The annual zoonoses and food borne outbreaks report  for 2009 from the European Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Centre forDisease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has just been released.

It shows that for the fifth year in a row, the incidence of Salmonella cases has reduced
and was 17 percent less that the previous year. The report went futher to show that the amount of Salmonella in hen flocks dropped by nine percent from 2008.

This is considered by the authors to be the result of the ongoing work by the EFSA and other authorities throughout Europe.

The report confirmed that Campylobacteriosis remains the leading zoonotic disease  and cause of food poisoning in humans in Europe and in fact had a four percent increase in 2008.

According to the report, infections from Listeria species had a increase of 19 percent from 2008 and that in 2009 there were around 270 fatalities from Listeriosis.