Tracking salmonellae in Australia

Abstract

For effective food-borne disease prevention a country requires a comprehensive and accurate surveillance scheme. The Microbiological Diagnostic Unit developed and operates the National Enteric Pathogen Surveillance Scheme (NEPSS). Information about enteric pathogens, particularly Salmonella from human cases and non human sources, is submitted to the NEPSS from laboratories Australia-wide. Each year approximately 6,000 notifications from both human cases and non human sources, are received. The NEPSS has operated for over 15 years with over 180,000 notifications. The broad categories for notification are human, animal, milk products, egg and egg products, environment and water, and animal and human foodstuffs. Within each category more specific information is requested. The Salmonella case rate varies considerably between each state with a range of 18.4/100,000 for Victoria and 238.3/100,000 for the Northern Territory (1996 data). While there are specific differences in the dominant Salmonella serovars in each state, S. typhimurium remains the main seronvar. To date S. enteritidis phage type 4 is not a major cause of Australian acquired overseas, particularly from Southeast Asia. The NEPSS retains other information, such as antibiotic resistance profiles, phage types, biochemical variation, molecular finger printing all of which are crucial markers in epidemiological investigations. An early warning system to detect potential out-breaks utilising the NEPSS data base, is operated each week.