The European Union summary report on trends and sources of zoonoses, zoonotic agents and food-borne outbreaks in 2017
Cases of salmonellosis and campylobacteriosis have remained stable over the past five years, although listeriosis is on the rise. In 2017, there was an average of 100 food- and waterborne outbreaks per week.
Executive summary
This report of the European Food Safety Authority and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control presents the results of zoonoses monitoring activities carried out in 2017 in 37 European countries: 28 European Union (EU) Member States and nine non-Member States.
Campylobacteriosis was the most commonly reported zoonosis and its EU trend for confirmed human cases increasing since 2008 stabilised during 2013–2017. The decreasing EU trend for confirmed human salmonellosis cases since 2008 ended during 2013–2017, and the proportion of human Salmonella Enteritidis cases increased, mostly due to one country starting to report serotype data. The notification rate of human listeriosis further increased in 2017, despite Listeria seldom exceeding the EU food safety limit in ready-to-eat food.
The decreasing EU trend for confirmed yersiniosis cases since 2008 stabilised during 2013–2017. The number of confirmed shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) infections in humans was stable.
A total of 5 079 food-borne (including waterborne) outbreaks were reported. Salmonella was the commonest detected agent with S. Enteritidis causing one out of seven outbreaks, followed by other bacteria, bacterial toxins and viruses. The agent was unknown in 37.6% of all outbreaks. Salmonella in eggs and Salmonella in meat and meat products were the highest risk agent/food pairs.
The report further summarises trends and sources for bovine tuberculosis, Brucella, Trichinella, Echinococcus, Toxoplasma, rabies, Coxiella burnetii (Q fever), West Nile virus and tularaemia.
