2008/741 Human enteric viruses in Australian bivalve molluscan shellfish

By Felicity Brake

There have been many outbreaks of gastroenteritis related to the consumption of bivalve molluscan shellfish contaminated with human noroviruses, which have had a serious impact on both public health and the economy.

At the Codex Committee for Food Hygiene (2007) it was agreed that viruses are an important food safety concern, and a regulatory norovirus standard for shellfish is scheduled to be introduced within 5 years in the European Union. Currently Australia has no specialised capacity to test for the presence of enteric viruses in shellfish and relies on indicator organisms, which may not correlate well with virus presence in product. As test methodologies improve and become standardised throughout the world there will be increasing demands on Australian product (or growing areas) to be certified 'virus-free'.

This PhD project aims to establish 'state of the art' virus testing procedures for bivalve molluscan shellfish, to establish background virus levels in key Australian shellfisheries and toidentify future risk assessment and management work. This should provide a platform to 'future-proof' the Australian shellfish sector against virus regulation and consequential market access ramifications.