EU passes regulation on use of WGS during outbreaks

FSN

The European Commission has adopted legislation requiring EU countries to do Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) during foodborne outbreaks.

Member states will need to collect Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes, E. coli, Campylobacter jejuni, and Campylobacter coli isolates from food, animal, feed, and related environmental samples from food and feed businesses, where the isolates are associated or suspected to be associated with a foodborne outbreak. They will also need to carry out WGS on those isolates.

EU countries would send results to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which developed the One Health WGS system with the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). EFSA would compare the WGS results on these samples with findings from human isolates communicated to ECDC to identify the source of outbreaks.