REDUCING ESCHERICHIA COLI O157 RISK IN RURAL COMMUNITIES
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Aberdeen
Department Name: Inst of Biological and Environmental Sci
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Organisations
Publications
Avery LM
(2009)
Heat and lime-treatment as effective control methods for E. coli O157:H7 in organic wastes.
in Bioresource technology
Cross P
(2012)
Eliciting expert opinion on the effectiveness and practicality of interventions in the farm and rural environment to reduce human exposure to Escherichia coli O157.
in Epidemiology and infection
Cross P
(2009)
Differences in the perceptions of farmers and veterinary surgeons about the efficacy of mitigation strategies for controlling bluetongue.
in The Veterinary record
Edwards-Jones G
(2010)
Does eating local food reduce the environmental impact of food production and enhance consumer health?
in The Proceedings of the Nutrition Society
Franz E
(2014)
Exploiting the explosion of information associated with whole genome sequencing to tackle Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) in global food production systems.
in International journal of food microbiology
Gwyther C
(2011)
The environmental and biosecurity characteristics of livestock carcass disposal methods: A review
in Waste Management
Iain Ogden (Author)
(2008)
Risk maps and MLVA typing elucidate the epidemiology of VTEC infection in NE Scotland
MacRitchie LA
(2014)
Consumer acceptability of interventions to reduce Campylobacter in the poultry food chain.
in Food control
MacRitchie LA
(2013)
A population-based exposure assessment of risk factors associated with gastrointestinal pathogens: a Campylobacter study.
in Epidemiology and infection
Millman C
(2014)
Perceptions, behaviours and kitchen hygiene of people who have and have not suffered campylobacteriosis: A case control study
in Food Control
| Description | The main findings of the research were obtained through a variety of social and natural science methods. A questionnaire of farmers, rural visitors and residents found that: • People think about protecting themselves indoors rather than outdoors • Awareness is highest in farmers particularly in the Grampian region and lowest in visitors to the two areas • Most (83 per cent) identified E. coli O157 as a severe disease however a relatively high proportion of farmers in Grampian (25 per cent) described it as mild • Knowledge of symptoms was similar between groups Antibodies from blood and saliva were measured to give an estimate of exposure and potential immunity of individuals to this pathogen. Results showed that there were a relatively high percentage of people with antibodies (12 per cent) but the levels were not found to be higher in Grampian. Studies were carried out investigating E. coli O157 in a range of soils. It was shown that the organism was able to adapt and survive in low nutrient conditions and it took longer to revive the pathogen the longer it was left in soil. Further, higher population densities remained viable in Scottish soils and at lower temperatures which may be part of the reason why E. coli O157 has a higher incidence in Scotland. Descriptive epidemiology found that twice as many cases per head of population occurred in rural compared with urban areas. The disease was most common in young rural children and hence this group is the one where education about the disease should be targeted. It was unclear why the disease was four-fold higher in Grampian than Wales. The findings from risk assessment and epidemiological models indicated that food and the environment as sources of infection were probably more important than private water supplies. The health care and out-of-pocket costs of the disease were estimated to be approximately £6,000 per case in England/Wales. Assuming these costs are representative of Scotland, the cost to the UK would have been approximately £7.5 million in 2010. Actual costs will be higher because of the long term effects of disease on individuals. Thirty interventions that could reduce human disease were evaluated by expert opinion, risk assessment, financial cost and views of farmers and consumers. The two interventions that scored best for both effectiveness and by expert opinion were to encourage farmers and farm visitors to wash hands following contact with farm animals and vaccination of cattle to control pathogen colonisation and faecal excretion of E. coli O157. Hand washing was also strongly supported by both farmer and consumer focus groups. It was estimated it would cost £7-8 million per year to implement at farms, including petting farms across Scotland and Wales. A potential vaccine met with a mixed response from consumers and farmers who were concerned about the cost (£14-28 million per year). Other interventions that were assessed included treatment of private water supplies and ensuring that foods such as beefburgers were cooked properly. |
| Exploitation Route | Throughout the project there was stakeholder engagement. Indeed stakeholders were interviewed, completed questionnaires and provided key expertise and co-production of knowledge with academics. Dissemination of results to stakeholders has been achieved through presentations at expert committees and to individuals. During the project there have been numerous press articles detailing particular aspects of the research. The project also contributed evidence to the independent investigation of the Godstone petting farm outbreak. The potential impacts on government policy include evidence for underpinning the decision making process. For example the findings that visitors in rural areas were less aware of the risks from E. coli O157, as well as the general view of it being an indoor rather than outdoor risk indicates that there is a requirement for educational information at petting farms and at locations in the countryside frequented by visitors. Further, the information on hand washing is supported by both consumers and farmers as well as being backed up by evidence of its effectiveness from risk assessment and so should be encouraged for use by countryside users. The findings of the work are being published in the scientific press and also presented at international conferences and scientific meetings in the UK. The project has managed to combine both technical and lay views of risk on E. coli O157 for the first time. The techniques used are applicable to other gastrointestinal pathogens and other infectious diseases. |
| Sectors | Agriculture Food and Drink Environment Healthcare |
| URL | http://www.abdn.ac.uk/reluecoliproject |
| Description | The findings have been shared with other scientists through scientific conferences and meetings. We reported the findings to the Food Standards Agency and DEFRA which they will have used to inform their views on policy. It is difficult to directly identify the direct impact of the findings however we did discuss the results of our work which will have informed the VTEC E. coli O157 action plan for Scotland. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2010 |
| Sector | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Healthcare |
| Impact Types | Societal |
| Description | Advice on processing aids in the food industry to Scottish Government |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| Description | Advisory Committee on Microbiology Safety of Food - related to chapter 6 of ACMSF report ACM/1254 |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
| Description | Citation in Food Standards Scotland Risk Assessment on STEC |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Citation in other policy documents |
| Impact | The FSS risk assessment was used to assess the safety of cheese in a food incident. The information from the cited paper helped to underpin the general background information on E. coli O157 in Scotland. |
| URL | https://app.researchfish.com/getform/0/influence-on-policy-and-practice?action=add&zone=portfolio&de... |
| Description | Scottish Health Protection Network: Campyobacter |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Membership of a guideline committee |
| Description | Epidemiology of Private Water Supplies |
| Amount | £157,810 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Government of Scotland |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 08/2017 |
| End | 08/2021 |
| Description | FSS Research Programme |
| Amount | £229,972 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Government of Scotland |
| Department | Food Standards Agency (FSA), Scotland |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 11/2015 |
| End | 03/2017 |
| Description | Food Standards Agency Open Application |
| Amount | £11,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Government of Scotland |
| Department | Food Standards Agency (FSA), Scotland |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 08/2012 |
| End | 04/2013 |
| Description | OECD Co-operative Research Programme Sposnsorship of Conferences |
| Amount | € 30,000 (EUR) |
| Organisation | Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development OECD |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | France |
| Start | 01/2013 |
| End | 12/2013 |
| Description | RESAS Innovation tender |
| Amount | £190,409 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Government of Scotland |
| Department | Scottish Government Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services Division (RESAS) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2016 |
| End | 03/2017 |
| Description | Research |
| Amount | £229,972 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Government of Scotland |
| Department | Food Standards Agency (FSA), Scotland |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 11/2015 |
| End | 03/2017 |
| Title | Best/Worst scaling of interventions |
| Description | Expert opinion on the effectiveness and practicality of environmental interventions to reduce human exposure to Escherichia coli O157. The intervention list was compiled from published research and an initial expert consultation was undertaken to reduce the set of 99 interventions to a more manageable list of 30 interventions. Then experts selected the most and least effective measures from 12 sets of 5 interventions, followed by selecting the most and least practical measure in each set. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2012 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | These data are available via the UKDA at the website below. I am not aware of any impact as of yet. |
| URL | http://relu.data-archive.ac.uk/explore-data/search-browse/Project/?ID=RES-229-25-0012 |
| Title | E. coli O157 Disease Maps |
| Description | E.coli O157 incidence in Grampian and Wales, assessed from human cases of the disease (from data collected from Foresterhill hospital and Health Protection Wales) and from the general population (derived from Scottish and English/Welsh census data). Data for Grampian are presented as number of cases, population and incidence (/100,000 people) at postcode district level for the period 1997-2008. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2012 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | These data are available via UKDA. I am not aware of any impact as of yet. |
| URL | http://relu.data-archive.ac.uk/explore-data/search-browse/Project/?ID=RES-229-25-0012 |
| Title | E. coli O157 Risk assessment models |
| Description | Three process based quantitative risk assessment models were developed to determine the risk of E. coli O157 infection from water, food and the environment. These models are written in Excel using the @RISK add in and utilise the Monte Carlo technique. |
| Type Of Material | Computer model/algorithm |
| Year Produced | 2012 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The models were made available to the scientific community by request on publication in Rotariu et al., Epidemiol. Infect. (2012), 140, 1414-1429. We have not yet received arequest for the models. |
| Title | E. coli O157 infectivity in the environment |
| Description | Experiments conducted on the survival and persistence of E. coli O157 in 8 soils from Grampian and N Wales at 2 temperatures, using microbiological culture and measurement of the cells' energy level. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2012 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Data are available from UKDA. As of yet I am not aware of any impact. |
| URL | http://relu.data-archive.ac.uk/explore-data/search-browse/Project/?ID=RES-229-25-0012 |
| Title | E. coli O157 risk maps |
| Description | Risk maps showing areas of high risk of O157 infection |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2012 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Data are available from UKDA. As of yet I am not aware of any impact. |
| URL | http://relu.data-archive.ac.uk/explore-data/search-browse/Project/?ID=RES-229-25-0012 |
| Title | Private Water supply Data |
| Description | Data from local councils on number and location of properties with private water supply in Grampian and Wales, representing a potential risk. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2012 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Data are available from UKDA. As of yet I am not aware of any impact. |
| URL | http://relu.data-archive.ac.uk/explore-data/search-browse/Project/?ID=RES-229-25-0012 |
| Title | Seroprevalence data |
| Description | Faecal screening of target populations. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2012 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | These data re available via the UKDA website. I am not aware of any impact currently. |
| URL | http://relu.data-archive.ac.uk/explore-data/search-browse/Project/?ID=RES-229-25-0012 |
| Title | Stakeholder risk perception survey |
| Description | Questionnaire amongst farmers, non-farming rural residents, visitors and food chain workers in Grampian and north Wales, to ascertain awareness of E. coli O157, and attitudes to and knowledge and understanding of associated risk in two rural areas. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2012 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | These data are available via the UKDA website. I am not aware of any impact as of yet. |
| URL | https://www.researchfish.com/getform/0/research-database-models?action=add&zone=portfolio&delegate |
| Description | Presentation to Roslin Inst Edinburgh 25th October 2016 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | A presentation to the BBSRC Roslin Institute in Edinburgh entitled: A pot-pourri of GI pathogen anecdotes: Campylobacter, STEC and Anisakiasis |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | VTEC, Next Generation Sequencing, Genomic Evolution and Dissemination: The nuts and bolts; Introduction and development of NGS" Oral, VTEC, Boston, USA |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | "VTEC, Next Generation Sequencing, Genomic Evolution and Dissemination: The nuts and bolts; Introduction and development of NGS" Oral, VTEC, Boston, USA |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |