Tick-borne encephalitis : a food safety risk for humans consuming unpasteurized milk and milk products from goat, sheep and cattle in Sweden

Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) is one of the most important vector-borne human infections affecting the central nervous system and is caused by tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) which is transmitted to humans primarily by ticks, mainly Ixodes spp. The ticks are expanding their distribution in Swed...

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Autor principal: Hanberger, Alexander
Formato: H2
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: SLU/Dept. of Biomedical Sciences and Veterinary Public Health (until 231231) 2020
Materias:
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author Hanberger, Alexander
author_browse Hanberger, Alexander
author_facet Hanberger, Alexander
author_sort Hanberger, Alexander
collection Epsilon Archive for Student Projects
description Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) is one of the most important vector-borne human infections affecting the central nervous system and is caused by tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) which is transmitted to humans primarily by ticks, mainly Ixodes spp. The ticks are expanding their distribution in Sweden and the number of reported cases of human TBE in Sweden has been increasing considerably since the end of the 20th century. Ruminants do not show clinical signs when infected by TBEV but can secrete the virus via milk which can cause food-borne outbreaks of TBE. Several outbreaks have been reported in Europe but no such case has yet been reported in Sweden. In this study, the presence of TBEV antibodies in bulk milk from 108 dairy farms in Sweden were analyzed using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Antibodies were detected in 3.7% (n=4) of the samples and 15.7% (n=17) had levels of antibodies on the border between positive and negative (borderline value). The results indicate that it could be a risk for humans to contract TBE if consuming unpasteurized milk in Sweden. A descriptive study based on a questionnaire to the farmers was also included in this study. Based on the questionnaire results, several factors may contribute to the risk of food-borne TBE on Swedish farms such as (lack of) pasteurization of milk and low human vaccination status. Further studies are needed to investigate if there is TBEV present in milk or ticks from seropositive and potentially seropositive (borderline) farms.
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institution Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
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publishDate 2020
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spelling RepoSLU163782021-12-31T00:15:04Z Tick-borne encephalitis : a food safety risk for humans consuming unpasteurized milk and milk products from goat, sheep and cattle in Sweden Hanberger, Alexander TBEV Tick borne encephalitis milk pasteurization Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) is one of the most important vector-borne human infections affecting the central nervous system and is caused by tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) which is transmitted to humans primarily by ticks, mainly Ixodes spp. The ticks are expanding their distribution in Sweden and the number of reported cases of human TBE in Sweden has been increasing considerably since the end of the 20th century. Ruminants do not show clinical signs when infected by TBEV but can secrete the virus via milk which can cause food-borne outbreaks of TBE. Several outbreaks have been reported in Europe but no such case has yet been reported in Sweden. In this study, the presence of TBEV antibodies in bulk milk from 108 dairy farms in Sweden were analyzed using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Antibodies were detected in 3.7% (n=4) of the samples and 15.7% (n=17) had levels of antibodies on the border between positive and negative (borderline value). The results indicate that it could be a risk for humans to contract TBE if consuming unpasteurized milk in Sweden. A descriptive study based on a questionnaire to the farmers was also included in this study. Based on the questionnaire results, several factors may contribute to the risk of food-borne TBE on Swedish farms such as (lack of) pasteurization of milk and low human vaccination status. Further studies are needed to investigate if there is TBEV present in milk or ticks from seropositive and potentially seropositive (borderline) farms. SLU/Dept. of Biomedical Sciences and Veterinary Public Health (until 231231) 2020 H2 eng https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/16378/
spellingShingle TBEV
Tick borne encephalitis
milk
pasteurization
Hanberger, Alexander
Tick-borne encephalitis : a food safety risk for humans consuming unpasteurized milk and milk products from goat, sheep and cattle in Sweden
title Tick-borne encephalitis : a food safety risk for humans consuming unpasteurized milk and milk products from goat, sheep and cattle in Sweden
title_full Tick-borne encephalitis : a food safety risk for humans consuming unpasteurized milk and milk products from goat, sheep and cattle in Sweden
title_fullStr Tick-borne encephalitis : a food safety risk for humans consuming unpasteurized milk and milk products from goat, sheep and cattle in Sweden
title_full_unstemmed Tick-borne encephalitis : a food safety risk for humans consuming unpasteurized milk and milk products from goat, sheep and cattle in Sweden
title_short Tick-borne encephalitis : a food safety risk for humans consuming unpasteurized milk and milk products from goat, sheep and cattle in Sweden
title_sort tick-borne encephalitis : a food safety risk for humans consuming unpasteurized milk and milk products from goat, sheep and cattle in sweden
topic TBEV
Tick borne encephalitis
milk
pasteurization