Salmonella tracking laboratory opened in Galway

The armoury needed to fight an increasing number of Irish foodpoisoning outbreaks has been significantly strengthened by the opening of a "salmonella reference laboratory" in Galway which will track strains occurring throughout the State.

Food and other samples suspected of salmonella contamination will be sent from other hospital and food laboratories to the facility, which was formally opened yesterday at University College Hospital, Galway, by the Minister of State for Health, Dr Tom Moffatt.

The facility established by NUI Galway's Department of Bacteriology would make it possible to get results more quickly, which would be vital to recognising and managing outbreaks, said Dr Moffatt. Up to recently most samples had to be sent to Colindale Laboratory in Britain for definitive "typing". Staff working in the new facility were trained in Colindale.

This new State laboratory would benefit consumers through faster traceability, leading to better controls of salmonella infections and earlier intervention to stop other people becoming ill, said Dr Patrick Wall of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, which provided funding for the facility.

Prof Martin Cormican of NUI Galway's Department of Bacteriology, who directs the new laboratory service with Dr Geraldine Corbett-Feeney, said it had all the advanced identification techniques and was capable of identifying 2,200 known salmonella types.