A 3.7 million pound (UK) research programme to investigate the transmission of disease-causing bacteria from cattle, to slaughterhouse and through to beef destined for human consumption is underway. These new studies will improve our understanding of how, when and why food-borne infections occur - often with major public health implications.
Over the next five years, funding from the world's largest medical research charity, the Wellcome Trust, will enable an international team of experts to conduct the UK's largest scientific investigation into the evolution and epidemiology of enterobacteria since the publication of the Pennington Report on E. coli in 1997.
Led by Professor Mark Woolhouse from the University of Edinburgh, the research includes the study of 500 Scottish beef farms conducted with the Scottish Agricultural College which, combined with existing data, will build up a comprehensive picture of the prevalence of enterobacteria in cattle.
Enterobacteria are food-borne infections which pose a serious threat to human health, especially in groups such as the elderly and young. Transmitted through contaminated meat and dairy products, enterobacteria include E. coli and salmonella. The highly infectious strain E. coli 0157, responsible for the Central Scotland outbreak in 1996 (which affected almost 500 people), is one of several enterobacteria under investigation.
Comprising scientists from the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, London's Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine, Emory University in Atlanta, USA, and colleagues in Canada and Germany, the collaboration has joined forces to: study how enterobacteria are transmitted from cattle farms through to human populations; trace how and when cattle become contaminated; look at the genetic structure of enterobacteria in cattle and humans; study the factors involved in making some bacteria resistant to antibiotics; and contribute to the design of effective enterobacteria control programmes.
Commenting on the research, Professor Mark Woolhouse said: "At present, we know cattle are a major reservoir of enterobacteria but, because animals who carry the bacteria rarely suffer clinical disease, we cannot estimate the scale of the problem. What we propose to do is find out how widespread cattle infection is and how, if at all, enterobacteria disease is transmitted from cattle to humans."
The research is unique in bringing together scientific, medical and veterinary experts and proposes to investigate diverse elements involved in the transmission of enterobacteria infections between cattle and humans. As well as producing the first data of its kind on enterobacteria, it is hoped the research will provide public health and food safety agencies with the information they require for the design of appropriate intervention strategies and control programmes.
For further information: Noorece Ahmed/Catherine Nestor/Ify Uwechue Press Office, The Wellcome Trust Tel: 0171 611 8540 / 8846 / 8612 Fax: 0171 611 8416 Email: [email protected]
Notes to editors:
1. The multi-disciplinary collaboration comprises five components:
a) Transmission dynamics in the field: led by Professor Mark Woolhouse, from the Department of Tropical Animal Health, University of Edinburgh, in collaboration with the Scottish Agricultural College. b) Peri and post harvest risk identification and quantification of food-borne transmission: led by Professor Stuart Reid from the Department of Veterinary Clinical Studies, University of Glasgow, in collaboration with the University of Guelph, Canada, and the Scottish Centre for Industrial and Environmental Health. c) Transfer of antibiotic resistance and virulence genes between host populations: led by Professor Sebastian Amyes from the Department of Medical Microbiology, University of Edinburgh. d) Novel molecular approaches to study enterohaemorrhagic E. coli: led by Professor Gordon Dougan from the Department of Biochemistry, Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine, London. e) Population dynamics of antibiotic resistance and virulence plasmids and shiga toxin-encoding phages: led by Professor Bruce Levin from Emory University in Atlanta, USA.
2. The Pennington Group: Report on the circumstances leading to the 1996 outbreak of infection with E. coli 0157 in Central Scotland, the implications for food safety and the lessons to be learned (April 1997 - Published by The Stationery Office, Edinburgh).
3. The 3 million pound project has been funded through the Wellcome Trust's International Partnership Research Awards in Veterinary Epidemiology, which seeks to engage worldwide expertise and provides resources for veterinary epidemiology research. The initiative results from an awareness of the increasing dangers to both veterinary and human public health posed by new and emerging zoonotic diseases (eg BSE) and by food-borne diseases of animal origin (eg E. coli 0157 and Salmonella).
4. The Wellcome Trust is the world's largest medical research charity with an annual spend of 400 million pounds. The Wellcome Trust supports more than 3,000 researchers, at 300 locations, in 30 different countries - laying the foundations for the development of new and better treatment of diseases in the next century and helping to maintain the UK's reputation as one of the world's leading scientific nations. As well as funding major initiatives in the public understanding of science, the Wellcome Trust is the country's leading supporter of research into the history of medicine.
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