Sovereign Foods abattoir back in operation after listeriosis scare
The company was not the source of the listeriosis outbreak, but has nonetheless tightened its poultry-handling standards
Sovereign Foods’ poultry abattoir in Hartbeespoort is back in operation following its closure on December 22 by the government to control the spread of listeria. Sovereign issued a media release on Tuesday morning quoting Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi saying: "At this juncture, we cannot conclude that the abattoir is the source of the present outbreak." During a briefing in Pretoria on Monday Minister of Health Aaron Motsoaledi explained that the department had been conducting site visits and genome sequencing analysis to establish the potential causes and sources of the outbreak. He said as a precaution environmental health practitioners visited Sovereign Foods' abattoir to collect food samples. However, while these samples did not pick up the ST6 strain, the tests found other strains with the potential to cause disease. “We can conclude that it has Listeria, which can cause illness and hence it was in the best interest of public health that the abattoir was prohibited from furt...
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