The methods of identification of 19 new strains of campylobacter, which causes more cases of food-borne gastro-intestinal illness than any other bacterium in the developed world, were examined yesterday by European scientific experts in Dublin.
Dr Geraldine Duffy, head of food safety at Ashtown Food Research Centre, said that cases of infection had almost exclusively been linked to two strains of it, C.jejuni and C.coli, and routine examination of clinical and food samples only looked for those strains. Recent research indicated the number of clinically significant campylobacter strains were being grossly underestimated and at least 19 new strains had been identified.
More than 2,600 cases were notified on the island of Ireland in 2004, which was over three times the number of salmonella cases. There were 1,711 human cases in the Republic.
Dr Stephen On, head of the food safety programme at the Institute of Environmental Science and Research in New Zealand, said the detection methods used to date were unsuited to the majority of species of the bacterium.
Prof Albert Lastovica, University of Cape Town, said that reservoirs of newly identified strains of campylobacter had been found in pigs, sheep, cattle and poultry.