Listeria are bacteria that are widespread in the environment. They are dangerous when they get into food, such as raw milk products, meat and fish products.
As a centre for food-borne infectious diseases, we play a key role in the investigation of outbreaks caused by listeria. We are pioneers in this field throughout Europe: since 2016, we have been routinely determining the genetic fingerprint of all listeria strains received from patients, food and businesses. Our database for listeria - the largest of its kind in Europe - currently contains over 15,000 genetic fingerprints of these bacteria. If there is a food-borne outbreak - i.e. several people fall ill with the same strain of listeria - we can compare whether this strain is also present in a particular food and thus identify the source of infection.
