Exploring the significance of possible neglected routes of foodborne pathogens exogenous to EU27: The WP1 activity of EU-FP7 - PROMISE

The EU FP7 Project PROMISE (2012-2014) strives for multidimensional and multidisciplinary networking to improve and increase the integration, collaboration and knowledge transfer between the new member states, old member states (EU15) and candidate countries through a collaborative work plan on exchange of expertise and regional training and dissemination actions, on the area of foodborne zoonoses.(WP1 to WP6). One of the main objectives is to estimate the significance of possible neglected routes of foodborne pathogens and to identify so far unknown risks for transmission of pathogens from exogenous sources (WP1) with special regards to uncontrolled imports. In this WP1, there are 11 institutes of 10 EU member-, and one accession country using uniform and standardized methods to detect major foodborne pathogens ( Listeria, Salmonella, Campylobacter , VTEC, Stathylococcus aureus and multidrug resistant E. coli ) in order to provide data for later risk assessments on those routes relative to the national prevalence of these pathogens. The WP1 part of the Project has the goal of collecting, analyzing >2500 samples from exogenous sources (i.e. confiscated food samples of mainly animal origin from EU border control stations, or from exogenous markets). Regarding expected WP1 results, the prevalence found and plotted against national monitoring data will show the first time if the prevalence of foodborne pathogens as found in illegally imported food are higher, or even lower than from comparable domestic sources. The recovered isolates are of high value since only very few laboratories in Europe can provide, analyze and store isolates from such usually untested sources.