Abstract
Imported Mollusks and Dissemination of Human Enteric Viruses
Highlights
Hepatitis A virus (HAV) and norovirus (NoV) constitute the most important foodborne pathogens of humans in terms of numbers of outbreaks and persons affected in industrialized countries [1,2]
Improvement of health conditions and development of specific vaccines are changing the epidemiologic pattern of diseases such as hepatitis A, decreasing their prevalence and increasing the susceptibility of the unvaccinated adult population [1]
We present further evidence that imported shellfish from developing countries, where these pathogens are endemic, can be a vehicle for viral gastroenteritis and HAV infections in areas where they are not endemic
Summary
To the Editor: The globalization of food production and trade has increased the potential risk for infectious foodborne diseases. Hepatitis A virus (HAV) and norovirus (NoV) constitute the most important foodborne pathogens of humans in terms of numbers of outbreaks and persons affected in industrialized countries [1,2]. In these countries, improvement of health conditions and development of specific vaccines are changing the epidemiologic pattern of diseases such as hepatitis A, decreasing their prevalence and increasing the susceptibility of the unvaccinated adult population [1]. To calculate the real-time RT-PCR efficiencies, external viral RNA (HAV, 103 copies) or synthetic DNA (NoV, 105 copies) controls for the respective virus were co-amplified with each template viral RNA as described [8]. The number of RNA viral genome copies per gram of digestive tissue (RNA copies/g digestive tissue) was estimated by using standard curves generated from RNA transcripts and synthetic DNA [8] and corrected with the extraction and realtime RT-PCR efficiencies
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