Surveillance and monitoring of tularaemia in the EUin 2017
ABSTRACT
For 2017, 355 cases of tularaemia in humans were reported in 17 MS and, 321 (90%) were confirmed. This is a decrease of more than 30% in case numbers compared to 2015 and 2016. This decrease is mainly due to a large decrease in case numbers in Finland and Sweden. The overall EU notification rate was 0.06 per 100 000 population in 2017, less than a third of the rate reported in 2016 (0.21 per 100 000 population). In 2017, Sweden had the highest notification rate with 0.84 per 100 000 followed by Finland and the Czech Republic, with 0.58 and 0.48 per 100 000 population, respectively. Tularaemia is a seasonal and cyclical disease with a complex ecological cycle. The high number of human cases in Finland in 2016 followed a peak in the number of voles in 2015 and climatic conditions favouring the abundance of mosquitoes transmitting the bacteria to humans. Tularaemia in animals is rarely reported in EU and the submission of the data to EFSA is on voluntary basis. In 2017 as for the year 2016, only one Member State (Sweden) reported data on the occurrence of Francisella tularensis. Seven brown hares out of 39 tested animals (17.9%) were found to be positive. Also, Switzerland reported on the occurrence of F. tularensis in five out of 11 tested animals mainly from natural habits and zoo. The number of positive tested animals in 2017 is comparable to the previous 2016 with no reported outbreaks. However the detection of F. tularensis in brown hares in Sweden during 2017 suggests that the bacterium is still present and outbreaks may occur in the future, in particular in Northern European Countries. To predict outbreaks and to avoid them whenever possible, greater efforts are needed to assess the extent of the true animal reservoir population of F. tularensis and to assess the occurrence of this zoonotic pathogen in the EU animal reservoir populations including the environment. Francisella spp. are widely present in the environment and a wide range of wild animals (e.g. hares, rabbits) but also vectors (e.g. ticks) could be used to enforce the passive surveillance in EU as they can be sources of infections for humans
The European Union summary report on trends and sources of zoonoses, zoonotic agents and food-borne outbreaks in 2017 - European Food Safety Authority European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control - https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/efsajournal/pub/5077
APPROVED: 19 November 2018
doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2018.5500
www.efsa.europa.eu/efsajournal
EFSA Journal 2018;16(12):5500
The Appendix lists all summary tables and figures made for the production of this section. It is an Excel file allowing the user to filter by chapter the corresponding summary tables and figures with their abbreviated file name and titles. All tables and figures are published as supporting information to this report and are available in downloadable files at http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1475841 http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1475841
