ABSTRACT
While viruses may be present in food, it is their ability to establish a productive infection upon ingestion that is of public health signicance. Viral replication in the gut and subsequent shedding in the feces facilitates laboratory detection, but epidemiological evidence is required to establish a causal association with a specic disease. Norovirus, adenovirus, aichivirus, astrovirus, coronavirus, rotavirus, and sapovirus are all accepted as causative viral agents of foodborne acute gastrointestinal illness [1]. On the other hand, an association between gastrointestinal illness and enteroviruses can be difcult to establish, even though enteroviruses replicate in the gut, since most infections are asymptomatic [2]. Hepatitis A virus and hepatitis E virus are also capable of replicating in the gut but the clinical presentation manifests as hepatitis [1].
