- PDF Version (2.7M) - Print Friendly - Help

Food Focus November 2007

New additions to Campylobacter strategy

NZFSA’s updated Campylobacter in Poultry Risk Management Strategy has some stringent additions that it anticipates will lead to significant reductions in this country’s high levels of human campylobacteriosis

NZFSA is looking to encourage the greatest reductions in bacteria numbers as early as possible in the processing food chain. Together with the poultry industry, NZFSA will introduce an interim performance target mandated from 1 April 2008. This should assist NZFSA in meeting its target of reducing human cases of foodborne campylobacteriosis acquired in New Zealand by 50% over the next five years.

This time lag will allow industry sufficient time to put the necessary changes to production systems in place, and introduce new food safety technologies. With the support of the poultry industry, NZFSA will take strong action against premises that do not meet the target. Ultimately, sanctions could escalate to closing down poor-performing premises.

”Like the rest of New Zealand, NZFSA is very concerned about this country’s high levels of Campylobacter”, says Dr Andrew McKenzie, NZFSA’s Acting Chief Executive. He is hopeful that mandating a performance target will considerably reduce human cases of campylobacteriosis while leaving the intervention decisions to industry.

While poultry is recognised as the primary pathway for over half the country’s reported rates of foodborne campylobacteriosis, NZFSA is also mindful of the other pathways, and, in association with other interested government departments, is looking at the environment, other foods and domestic animals, in efforts to reduce the country’s unacceptably high infection rates.

NZFSA continues to stress the need for ongoing consumer vigilance in the home. “While everything possible is presently being done to improve this country’s high rates of campylobacteriosis, New Zealanders need to heed our simple ‘Clean, Cook, Cover, Chill’ and ‘20 seconds wash + 20 seconds dry = clean hands’ messages, which will help ensure they have the best chance of avoiding campylobacteriosis, as well as most other foodborne illnesses”, Dr McKenzie says.

New Zealand campylobacteriosis rates for 2006
No. of cases	15,873 (383.5/100,000 popn)
Hospitalisations	969 (7.3%)
Deaths	1

What we know and what we want to know

We don’t yet know why, but we do know that compared to other countries New Zealand has a very high rate of campylobacteriosis. Experts attribute some 60% of the annual total to be caused by food. Risk modeling and food attribution work to date suggest that of the foodborne cases over 60% may be poultry associated.

As shown in Figure 1, the rate of cases per 100,000 of population is much higher here than elsewhere.

Tracking the monthly reported cases, these vary from month to month and year to year. While there has been some improvement compared with last year’s mid-year spike, we are still tracking at similar rates to previous years (see Figure 2). The message is simple – there is clear room for improvement – and this is where NZFSA’s Campylobacter strategy comes in, including a dedicated workstream on human health surveillance of this pathogen.

The overall objectives of NZFSA’s Campylobacter strategy are to:

• reduce the incidence of foodborne human campylobacteriosis

• better quantify proportion of cases attributable to poultry

• understand the relative value of different interventions throughout the food chain in reducing risks to human health

• provide the basis for informed risk management decisions and their implementation

• design and implement an ongoing monitoring and review programme.

One of the key work areas coming out of the strategy is increased surveillance to better understand the situation here, including:

• enhanced surveillance of potentially foodborne enteric diseases in New Zealand

• comparing human and poultry Campylobacter isolates

• determining the relative contribution of food pathways to the burden of human campylobacteriosis in NZ

• determining the incidence of foodborne human campylobacteriosis from poultry relative to other sources.

Further information about NZFSA’s strategy is available online at http://www.nzfsa.govt.nz/foodborne-illness/campylobacter/strategy.htm.