title: Comparison of Listeria monocytogenes isolates across the island of Ireland.
abstract: Building a comprehensive knowledge base of the association of Listeria monocytogenes isolates across national food chains, clinical cases, and environments can play a key role in helping control the incidence of listeriosis. Today, many food chains cross national borders and are often shared by neighboring countries. This study characterized L. monocytogenes isolated from food samples in Northern Ireland and investigated whether similarities in the population and associations of L. monocytogenes strains exist in the neighboring countries of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, which together constitute the island of Ireland. Listeria monocytogenes isolates were characterized using serotyping and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis subtyping. This data was then interrogated against existing data for the Republic of Ireland, to identify any shared trends in the ecology and contamination patterns of L. monocytogenes strains. The results of this study indicated that contaminated food products often shared L. monocytogenes strains with other products. A total of six different strain subtypes were identified among 18 contaminated products. Overall strain diversity in positive samples was low, with no sample yielding more than one L. monocytogenes strain, as determined by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis subtyping. When comparisons against an Irish strain database were performed, many related strain subtypes were also shared by a variety of sources in the Republic of Ireland. This study highlights the potential benefits that a whole-island surveillance approach may present to food safety and public health in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
authors.affiliation: UCD Centre for Food Safety, School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Population Science, University College Dublin, Republic of Ireland.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hurley
authors.affiliation: UCD Centre for Food Safety, School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Population Science, University College Dublin, Republic of Ireland.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Luque-Sastre
authors.affiliation: Department of Bacteriology, National University of Ireland, Galway, Republic of Ireland.
authors.forename: Niall
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: DeLappe
authors.affiliation: Northern Ireland Public Health Laboratory, Department of Bacteriology, Belfast City Hospital, Belfast BT9 AD, Northern Ireland, UK.
authors.forename: John E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Moore
authors.affiliation: Department of Bacteriology, National University of Ireland, Galway, Republic of Ireland.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cormican
authors.affiliation: Teagasc Food Research Centre, Moorepark, Fermoy, County Cork, Republic of Ireland.
authors.forename: Kieran N
authors.initials: KN
authors.lastname: Jordan
authors.affiliation: UCD Centre for Food Safety, School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Population Science, University College Dublin, Republic of Ireland.
authors.forename: Séamus
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fanning
authors.affiliation: UCD Centre for Food Safety, School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Population Science, University College Dublin, Republic of Ireland; CSIRO Animal, Food and Health Sciences, Werribee, Victoria 3030, Australia. Edward.fox@csiro.au.
authors.forename: Edward M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Fox
mesh_terms: D016521:Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis; D005516:Food Microbiology; D006801:Humans; D007494:Ireland; D008089:Listeria monocytogenes / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D008088:Listeriosis / Q000382:microbiology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009660:Northern Ireland; D010802:Phylogeny; D012703:Serotyping