Norovirus in French Oysters

Two new alerts for norovirus in french oysters have been published in the RASFF [Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed]

• Alert from Sweden
• Alert from Denmark

Norovirus and Oysters, a love story

As recently published in a linkedin Post, norovirus are often found in bivalve shellfish as they specifically bind to digestive ducts. 

Conventional depuration will not eliminate noroviruses from oyster tissue (Le Guyader, 2006).

Four Norovirus alerts in the RASFF

 

This is the fourth Norovirus alert in the RASFF this year, with 75% of bivalve shellfish implicated, from French, Dutch and Irish origins.

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Norovirus, highly contagious

Noroviruses are highly contagious and 10-100 viral particles may be sufficient to infect an individual. They are transmitted primarily through the faecal-oral route, either by consumption of contaminated food or water, or by spreading directly from person to person. Vomiting creates aerosols with high content of virus particles, which enter the oral mucosa or contaminate surfaces. The virus survives a long time on different surfaces and thus, environment may serve as a source of new infections. For more information on norovirus check the ECDC website.