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A foodborne outbreak of sapovirus linked to catered box lunches in Japan

Archives of Virology volume 157, pages 1995–1997 (2012)Cite this article

Abstract

Sapovirus (SaV) is a common cause of acute viral gastroenteritis worldwide, and SaV outbreaks have become more frequent in recent years. In January 2010, an outbreak of acute gastroenteritis due to SaV occurred in Aichi, Gifu and Mie Prefectures, Japan. The illness was strongly associated with eating a delivered box lunch prepared by one catering company. In total, 655 (17.1 %) of 3827 individuals developed gastroenteritic symptoms. SaV was detected in seven of the nine people who became ill and in seven of the 52 food handlers at the catering company, but all the tested samples were negative for norovirus and enteropathogenic bacteria. Sequence analysis of RT-PCR products indicated that the nucleotide sequences of SaV strains from the people who became ill and the food handlers were identical. The detected SaV strains were genogrouped as SaV genotype I.2. This was the largest foodborne outbreak of sapovirus in Japan.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the staff of Ichinomiya Public Health Center in Aichi Prefecture for epidemiological data.

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Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Virology, Aichi Prefectural Institute of Public Health, 7-6 Nagare, Tsuji-machi, Kita-ku, Nagoya, Aichi, 462-8576, Japan

    Shinichi Kobayashi, Noriko Fujiwara, Yoshihiro Yasui, Teruo Yamashita, Reiji Hiramatsu & Hiroko Minagawa

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  1. Shinichi Kobayashi
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  2. Noriko Fujiwara
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  3. Yoshihiro Yasui
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  4. Teruo Yamashita
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  5. Reiji Hiramatsu
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  6. Hiroko Minagawa
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Correspondence to Shinichi Kobayashi.

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Kobayashi, S., Fujiwara, N., Yasui, Y. et al. A foodborne outbreak of sapovirus linked to catered box lunches in Japan. Arch Virol 157, 1995–1997 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-012-1394-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-012-1394-8

Keywords

  • Gastroenteritis
  • Food Handler
  • Viral Gastroenteritis
  • Foodborne Outbreak
  • Sapovirus