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Follow-Up of Norovirus Contamination in an Oyster Production Area Linked to Repeated Outbreaks

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Abstract

A production area repeatedly implicated in oyster-related gastroenteritis in France was studied for several months over 2 years. Outbreaks and field samples were analyzed by undertaking triplicate extractions, followed by norovirus (NoV) detection using triplicate wells for genomic amplification. This approach allowed us to demonstrate that some variabilities can be observed for samples with a low level of contamination, but most samples analyzed gave reproducible results. At the first outbreak, implicated oysters were collected at the beginning of the contamination event, which was reflected by the higher NoV levels during the first month of the study. During the second year, NoV concentrations in samples implicated in outbreaks and collected from the production area were similar, confirming the failure of the shellfish depuration process. Contamination was detected mainly during winter-spring months, and a high prevalence of NoV GI contamination was observed. A half-life of 18 days was calculated from NoV concentrations detected in oysters during this study, showing a very slow decrease of the contamination in the production area. Preventing the contamination of coastal waters should be a priority.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by grants 2013 and 2015 from DGAl (Direction Generale de l’Alimentation) and by the EU-H2020 Grant N°643476 COMPARE. We are grateful to Catherine McLeod (Seafood Safety Assessment) for a critical review of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to S. Françoise Le Guyader.

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None of the authors have a conflict of interest.

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Cécile Le Mennec and Sylvain Parnaudeau have contributed equally to the work.

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Le Mennec, C., Parnaudeau, S., Rumebe, M. et al. Follow-Up of Norovirus Contamination in an Oyster Production Area Linked to Repeated Outbreaks. Food Environ Virol 9, 54–61 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12560-016-9260-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12560-016-9260-6

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