Division D Further comments

Although a health certificate drawn up before taking up employment offers no absolute guarantee that the person concerned will not be a source of contamination, it is important, at the commencement of employment, to draw attention to essential public health aspects such as the responsibility in matters of hygiene generally and the obligation to report any contagious disease during the term of employment.

In this context, it is essential that the person concerned is sufficiently well informed of his role as a transmitter of disease.

The routine medical examination (normally taking place every year) of staff engaged in handling meat, poultrymeat and meat products has been carried out for many years in a number of countries, with the aim of reducing the risk of pathogenic micro-organisms being transmitted to the consumer through the meat, poultrymeat or meat products by the person concerned.

At various international meetings the question has been raised of whether such routine examinations, particularly of faeces, must necessarily form part of the measures to protect the consumer against contagious diseases that may be transmitted via badly handled meat, poultrymeat or meat products. The value of the routine examination of faeces for pathogenic intestinal bacteria, in particular, has repeatedly been called into question.

It emerges from the study of the reports of the abovementioned meetings that routine examinations, particularly of faeces samples, do not in any significant way contribute towards preventing contagious diseases from being transmitted to the consumer via meat, poultrymeat or meat products; in other words, the examination at regular intervals of faeces and urine of staff for Salmonella and Shigellae is no longer considered to be relevant. There should only be examination where it is justified on epidemiological or clinical grounds.