Researchers said PCR screening of stool samples for Cryptosporidium helped early detection and management of the outbreak but routine surveillance remains “inconsistent” at Irish and European levels. Since 2012, the country has consistently reported the highest annual rate of the parasite in the European Union. In late July, a cluster of nine cases of Cryptosporidium parvum were reported to the public health department by a laboratory in the Wicklow area.Īll reported patients were contacted by phone to discuss precautions and complete a standardized exposure questionnaire that focused on potential high-risk exposures, such as salad leaves, unpasteurized dairy, private water supplies or contact with animals.Ī likely foodborne source was suspected from the preliminary outbreak investigation, based on the frequency of reported restaurant exposures, and an initial cluster of six cases involving a single outlet.Ĭryptosporidiosis is a notifiable disease in Ireland. “Given the three day shelf life of the salad box and the symptom onset date of cases, negative food sample testing cannot rule out contamination of previous salad batches which were not captured in these samples,” said researchers. Testing of water and salad leaf samples failed to detect Cryptosporidium oocysts, according to a study published in the Irish Medical Journal. Dates of symptom onset were from mid to late July and those sick ranged in age from 3 to 74 years old.Ĭross-referencing of food exposures identified a common salad box served in the implicated restaurants, sourced from a single farm, which led to a product recall of Gold River Quality Mixed Salad Leaves (Seasonal Salad Box) sold in 1-kilogram packages. In total, 31 cases were aged 20 to 40 years old and 14 required hospital treatment. All sick people were interviewed, and environmental health officers did 110 inspections to collect food and water samples at businesses in which suspected cases had food in the 14 days before onset of symptoms.įorty patients were linked to the outbreak, of which 33 met the confirmed case definition. An outbreak of cryptosporidium that affected 40 people in Ireland this past year has been linked to salad from one farm.Ī cluster of cryptosporidiosis cases was reported from a South Dublin laboratory in July 2020.
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