Global market: shellfish imports as a source of reemerging food-borne hepatitis A virus infections in Spain Autors/ores J. Romalde Departamento de Microbiología y Parasitología. Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain I. Torrado Departamento de Microbiología y Parasitología. Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain C. Ribao Departamento de Microbiología y Parasitología. Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain J. L. Barja Departamento de Microbiología y Parasitología. Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain Paraules clau: Hepatitis A virus, shellfish, foodborne infection, international commerce Resum A total of 16 mollusk imports from South America to Spain, including clam and scallop species, were analyzed for hepatitis A virus (HAV), due to the great concern about this type of food after an important hepatitis A outbreak in eastern Spain in September 1999. In addition, clams from the stock that had caused the outbreak were also tested. Of the 17 stocks, four were positive for the presence of HAV RNA as demonstrated by RT-PCR and Southern hybridization. Contradictory analyses confirmed the results of the primary tests in all cases. The findings obtained in this work strongly support the role of mollusk imports from endemic areas of HAV as an important vehicle of hepatitis A, and demonstrate the imperative need for sanitary control measures to prevent future outbreaks of this disease. Descàrregues PDF (English) Publicat 2010-03-12 Número Vol. 4 Núm. 4 (2001) Secció Review Articles Llicència Submission of a manuscript to International Microbiology implies: that the work described has not been published before, including publication in the World Wide Web (except in the form of an Abstract or as part of a published lecture, review, or thesis); that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere; that all the coauthors have agreed to its publication. The corresponding author signs for and accepts responsability for releasing this material and will act on behalf of any and all coauthors regarding the editorial review and publication process.If an article is accepted for publication in International Microbiology, the authors (or other copyright holder) must transfer to the journal the right–not exclusive–to reproduce and distribute the article including reprints, translations, photographic reproductions, microform, electronic form (offline, online) or any other reproductions of similar nature. Nevertheless, all article in International Microbiology will be available on the Internet to any reader at no cost. The journal allows users to freely download, copy, print, distribute, search, and link to the full text of any article, provided the authorship and source of the published article is cited. The copyright owner's consent does not include copying for new works, or resale. In these cases, the specific written permission of International Microbiology must first be obtained.Authors are requested to create a link to the published article on the journal's website. The link must be accompanied by the following text: "The original publication is available on LINK at <http://www.im.microbios.org>. Please use the appropiate URL for the article in LINK. Articles disseminated via LINK are indexed, abstracted, and referenced by many abstracting and information services, bibliographic networks, subscription agencies, library networks, and consortia.