Skip to content Skip to navigation
University of Warwick
  • Study
  • |
  • Research
  • |
  • Business
  • |
  • Alumni
  • |
  • News
  • |
  • About

University of Warwick
Publications service & WRAP

Highlight your research

  • WRAP
    • Home
    • Search WRAP
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse WRAP by Year
    • Browse WRAP by Subject
    • Browse WRAP by Department
    • Browse WRAP by Funder
    • Browse Theses by Department
  • Publications Service
    • Home
    • Search Publications Service
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse Publications service by Year
    • Browse Publications service by Subject
    • Browse Publications service by Department
    • Browse Publications service by Funder
  • Help & Advice
University of Warwick

The Library

  • Login
  • Admin

Partial failure of milk pasteurization as a risk for the transmission of campylobacter from cattle to humans

Tools
- Tools
+ Tools

Fernandes, Anand M., Balasegaram, Sooria, Willis, Caroline, Wimalarathna, Helen M. L., Maiden, Martin C. J. and McCarthy, Noel D. (2015) Partial failure of milk pasteurization as a risk for the transmission of campylobacter from cattle to humans. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 61 (6). pp. 903-909. 431. doi:10.1093/cid/civ431 ISSN 1058-4838.

[img]
Preview
PDF
WRAP_Clin Infect Dis.-2015-Fernandes-903-9.pdf - Requires a PDF viewer.
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.

Download (372Kb) | Preview
Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cid/civ431

Request Changes to record.

Abstract

Background.
Cattle are the second most common source of human campylobacteriosis. However, routes to account for this scale of transmission have not been identified. In contrast to chicken, red meat is not heavily contaminated at point of sale. Although effective pasteurization prevents milk-borne infection, apparently sporadic infections may include undetected outbreaks from raw or perhaps incompletely pasteurized milk.

Methods. 
A rise in Campylobacter gastroenteritis in an isolated population was investigated using whole-genome sequencing (WGS), an epidemiological study, and environmental investigations.

Results. 
A single strain was identified in 20 cases, clearly distinguishable from other local strains and a reference population by WGS. A case-case analysis showed association of infection with the outbreak strain and milk from a single dairy (odds ratio, 8; Fisher exact test P value = .023). Despite temperature records indicating effective pasteurization, mechanical faults likely to lead to incomplete pasteurization of part of the milk were identified by further testing and examination of internal components of dairy equipment.

Conclusions. 
Here, milk distribution concentrated on a small area, including school-aged children with low background incidence of campylobacteriosis, facilitated outbreak identification. Low-level contamination of widely distributed milk would not produce as detectable an outbreak signal. Such hidden outbreaks may contribute to the substantial burden of apparently sporadic Campylobacter from cattle where transmission routes are not certain. The effective discrimination of outbreak isolates from a reference population using WGS shows that integrating these data and approaches into surveillance could support the detection as well as investigation of such outbreaks.

Item Type: Journal Article
Subjects: R Medicine > RC Internal medicine
S Agriculture > SF Animal culture
Divisions: Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Medicine > Warwick Medical School > Health Sciences > Population, Evidence & Technologies (PET)
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Medicine > Warwick Medical School
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): Campylobacter infections, Animals as carriers of disease, Milk -- Pasteurization
Journal or Publication Title: Clinical Infectious Diseases
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISSN: 1058-4838
Official Date: 15 September 2015
Dates:
DateEvent
15 September 2015Published
10 June 2015Available
8 April 2015Accepted
UNSPECIFIEDSubmitted
Volume: 61
Number: 6
Number of Pages: 6
Page Range: pp. 903-909
Article Number: 431
DOI: 10.1093/cid/civ431
Status: Peer Reviewed
Publication Status: Published
Access rights to Published version: Open Access (Creative Commons)
Funder: Public Health England, Seventh Framework Programme (European Commission) (FP7)
Grant number: 278864 (FP7)

Request changes or add full text files to a record

Repository staff actions (login required)

View Item View Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics

twitter

Email us: wrap@warwick.ac.uk
Contact Details
About Us