title: Preliminary Study on Norovirus, Hepatitis A Virus,Escherichia coliand their Potential Seasonality in Shellfish from Different Growing and Harvesting Areas in Sardinia Region.
abstract: Edible lamellibranch molluscs can be involved in foodborne disease and infections of varying severity. They are filter feeding animals able to retain and concentrate in their organism bacteria, parasites, viruses and biotoxins marine algae present in their external environment. Major shellfish harvesting and relaying areas from different areas in Sardinia region were defined and studied by analysing different physicochemical parameters in the water and the levels ofEscherichia coli(E. coli), Norovirus (NoVs) genogroup I (NoVGI), NoVs genogroup II (NoVGII) and hepatitis A virus (HAV) in the shellfish harvested and farmed from 2009 to 2011. During that period the identification of the viral agents was carried out by one step real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction andEscherichia coliaccording to ISO TS 16649-3:2005 standard method. A total of 1266 shellfish samples were tested for NoVGI, NoVGII, HAV and faecal indicators. Norovirus contamination was found in 337 samples (26.6%); only one sample of mussels was positive for HAV (0.08%); whileE. coliprevalence was 3.8% in shellfish. The probability of observing shellfish samples positive for NoVs, HAV andE. colipresence was associated with harvesting, growing and relaying areas, period of sampling, environmental parameters, animal species (P<0.05). Although the higher prevalence rate of human enteropathogenic viruses was found in the winter period, we did not observe a significant relationship between the effect of seawater temperature (seasonality) and NoVs presence all over the study period; in fact, according to statistical analysis, the presence of human enteric viruses does not appear to be related to water temperature.
authors: Dipartimento di Igiene degli Alimenti, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Sardegna , Sassari, Italy.
authors: Riccardo
authors: R
authors: Bazzardi
authors: Dipartimento di Igiene degli Alimenti, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Sardegna , Sassari, Italy.
authors: Maria Caterina
authors: MC
authors: Fattaccio
authors: Dipartimento di Igiene degli Alimenti, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Sardegna , Sassari, Italy.
authors: Sara
authors: S
authors: Salza
authors: Dipartimento di Igiene degli Alimenti, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Sardegna , Sassari, Italy.
authors: Antonella
authors: A
authors: Canu
authors: Dipartimento di Igiene degli Alimenti, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Sardegna , Sassari, Italy.
authors: Edoardo
authors: E
authors: Marongiu
authors: Dipartimento di Igiene degli Alimenti, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Sardegna , Sassari, Italy.
authors: Margherita
authors: M
authors: Pisanu
keywords: Bivalve molluscs; Food safety; Logistic regression