The 'European Listeria Typing Exercise’ (ELiTE) is a collaborative study initiated in 2010 as a multi-sectorial, multi-centre exercise between led by ECDC, in association with EFSA, the EURL Lm, National Public Health Institutes, National Public Health Reference Laboratories, National Food Safety Authorities, food National Reference Laboratories for L. monocytogenes and involving indirectly, local and regional public health and food safety authorities. This...

We would like to share with you this article* written jointly with the Polish NRL (National Institute of Hygiene, Warsaw) about a molecular investigation of the contamination of vegetables by Listeria monocytogenes. The EURL Lm provided a support for PFGE and Genomic analysis. For PFGE, the EURL Lm provided a support for profile harmonisation and comparison with a substantial contribution to the article text and figures. For Genomic Analysis the EURL Lm performed the quality validation of...

Our colleagues from the Czech Veterinary Reseach Institute published an article in Frontiers in Microbiology entitled Comparative Analysis of Genetic Determinants Encoding Cadmium, Arsenic, and Benzalkonium Chloride Resistance in Listeria monocytogenes of Human, Food, and Environmental Origin

The Inter-European Union Reference Laboratories (EURLs) Working Group (WG) has been established by the European Commission with the aim to promote the use of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) across the EURLs' networks, build NGS capacity within the EU European union  and ensure liaison with the work of the EURLs and the work of EFSA and ECDC on the NGS mandate sent by the Commission. The WG includes all the EURLs operating in the field of the...

Further to the event organised by the EURL E. coli with the EURL working group on NGS : Modern technologies to enable response to crises: Next Generation Sequencing to tackle food-borne diseases in the EU, we would like to inform you that the slides presented at the conference published on the EURL for E. coli website (link bellow).   The online magazine food safety news wrote an article on our conference. This magazine is sponsored by Marler Clark, a Food safety law firm...

In collaboration with the EURL for Coagulase Positive Staphylococci (CPS), we organised a training session on the implementation of colony-count technique according to the Standard EN ISO 7218 for the enumeration of Listeria monocytogenes (Lm) and CPS dedicated to laboratory technicians from NRLs. 11 trainees participated to this session online on 22 September 2020 from 13:30 to 16:30 (CEST).

We are glad to announce the publication of this article: Comparison of the ISO method and three modifications of it for the enumeration of low concentrations of Listeria monocytogenes in naturally contaminated foods. This project conducted in the frame of the EURL Lm mandate in collaboration with different NRLs in particular from Cyprus, Czech Republic and Norway.

EFSA published the scientific opinion on "The public health risk posed by Listeria monocytogenes in frozen fruit and vegetables including herbs, blanched during processing". We may note that this opinion refers to the EURL Lm guides, as well as to the Standard EN ISO 18593. Hereafter the links to access the EFSA news and opinion.

Message from  the organizing committee: Hope this message finds you all well in this particular moment, when the world is facing an unprecedented health emergency.  While the countries are struggling with the pandemic and many of us are involved in confronting the crisis in the front line, I believe it is also time to start thinking about our lives once the situation will revert to normality. At some point COVID-19 will be past history and we will all want to get back...

Message from our Italian colleague of the EURL E. coli ------------------------ Dear Colleague, I’m sure you all know about the situation in Italy with respect to the number of cases of COVID-19 infections, and the recent news of the spreading of cases to other European countries also adds to the  general uncertainty. Actually, at the moment, Rome is not concerned by the public health emergency, but the situation is fluid and we cannot predict what will happen by March...