Department Of Health Halts Listeria Testing Of Meat Imports

With the number of listeriosis cases reportedly having declined markedly in recent months, the Department of Health (DoH) no longer conducts testing for this pathogen in imported meat products.

- Lloyd Phillips

This was according to DoH spokesperson Foster Mohale, who told Farmer’s Weekly that the source of the listeriosis outbreak, which began in January 2017, “was unequivocally identified as [originating in] processed meat produced at the [Enterprise Foods] Polokwane facility”.

“Whole genome sequencing was used to identify the source of the outbreak,” he said.

A recent report published by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said 1 038 confirmed listeriosis cases had been reported across South Africa between 1 January 2017 and 22 May 2018. Of these victims, 208 had died as a result of the disease.