Shellfish Sanitation in the Control of Hepatitis

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Outbreaks of infectious hepatitis attributed to consumption of raw oysters and clams have focused attention on problems related to the sanitary control of the shellfish industry. Presently this control is achieved through the Cooperative State-PHS-Industry Program for the Certification of Interstate Shellfish Shippers. This program, in effect since 1925, was apparently successful in preventing disease outbreaks due to commercially shipped shellfish from 1925 to 1960, although several small outbreaks were ascribed to contaminated shellfish obtained illegally or in sport fishing. Infectious hepatitis outbreaks have forced a critical reappraisal of the adequacy of this program under which the States assume responsibility for sanitary survey of growing and storage areas and for preventing the harvesting of shellfish from areas of unsatisfactory quality. Present criteria for approval of an area for shellfish production include: no immediate discharge of fresh sewage; freedom from toxic industrial wastes; a coliform median MPN not exceeding 70/100ml and not more than 10% of the samples exceeding 230/100 ml; essentially free of paralytic shellfish poison. These criteria are not static and were subject to administrative and technical review at the 1954, 1956, 1958, and 1961 Shellfish Sanitation Workshops. These reviews indicate that the standards in current use provide an adequate level of consumer protection is properly enforced.