Lis Alban

University of Copenhagen · Department of Veterinary Disease Biology

A workshop at the SafePork Conference in 2023 delved deeply into the concepts and practicalities of riskbased meat inspection. Such approaches could significantly improve food safety while making the process more efficient and costeffective.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is considered a One Health (OH) challenge, ideally demanding concerted efforts from the animal, human and environmental side. DANMAP, the Danish Integrated Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring and Research Program, is monitoring AMR and antimicrobial use in animals and humans. OH-EpiCap is an evaluation tool, developed...

African Swine Fever Virus (ASFV) is the cause of an infectious disease in pigs, which is difficult to control. Long viability of ASFV has been shown for several contaminated materials, especially under low temperature. Therefore, when pigs are exposed to a contaminated environment, new infections could occur without the presence of infectious indiv...

Introduction Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a One Health (OH) challenge. To achieve or maintain an effective and efficient AMR surveillance system, it is crucial to evaluate its performance in meeting the proposed objectives, while complying with resource restrictions. The OH-EpiCap tool was created to evaluate the degree of compliance of hazard...

In 2020, the Danish competent authority (CA) raised questions about the Salmonella exposure risk to consumers from bile-contaminated pig carcasses. This study assesses this risk related to sow carcasses. A total of 300 bile samples were collected aseptically at a large Danish sow abattoir. A selective method and medium, RAPID'Salmonella, was used t...

In the European Union, bacteriological examination (BE) can be used as a decision support tool for an individual slaughter animal, if a clear decision regarding fitness for human consumption cannot be reached after performing the post-mortem meat inspection at the abattoir. The mandatory use of BE started already in the beginning of 20th century an...

Introduction Denmark is one of the world’s largest exporters of pigs and pig meat, so the sector plays an important role in the national antimicrobial use (AMU). The Danish government has run antimicrobial stewardship programs in collaboration with the pig industry for more than 25 years. These have resulted in substantial overall reductions in tot...

22 23 J o u r n a l P r e-p r o o f 2 *Joint Corresponding authors 24 E-mail address: Dragan.Antic@liverpool.ac.uk (Dragan Antic) 25 E-mail address: marsan@food.dtu.dk (Marianne Sandberg) 26 J o u r n a l P r e-p r o o f 3 Abstract 27 Introduction in 2017-2019 of the new EU legislation on official controls in food production allowed 28 use of compu...

Tackling antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a goal for many countries. Integrated surveillance of antimicrobial use (AMU) and resistance is a prerequisite for effective risk mitigation. Regular evaluation of any surveillance is needed to ensure its effectiveness and efficiency. The question is how to evaluate specifically integrated surveillance for...

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) surveillance systems involve multiple stakeholders and multilevel standard operating procedures, which increase in complexity with further integration of the One Health (OH) concept. AMR is a OH challenge. It is crucial for the success of an AMR surveillance system to evaluate its performance in meeting the proposed o...

Control of Salmonella in pig/pork production is important to protect public health because pork is one of the main sources of human infection. Moreover, antimicrobial use in pig farms should be kept low to minimize development and transmission of antimicrobial resistance. This pilot study evaluated the productivity and Salmonella seroprevalence in...

Denmark is a major pig exporter and applies a high level of biosecurity, with washing and disinfecting stations for returning livestock vehicles. The introduction of African Swine Fever (ASF) would have significant economic consequences related to loss of export of live pigs and products thereof. In this study, we focused on the role of empty lives...

Background A risk assessment conducted by EFSA identified Salmonella enterica (Salmonella) as a high-risk hazard at the EU level in the context of meat inspection of swine. Despite pork being considered an important source of S. Typhimurium and its monophasic variant, Regulation (EC) No 2073/2005 does not set criteria for specific Salmonella seroty...

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) resulting from antimicrobial use (AMU) is an emerging threat to global health. One of the key elements for a better understanding and management of AMU and AMR is to develop effective and efficient integrated surveillance systems that consider the complex epidemiology of these issues and the impacts of resistance on h...

In the EU, a post-mortem inspection of finishing pigs comprises visual inspections of the carcass and offal followed by additional examinations, such as palpation and incision of parts, when needed. Moreover, it can include various laboratory tests. Since European meat inspection is regulated by the EU, one may assume that post-mortem inspection is...

Meat inspection (MI) is essential to verify compliance with legal requirements related to human and animal health and animal welfare protections. Judgement criteria applied during MI, resulting in condemnation data of importance, among other things, for livestock producers and for benchmarking reasons. However, although the Meat Inspection Regulati...

Toxoplasma gondii infection in pigs is commonly diagnosed using serological tests that detect IgG antibodies targeted against the parasite. Such tests include enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), modified agglutination test (MAT), and western blot (WB), which are commercially available as rapid test kits. In this study, we evaluated the manuf...

The European Union legislation prescribes that generalised cases of septicaemia must be condemned at meat inspection. In Denmark, bovine carcasses with lesions indicating septicaemia are subjected to an additional investigation to elucidate whether findings reflect a generalised or local condition. Local cases can be subjected to an officially guid...

Background The traditional meat inspection system is often found to be inefficient. Meat inspection in European countries is in a phase of modernisation to reflect improvements in livestock health and advances in understanding meat safety. The key point of progress is to replace the traditional meat inspection with risk-based meat inspection, inclu...

The overall objectives of meat inspection are to contribute to food safety, animal welfare, and animal health. In the European Union (EU), there is a request for a modernised meat inspection system that addresses these objectives in a more valid, feasible and cost-effective way than does the traditional system. One part of the modernisation deals w...

Regular evaluation of integrated surveillance for antimicrobial use (AMU) and resistance (AMR) in animals, humans, and the environment is needed to ensure system effectiveness, but the question is how. In this study, six different evaluation tools were assessed after being applied to AMU and AMR surveillance in eight countries: (1) ATLASS: the Asse...

In the European Union (EU), Salmonella is the main zoonotic hazard of interest in pig meat. Contamination occurs during slaughter mainly due to spread of faecal material. In 2020, the Danish competent authorities (CA) raised the question of the risk to humans of Salmonella resulting from bile contamination of pig carcasses. To address this, a study...

Serological tests are routinely used to detect Toxoplasma gondii specific IgG antibodies in serum. Serological surveys of T. gondii show a medium to high prevalence in Danish indoor sows at the time of slaughter. However, little is known about when sows acquire T. gondii, and for how long they remain seropositive. Our focus was on quantifying the i...

The traditional meat safety system has significantly contributed to public health protection throughout the last century. However, it has been recognised that this system suffers many flaws – the main being its limited ability to control the currently most important meat-borne hazards. The European Food Safety Authority evaluated meat inspection in...

In Denmark, lesions indicating acute generalised infection identified at meat inspection will result in total condemnation. An official bacteriological examination (BU) protocol can be used for slaughtered animals with lesions such as endocarditis and endophlebitis as an assisting diagnostic tool to confirm whether the condition is local or general...

To improve meat safety, the EU has financed the „RIBMINS“ COST Action network. In work group 4 (WG4), the focus is on alternative approaches to traditional meat inspection and their potential in future meat safety assurance sys- tems. So far, WG4 has investigated the meat inspection code systems and identified substantial differ- ences between coun...

Data on antimicrobial use (AMU) in heavy pig production (>150 kg) are limited. The aim of this study was to investigate the AMU in this production. Data from 2015 were collected for 143 fattening farms. The AMU was estimated through a treatment index per 100 days (TI100) using the defined daily dose animal for Italy (DDDAit). When possible, a compa...

Vertebral osteomyelitis (VO) it is often a suppurative lesion that, in Portugal, represents the main cause of total condemnation of slaughtered finishing pigs. Based on the EU Meat Inspection legislation, meat from generalized VO cases presenting signs of pyemia should be declared unfit for human consumption. For that reason, the main objective of...

Pigs are one of several host species for Toxoplasma gondii parasites, and consumption of infected pork may lead to toxoplasmosis in humans. We estimated seroprevalence in sows and finishers from conventional and organic herds in Denmark and discussed the strategies for reducing the risk from pork. We collected 447 blood samples from 59 herds, and a...

In 2004, the European Union legislation allowed to change meat inspection of finishing pigs, raised under controlled housing conditions, pending use of risk assessment of the effect of the proposed changes. This paper summarises the process undertaken in Denmark, where a series of national risk assessments and epidemiological investigations were un...

Background Integrated antimicrobial resistance (AMR) surveillance programmes require regular evaluation to ensure they are fit-for-purpose and that all actors understand their responsibilities. This will strengthen their relevance for the clinical setting which depends heavily on continued access to effective treatment options. Several evaluation t...

Animal health surveillance is an important tool for disease mitigation and helps to promote animal health and welfare, protect human health, support efficient animal production, and enable trade. This study aimed to assess adoption of recommended standards and best practice for surveillance (including risk-based approaches) in Europe. It included s...

There is a plethora of meat-borne hazards - including parasites - for which there may be a need for surveillance. However, veterinary services worldwide need to decide how to use their scarce resources and prioritise among the perceived hazards. Moreover, to remain competitive, food business operators - irrespective of whether they are farmers or a...

Current legislation governing monitoring of drug residues in foodstuff of animal origin is being revised at the European level. This study provides a qualitative comparison of the legislation, public and private standards in the European Union, the United States of America (USA) and the Eurasian Customs Union/Russia. We made a quantitative comparis...

The main goal of the present paper is to overview, using the example of pigs/pork, the developments in official meat inspection in the European Union that occurred from 2000 onwards. The developments aim at transition from traditional, macroscopic examination of slaughtered animals to a risk and meat-chain based, comprehensive meat safety assurance...

In modern livestock farming, there is an increasing understanding that antimicrobial (AM) consumption must be kept low - preferably without compromising animal welfare or productivity. This requires an understanding of the relationship between AM use, productivity, biosecurity, vaccination and herd demographics. To obtain this, we undertook an Addi...

Reduction of antimicrobial use (AMU) in pigs is a priority to counteract development of antimicrobial resistance in animal and human pathogens. However, there is concern that Danish pig producers complying with official AMU restrictions might experience reduced herd health and productivity in the future, if alternative strategies are not available....

Background: Toxoplasma gondii is an important foodborne zoonotic parasite. Meat of infected animals is presumed to constitute a major source of human infection and may be a driver of geographical variation in the prevalence of anti-T. gondii antibodies in humans, which is substantial in the Nordic-Baltic region in northern Europe. However, data on...

Transmission of Trichinella to domestic livestock, notably pigs, is limited to certain risk factors including feeding of raw meat-containing waste products or animal carcasses and exposure to infected rodents and wildlife. Prevention of infection in food animals is dependent on eliminating risk of exposure to these potential sources of Trichinella....

EU Member States are obliged by legislation to implement residue surveillance programs to detect illegal use or misuse of veterinary medicines in food producing animals and investigate the reasons for residue violations. According to EU legislation, these programs should be (partly) risk-based, meaning targeted towards groups of animals, where the...

We aimed at describing antimicrobial usage patterns throughout livestock production cycles, and comparing them across three countries from Northern, Central and Southern Europe. Given the difficulties to collect such detailed usage data, an expert opinion was deemed the most appropriate study design. This study provides new insights into the time p...

Denmark has not had cases of bovine tuberculosis (bovTB) for more than 30 years but is obliged by trade agreements to undertake traditional meat inspection (TMI) of finisher pigs from non-controlled housing to detect bovTB. TMI is associated with higher probability of detecting bovTB but is also more costly than visual-only inspection (VOI). To ide...

The use of antimicrobials in livestock constitutes an increasing global concern, and many countries pursue approaches to reduce the amount used, particularly in the pig production industry. The EU Commission has decided, due to environmental concerns, to phase out use of zinc oxide in pigs by 2022. This poses an additional challenge to efforts to r...

Background: Taenia saginata cysticercus is the larval stage of the zoonotic parasite Taenia saginata, with a life-cycle involving both cattle and humans. The public health impact is considered low. The current surveillance system, based on post-mortem inspection of carcasses has low sensitivity and leads to considerable economic burden. Therefore,...

Reducing antimicrobial use (AMU) in livestock is requested by Public Health authorities. Ideally, this should be achieved without jeopardizing production output or animal health and welfare. Thus, efficient measures must be identified and developed to target drivers of AMU. Veterinarians play a central role in the identification and implementation...

Antimicrobial classes that most frequently lead to treatment failures. Veterinary experts (n = 67) were asked to mention up to three antimicrobial classes that most frequently lead to treatment failures. Results were stratified per country and livestock sector. n, number of answers.

Factors influencing the use of antimicrobial sensitivity testing before antimicrobial prescription. Veterinary experts (n = 67) were asked score from 1 (low importance) to 10 (high importance) potential reasons for not conducting antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) more often. Colour dots represent individual answers from experts of differen...

Antimicrobial classes for which the proportion of treatment failures increased the most between 2005 and 2015. Veterinary experts (n = 67) were asked to mention up to three antimicrobial classes for which the proportion of treatment failures increased the most between 2005 and 2015. Results were stratified per country and livestock sector. n, numbe...

This study aimed to review the transmission routes of important infectious pig dis-eases and to translate these into biosecurity measures preventing or reducing thetransmission between and within pig herds. Furthermore, it aimed to identify thelevel of implementation of these measures in different European countries and dis-cuss the observed variat...

The EU Residue Directive is currently being renegotiated. One key question is how to balance flexibility and harmonization. To address this, we reviewed Danish, Dutch and Swiss monitoring programs for antimicrobial residues in pig meat using the recently developed RISKSUR design tool. The results identified variation regarding number of surveillanc...

In 2015, the World Health Organisation rated toxoplasmosis as one of the most important food borne zoonotic diseases in the world. In addition, recent studies have associated Toxoplasma gondii sero-positivity with severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia. Intake of raw or insufficiently cooked meat has been suggested to pose a major risk of T....

Antibiotic consumption in pigs can be optimized by developing treatment guidelines, which encourage veterinarians to use effective drugs with low probability of developing resistance of importance for human health. In Denmark, treatment guidelines for use in swine production are currently under review at the Danish Veterinary and Food Administratio...

Our findings suggest that cost-effectiveness might be improved by: 1) increasing biosecurity in all cattle (dairy and beef) herds, 2) re-allocation of some of the resources from resources spent on depopulation and surveillance during an epidemic to monitoring and enforcing restrictions on low-risk contacts.

Our study indicated that is was meaningful to distinguish between the Danish veterinary preparedness in relation to FMD – and the marketing thereof. Results indicated that improving marketing of the Danish activities in relation to veterinary preparedness as well as maintaining transparency and open communication of any suspicions of outbreak had e...

Veterinary antimicrobial consumption patterns vary considerably across Europe. These differences are not only limited to the total amount consumed but are also observed with regards to the relative proportion of the various antimicrobial classes used. Currently, most of the data on veterinary antimicrobials are reported at sales level without any i...

It is often stated that vaccines may help reduce antimicrobial use in swine production. However, limited evidence is available outside clinical trials. We studied the change in amounts of antimicrobials prescribed for weaners and finishers in herds following initiation of vaccination against five common endemic infections: Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae,...

Background There is growing concern about development of antimicrobial resistance due to use of antimicrobials (AMs) in livestock production. Identifying efficient alternatives, including vaccination, is a priority. The objective of this study was to compare the herd-level amount of AMs prescribed for weaner pigs, between Danish sow herds using var...

The latest foot and mouth disease (FMD) epidemic in Denmark dates back to 1982-1983. Hence, Denmark has not experienced an FMD outbreak in more than 30 years. Still this disease poses a serious threat either as a risk of introduction and spread in Denmark or as a risk of a ban on Danish export of pigs, pork, cattle, beef and milk products due to an...

Regulatory Issues Associated with Preharvest Food Safety: European Union Perspective, Page 1 of 2 Abstract Free movement of safe and wholesome food is an essential aspect of any society. This article contains an updated description of the regulatory issues associated with preharvest food safety within the European Union. Salmonella, Campylobacter...

Today, the majority of pigs are raised in industrialised pig production systems with a high level of biosecurity resulting in a negligible risk of Trichinella. Carcass testing therefore seems less relevant if the aim of testing is to protect public health. However, traditional pig production (including backyard production) still occurs, and organic...

The present paper provides an overview of the costs of preventive activities, currently undertaken in Denmark, related to foot and mouth disease (FMD) and classical and African swine fever (SF). Only costs held between outbreaks were included. Costs were divided into public costs and costs paid by the pig and cattle industries, respectively. Data w...

Swine have been described as an important reservoir of multidrug resistant monophasic Salmonella Typhimurium, though information on its ecology is scarce. A longitudinal study was performed in order to elucidate the Salmonella 4,[5],12:i:- dynamics throughout the pig’s production cycle. A total of 209 faecal samples were collected from 10 sows and...

The primary purpose of meat inspection is to protect the public health by ensuring that no meat unfit for human consumption enters the market. EU Regulation 854/2004 specifies that lesions indicative of a generalised condition should result in the condemnation of the carcass. However, the correct procedure concerning carcasses with lesions indicati...

Background: Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) has never been reported in Denmark, but it has been found in Europe, Asia and North America. Ultimately, PEDV has been associated with devastating outbreaks in pig farms. We developed a stochastic simulation model to carry out a quantitative risk assessment and to estimate the annual probability (P...

Denmark was considered not to have an established population of free-ranging wild boar. Today, sporadic observations of wild boar challenge that view. Due to its reservoir role for economic devastating swine diseases, wild boar represents a potential threat for Denmark’s position as a large pig- and pork-exporting country. This study assessed the p...

Denmark has been recognized as officially free (OTF) from bovine tuberculosis (bTB) since 1980. In this study, we estimated the annual probability (PIntro) of introducing Mycobacterium bovis into the Danish cattle population, through (a) imports of cattle and (b) foreign personnel working in Danish cattle herds. Data from 2000 to 2013 with date, nu...

Pork, which is commonly consumed all over the world, may contain a number of zoonotic parasites; in this chapter, we focus on the tree Ts: Taenia solium, Toxoplasma gondii, and Trichinella spiralis. Globally these parasites are listed among the most important foodborne parasites. Clinical signs in humans vary from asymptomatic or mild unspecific ge...

It is often argued that pigs raised under less intensive production conditions – such as organic or free-range – have a higher level of animal welfare compared with conventionally raised pigs. To look into this, an analysis of data from a large Danish abattoir slaughtering organic, free-range, and conventionally raised finishing pigs was undertaken...

The most important lesion to be overlooked when performing visual-only inspection of the lungs is embolic pneumonia. The aim of the present study was to assess the additional human health risk represented by overlooking cases of pyaemia represented by embolic pneumonia in finisher pigs, when conducting visual-only compared to palpation of the lungs...

The objectives of the two studies presented were to estimate the prevalence of Campylobacter-positive farms and flocks and to acquire updated knowledge about risk factors for the introduction of Campylobacter in Danish broiler flocks. In the first study, from September 2010 to September 2011, there were 25 Danish broiler farms visited, and a questi...