Document Anisakis Annual Report 20-21 Download
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Cefas contract report C7416 FSA Reference: FS616025 Summary technical report for the UK National Reference Laboratory for Anisakis – April 2020 to March 2021 July 2021 Summary Technical Report for the UK National Reference Laboratory for Anisakis – April 2020 to March 2021 Final 20 pages Not to be quoted without prior reference to the author Author: Cefas Laboratory, Barrack Road, Weymouth, Dorset, DT4 8UB Cefas Document Control Submitted to: FSA Valerie Mcfarlane Date submitted: 05/05/2021 Project reference: C7416 Project Manager: Sharron Ganther Report compiled by: Alastair Cook Quality controlled by: Michelle Price-Hayward 29/04/2021 Approved by and date: Sharron Ganther 04/05/2021 Version: Final Classification: Not restricted Review date: N/A Recommended citation for NRL technical report. (2021). Cefas NRL Project this report: Report for FSA (C7416), 20 pp. Version Control History Author Date Comment Version Alastair Cook 26/04/2021 First draft V1 Draft V1 for internal review Michelle Price- 30/04/2021 Technical Draft V2 Hayward Review V2 Alastair Cook 30/04/2021 V3 for approval V3 for internal approval Sharron Ganther 04/05/2021 Final V1 Draft for FSA review Valerie Mcfarlane 07/07/2021 Final Contents 1. Introduction .............................................................................................................................................. 3 2. Ongoing maintenance of general capacity ........................................................................................... 4 3. Completion of 2021 EURL proficiency test ........................................................................................... 5 4. Official control laboratory (OCL) engagement ..................................................................................... 6 5. Maintenance of collection of reference material .................................................................................. 6 6. EURL Annual meeting (2020).................................................................................................................. 7 7. Representation on working groups ....................................................................................................... 7 8. Standard operating procedures ............................................................................................................. 8 9. Industry engagement .............................................................................................................................. 8 10. Literature review, calendar year 2020 .............................................................................................. 10 11. References.......................................................................................................................................... 14 12. Annexe: Legislative standards for parasites in fishery products ............................................... 16 1. Introduction During the reporting period, the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas), Weymouth was designated as the UK National Reference Laboratory (NRL) for the foodborne and potentially zoonotic parasite Anisakis. Anisakis is a genus of parasitic nematodes which have life cycles involving fish as intermediate hosts and marine mammals as the final host. When fish containing live Anisakis larvae is consumed the nematodes can burrow into the walls of the human digestive tract causing pain, nausea and other symptoms. They can also cause allergic reactions. The roles and responsibilities of the NRLs have not changed significantly in recent years. The services required to be delivered under the scope of the current Cefas/Foods Standards Agency (FSA) agreement include the following basic duties of the National Reference Laboratory, based on Articles 100-101 of Regulation (EU) 2017/625 (retained from January 1st 2021 in UK law subject to amendments through Statutory Instrument 2019 No. 665: The Official Controls for Feed, Food and animal Health and Welfare (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019): (a) cooperate internationally in their area of competence (and where possible the relevant EU-RL); (b) collaborate with international laboratories (where possible with the relevant EU-RL) and participate in training courses and inter-laboratory comparative tests organised by these laboratories; (c) coordinate the activities of OCLs responsible for the analysis of samples to ensure the verification of compliance with feed and food law; (d) where appropriate, organise comparative tests between OCLs and ensure an appropriate follow-up of such comparative testing; (e) ensure the dissemination of any information required by the competent authority; (f) provide scientific and technical assistance to the Competent Authority for the implementation of MANCPs in accordance with Article 109 and of co-ordinated control plans adopted in accordance with Article 112 of Regulation (EU) 2017/625; (g) where necessary, conduct training courses for OCL staff; (h) upon request by the appropriate authority, actively assist in relevant emergency situations and in cases of non-compliance of consignments, carry out confirmatory analysis; (i) be responsible for carrying out other specific duties as required by the competent authority, where appropriate and by prior agreement. This technical report summarises the activities carried out by the NRL for the financial year 2020-21 according to the requirements of (retained) Regulation (EC) No. 882/2004 and (retained) Regulation (EU) 2017/625 as defined in the Service Level Agreement (SLA) between the FSA and Cefas over the time period April 2020- March 2021. This report constitutes the last report of the contract ending 31st March 2021. It should be noted that because of the impacts of the current Covid-19 pandemic, some objectives associated with this contract were altered over the last year (with agreement of the FSA). These included a short delay in the delivery of certain laboratory tasks to meet Cefas Covid-19 secure requirements and attendance at meetings by virtual means only. Furthermore, attendance at EU meetings and opportunities for collaboration with EURLs was reduced in line with Government advice and the EU Transition negotiations. The description of the activities included herein includes the ongoing maintenance of general capacity; the participation in the 2021 proficiency test scheme; progress made against the contract objective to engage with and evaluate the practices of the food production industry, and a brief report on relevant peer reviewed literature published in 2020. Delivery of the responsibilities of the NRL has been brigaded into the following objectives in accordance with the SLA agreed between Cefas and the FSA. These include the following key responsibilities: 1. Provision of secretariat services (Objective 1) 2. Advice and representation within the UK and internationally (Objective 2) 3. Production of standard operating procedures, codes of practice and guidance documents (Objective 3) 4. Compliance assessment via audits and Proficiency Testing (PT) (Objective 4) 5. Co-ordination within the UK of international initiatives (Objective 5) 6. Communication of results and data use (Objective 6) 7. Provision of additional services, where requested by FSA (Objective 7) 8. Provision of NRL type activities post EU Transition 2. Ongoing maintenance of general capacity 2.1 Dissemination of information via NRL Website The NRL website (https://www.cefas.co.uk/anisakis) continues to deliver information on the responsibilities and function of the NRL to a public audience. A website analytical report was run on 25/03/2021. This determined that the NRL website has had 1994 visits since it was set up in 2014 (Figure 1) from approximately 1105 unique users. The sections of the website which experienced the most traffic were the annual reports, methodology, and regulations sections. Figure 1 - NRL website visits The website experienced much lower traffic during the 2020/21 reporting year, with only 32 visits recorded. All of these were visits to the pages hosting the annual reports. 2.2 Email enquiries A small number of email enquiries were received during the reporting period through the dedicated mailbox advertised on the website. These are summarised in Table 1. Table 1: Summary of external enquiries. From Nature of query NRL response Government Lab, Non-fluorescent Sought advice from the EURL and Norwegian experts. Aberdeen anisakis larvae found It was considered that the non-fluorescing worms in some samples might be another species or loss of fluorescence could have occurred after an extended period of freezing’ Mudeford and District Request for advice on Advice provided, together with links to further Fishermen's safety aspects of information on the NRL website Association nematode contaminated mackerel Government Lab, Request for advice on Some generic advice on pressing requirements was Aberdeen pressing equipment given. When the NRL identifies a suitable press supplier it will provide further details. 3. Completion of 2021 EURL proficiency test 3.1 Concerning the detection of larvae in fillets Samples for the 2021 ‘Detection of Larvae in Fillets Proficiency Test’ (PT) were received 17th March 2021 and screened using the ultraviolet transillumination system. Our results were returned to the European Reference laboratory for parasites (EURLP) 25th March 2021. We received a negative evaluation – one positive sample was incorrectly diagnosed as negative. When this material was double