX by Vibrio spp.

The researchers suggest that given the increasingly favourable

conditions for Vibrio proliferation in European waters as sea surface

temperatures will possibly rise in the coming decades, the potential for

growth of autochthonous marine bacteria such as Vibrio should be more

widely investigated.


Primary production

Harvesting

Processing

Packaging

Storage

Distribution




Natural processes,


practices ………


Okadaic acid in Manila clams

Ecological modification of a confined habitat

• Gracilaria vermiculophilla appeared and populated a lagoon

used for clam production

• Rapidly displaced the resident macro-algae Ulca lactuca.

• Unlike Ulva lactuca it shows anchoring behaviour

• Hypothesis: Gracilaria vermiculophilla favours the toxigenic

microalga Prorocentrum lima which is epiphitic and bentonic


• Gracilaria vermiculophilla native to east Asia

• First appeared in the Adriatic sea in 2008 (area of Venice)

• Introduced by cruise ships to Venice?

• Gracilaria anchors to the sediment where the clams are

• Competitive advantage over Ulva lactuca (floating alga) (more

difficult to manually remove)

• It appears to tolerate low salinity better than Ulva

• Intensive clam farming removes phytoplancton through

filtration leaving abundant nutrients available to Gracilaria

• Removal of Gracilaria poses the problem of its disposal

• Biogas-producing plant being considered


Primary production

Harvesting

Processing

Packaging

Storage

Distribution




Natural processes,


practices ………


Ciguatera!

MICROPLASTICS IN MARINE ENVIRONMENTS

Main title

A GLOBAL VILLAGE

Main title

Many thanks to EREN ! And EFSA staff and Panels, StaCGER, International partners

Questions ?

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