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. 2018 Mar;23(9):17-00161.
doi: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2018.23.9.17-00161.

Prioritisation of food-borne parasites in Europe, 2016

Martijn Bouwknegt  1 , Brecht Devleesschauwer  2 , Heather Graham  3 , Lucy J Robertson  4 , Joke Wb van der Giessen  1 ; Euro-FBP workshop participants  5
Affiliations

Prioritisation of food-borne parasites in Europe, 2016

Martijn Bouwknegt et al. Euro Surveill. 2018 Mar.

Abstract

Background and aimsPriority setting is a challenging task for public health professionals. To support health professionals with this and in following a recommendation from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and World Health Organization (WHO), 35 European parasitologists attended a workshop from 8-12 February 2016 to rank food-borne parasites (FBP) in terms of their importance for Europe and regions within Europe. Methods: Countries were divided into European regions according to those used by the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. We used the same multicriteria decision analysis approach as the FAO/WHO, for comparison of results, and a modified version, for better regional representation. Twenty-five FBP were scored in subgroups, using predefined decision rules. Results: At the European level, Echinococcus multilocularis ranked first, followed by Toxoplasma gondii and Trichinella spiralis. At the regional level, E. multilocularis ranked highest in Northern and Eastern Europe, E. granulosus in South-Western and South-Eastern Europe, and T. gondii in Western Europe. Anisakidae, ranking 17th globally, appeared in each European region's top 10. In contrast, Taenia solium, ranked highest globally but 10th for Europe. Conclusions: FBP of importance in Europe differ from those of importance globally, requiring targeted surveillance systems, intervention measures, and preparedness planning that differ across the world and across Europe.

Keywords: awareness; multi-criteria decision analysis; preparedness planning; ranking.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Overview of pre-, intra- and post-workshop activities conducted for the prioritisation of food-borne parasites, 2015 and 2016
Figure 2
Figure 2
European ranking of food-borne parasites based on the FAO/WHO criteria and weights, and comparison with the FAO/WHO rankinga, 2016
Figure 3
Figure 3
European ranking of food-borne parasites based on the Euro-FBP criteria and weights, 2016
Figure 4
Figure 4
Score breakdown for the European ranking of food-borne parasites based on the Euro-FBP criteria and weights, 2016
Figure 5
Figure 5
Change in top-10 ranking of food-borne parasites in Europe when replacing the assessed unequal criteria weights with equal weights for ranking based on the Euro-FBP criteria, 2016
Figure 6
Figure 6
Comparison of the ranking of food-borne parasites in different parts of Europe based on the Euro-FBP criteria, 2016
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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