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Risk Assessment of choleragenic Vibrio cholerae O1 and O139 in Warm-Water Shrimp in International Trade. Interpretative Summary and Technical Report. Microbiological Risk Assessment Series (MRA) 9

Year of publication 2006

Place of publication Rome, Italy ;

Pages 99 p.

Author FAO/WHO

Publisher FAO / WHO ;

Product type Book (series)

ISBN 92 4 156312 5 (WHO)

Series title Microbiological Risk Assessment Series

Series number 9

Edition 1

Synopsis (short abstract) Outbreaks of cholera have been associated with consumption of seafood including oysters, crabs and shrimp (Oliver and Kaper, 1997). In the early 1990s, a pandemic of cholera swept through South and Central America. The outbreaks seemed to begin in Peru, where there were more than 400 000 cases and 4 000 deaths (Wolfe, 1992). However, the mortality rate may have been higher but for the readily available oral electrolyte stations throughout Latin America, established as a precaution when WHO anticipated the pandemic would jump from Africa to Latin America. Although no cases of cholera were associated with the consumption of commercial seafood, the industry, including shrimp exports, were negatively affected. The outbreak in the 1990s cost Peru US$ 770 million as a result of food trade embargos and adverse effects on tourism (WHO, no date). Similarly, the European Union (EU) banned importation of fish from eastern Africa as a result of an outbreak of cholera in the reg ion. This ban lasted from late December 1997 until June 1998, even though opinions of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Health Organization rejected the restriction indicating it was "not the most appropriate response" (FAO, 1998).

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