International research finds new, highly virulent listeriosis pathogen able to infect humans and animals

While the bacteria listeria and the associated infection known as listeriosis has been well known for decades, an international research team recently discovered the most virulent species to date, able to infect and kill humans and animals.

This discovery was isolated in China, by scientists from State Key Laboratory of Zoonosis of the University of Yangzhou in Jiangsu, the Laboratory of Food Microbiology of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich and the Institute of Medical Microbiology of the Justus Liebig University Giessen. Their results, published in Nature Communications, identified and decoded the new strain’s genome, identifying it as the cause of serious diseases in sheep in the Chinese province of Jiangsu.

“The detection of a completely new form of pathogenic Listeria monocytogenes in China highlights the need for international collaboration,” said Dr. Trinad Chakraborty, director of the Institute of Medical Microbiology at the JLU and research scientist at the German Center for Infection Research. “Only by combining resources and expertise can we rapidly identify newly emerging threats to food safety from highly virulent strains worldwide.”

Known listeriosis types typically bring in fever, blood poisoning — also known as sepsis — and infections of the central nervous system. It can infect both raw and processed foods, and lead to a lifetime of issues or even death. Listeria infection can take up to 70 days to manifest severe symptoms, making contamination identification difficult.

The new strain has an enhanced ability to cause severe cases of septic disease.

“These isolates are unique in the sense that they combine the virulence characteristics of various highly pathogenic Listeria species that infect animals or humans into a single strain,” Chakraborty said. “Since listeriosis is a food-borne infection, measures to identify such highly virulent strains are extremely urgent.”

Many countries already scan for listeriosis, but the discovery presents new trouble with potential ramifications around the world since even in careful nations, incidents slip through the net. At this moment, listeriosis outbreaks have struck in Germany, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Spain, Great Britain, Canada, and the United States.