About us

Food Safety, Nutrition and Veterinary Public Health Department 
Microbiological food safety and food-borne diseases One Health - MTA Unit

Dott.ssa Gattuso Antonietta
Tel.: (+39) 06 4990 6039
mail: antonietta.gattuso@iss.it

Dott.ssa Fiore Alfonsina
Tel.: (+39) 06 4990 3742
mail: alfonsina.fiore@iss.it

Dott. Ciccaglioni Gianni
Tel.: (+39) 06 4990 3109
mail: gianni.ciccaglioni@iss.it

Dott. Ortoffi Marco Francesco 
Tel.: (+39) 06 4990 2319
mail: marco.ortoffi@iss.it

Laboratory email:
listeriosi@iss.it

In Italy, surveillance of invasive listeriosis has been active since 2007.  It was updated in 2017 with the note "Sorveglianza e prevenzione della listeriosi" (0008252-13 / 03/2017-DGPRE-DGPRE-P) of the Ministry of Health which recommends dispatch of clinical isolates of Listeria monocytogenes (L. monocytogenes), to the Operational Contact Point of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (OCP-ECDC) for listeriosis, identified at the Food Safety, Nutrition and Veterinary Public Health Department (DSANV), of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS). This initiative proved to be perfectly consistent with the decision of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) to include listeriosis among the priority diseases to be subjected to "reinforced" surveillance also through the laboratory approach that provides for the typing of clinical isolates by L. monocytogenes.

This is a voluntary surveillance involving: the Regional Reference Laboratories for clinical surveillance (IIZZSS), the Laboratories of the National Health Service (SSN), the University Institutes and the Regions. A more in-depth knowledge of the epidemiology of invasive listeriosis in humans at a national level there is provided by dedicated information sheet on cases of listeriosis and food questionnaire, together with the laboratory results. Currently 15/20 Italian regions participate in the surveillance of invasive listeriosis.