Listeriosis, the disease caused by the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes, has never been traced back to Norwegian salmon products, but a recent study by the Norway's National Institute of Nutrition and Seafood Research (NIFES) suggests salmon cannot be discarded as a possible source of the disease.
A study of three companies that produce farmed salmon in different parts of Norway identified 15 types of Listeriamonocytogenes. A total of nine of the 15 types were of a genetic variant that scientists have also found in patients with listeriosis, the illness that can be triggered by L. monocytogenes.
“This background in not sufficient for us to claim that fish are the sources of the cases of listeriosis in our study.
