Brussels, 25/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - On 18 March, the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) said there is still no proof that the Zaire Ebola virus (ZEBOV) can be transmitted to people in Europe through consuming food, particularly raw foods such as plants, fruit and vegetables legally imported from African countries affected by the virus.
EFSA was invited by the European Commission to carry out a transmission risk assessment of the Ebola virus in the EU by consuming food stuffs other than bush meat illegally imported from East and Central Africa and upon which the EFSA has already commented (see EUROPE 11191). External experts, including two experts from the World Health Organisation (WHO), took part in this assessment.
Notwithstanding the high level of uncertainty in their conclusions, the scientific experts argue that no other foods (except for bush meat) has ever been linked to cases of human infection in areas where there have been Ebola outbreaks. For the virus to be transmitted though food, several steps are necessary; none of these has ever been reported in Europe. The exported food should be contaminated at the point of origin; the food would need to contain a viable virus (“capable of surviving”) when it arrives into the EU; the person has to be infected following foodborne exposure.
In their risk assessment, EFSA experts acknowledge, however, several knowledge and data gaps that could lead to a high level of uncertainty, for example for how long the virus could survive in food, which makes it impossible to quantify the risk or even say whether this mode for transmitting the virus is likely to happen again.
They therefore conclude that the risk of transmission of the ZEBOV virus through consuming foodstuffs remains a theoretical possibility but has never been demonstrated.
Between 1976 and 11 March 2015, outbreaks of the Zaire Ebola virus disease had been reported in nine countries - Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Gabon, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Senegal. All these countries can export fruits and vegetables into the EU, with the exception of potatoes. (Aminata Niang)