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First detection of tick-borne encephalitis virus in Ixodes ricinus ticks in Belgium, May 2024Abstract
No full textBelgian National Burden of Disease Study. Guidelines for the calculation of Disability-Adjusted Life Years in Belgium, June 2025
No full textFood consumption survey 2022-2023: Evaluation of macro- and micronutrient intake in the Belgian population
No full textThe National Food Consumption Survey (FCS) is a repeated cross-sectional survey designed to collect detailed and quantitative information on the food consumption, nutrient intake, and nutritional status of the general population. Physical activity and sedentary behaviour are also investigated. The third edition of this survey was conducted in 2022-2023 among the Belgian population aged 3 years and above, with 3777 persons randomly selected from the National Register participating between March 2022 and December 2023.
This fourth summary report presents key findings on the nutrient intake in the population in Belgium and the adherence of nutrient intake to dietary reference values. It includes results on the habitual intake of macronutrients (i.e., carbohydrates, fats and proteins), subgroups of macronutrients (e.g., saturated fats, monounsaturated fats), and certain micronutrients (i.e., vitamins and minerals). Depending on the nutrient, the proportion of the population adhering to the dietary reference values is calculated using average requirements, dietary intake ranges, adequate intake levels, population reference intake, or upper intake levels, set by the European Food Safety Authority or the Nordic Nutrition Recommendations.
Results are presented for the total population and further broken down by age, sex, educational level and region. Notably, the 2022-2023 survey provides results for older adults (65 years and older), which is new compared to the previous edition. Where possible, findings are compared with results from the previous survey of 2014-2015.
More results are available on our website.</p
Molecular and WGS-based characterization of invasive Neisseria meningitidis isolates collected in Belgium (2016-2022) and MenB-FHbp vaccine coverage estimation of serogroup B.
No full textInvasive meningococcal disease (IMD) caused by Neisseria meningitidis can result in life-threatening meningitis and septicaemia. There are twelve serogroups of N. meningitidis, but most cases of IMD are caused by serogroups A, B, C, W, X and Y. In Europe, serogroup B (MenB) accounts for 51 % of documented cases as recently reported by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). As a major cause of IMD, genomic surveillance of circulating MenB strains and assessment of the potential impact of vaccination programs could help inform public health policy. In this study, a collection of 493 strains was analysed, collected in Belgium by the National Reference Centre between 2016 and 2022. Slide agglutination was used for serogroup determination and whole genome sequencing (WGS) was used to further characterize these strains. The observed serogroups were: MenB (n = 281), MenY (n = 95), MenW (n = 83), MenC (n = 30), non-groupable isolates (n = 2), MenE (n = 1) and MenX (n = 1). A higher prevalence of MenY and MenW was observed in older adults. MenB isolates were grouped into 110 sequence types (STs), 89 of which belonged to 16 clonal complexes (CCs). Coverage of the MenB-FHbp vaccine (Trumenba, bivalent rLP2086; Pfizer Inc., New York, NY, USA ipv Philadelphia) was predicted using the Meningococcal Deduced Vaccine Antigen Reactivity (MenDeVAR) index. Of the 281 MenB strains collected between 2016 and 2022, 89.1 % (lower limit — upper limit: 78.6-100.0 %) were predicted by MenDeVAR to be covered by the vaccine. This study highlights the benefits of a pathogen surveillance program and the need for experimental characterization of continuously evolving antigenic variants.</p
Surveillance épidémiologique de Giardia en Belgique, 2019-2024
No full text
Le nombre d’infections par Giardia rapporté en Belgique a diminué entre 2019 et 2021, puis il a augmenté en 2022 et en 2023 et est resté stable en 2024.
Entre 2019 et 2024, comme les années précédentes, les groupes d’âge les plus touchés étaient les moins de 10 ans et un second pic a été observé pour les 30-39 ans.
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Host transcriptome profiling for resistance against lumpy skin disease (LSD).
No full textOBJECTIVE: Lumpy skin disease (LSD) is an acute or subacute systemic viral disease of cattle that shows variation in the response of cattle to LSD virus infection. To better understand the mechanisms underlying this response diversity in field studies and under carefully controlled artificial infections, we studied the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between two resilient versus three susceptible Holstein bulls before an infection challenge and three time points after that.
RESULTS: The host transcriptome profiling revealed that IL1RAP gene expression could be a potential determinant in distinguishing between resilient and susceptible cattle (padj < 0.05). It was significantly shifted from up-regulated prior to infection to down-regulated three days post-infection in the LSD-resilient cattle. Its expression remained up-regulated among the susceptible cattle post-infection compared to pre-infection. The results showed that seven days post-infection may be a critical time point for LSD infection. The Gene Ontology (GO) and KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) pathway enrichment test showed a few enriched GO terms and pathways relevant to the LSD and the involvement of the IL1RAP gene. This pilot study, with limited statistical power, is the first to investigate bovine gene expression profiling in response to LSDV.</p
A goatpox but not sheeppox heterologous live attenuated vaccines provide complete protection against lumpy skin disease in cattle under experimental conditions.
No full textHomologous vaccination has proven to be an effective tool to control and eradicate lumpy skin disease. However, their use has been met with some trepidation for diverse reasons, in some regions, and has resulted in the use of heterologous vaccines (sheeppox or goatpox-based). However, conflicting data (field and experimental) raises questions about their effectiveness. As comparative data under standardized conditions are lacking, this study aimed to evaluate four sheeppox-based and one goatpox-based vaccine using a standard vaccination/challenge protocol previously used to evaluate homologous LSDV vaccines. Although some minor differences were observed between the different sheeppox-based vaccines, none of them were able to completely protect the animals against a virulent LSDV challenge, as witnessed by the development of nodules, viremia and the detection of viral genomes in the different organs and tissues. In contrast, the goatpox-based vaccine provided complete protection (no nodules nor viremia) and induced an immunological profile (seroconversion and IFNγ response) similar to the homologous vaccines. Based upon the obtained data it can be concluded that none of the tested sheeppox-based vaccines are suitable for vaccination to prevent LSDV infection, at the dose used, while the goatpox-based vaccine, Caprivac, is. It should, however, be emphasized that this cannot be extrapolated to other goatpox-based vaccines without extensive validation.</p
Unraveling Hepatitis E Virus susceptibility to heat treatment, pH reduction and drying in pork meat
No full textEpidemiologische surveillance van mazelen (Morbillivirus) - 2024
No full text• Er werden 526 gevallen van mazelen gemeld in 2024, waarbij de diagnose voor 436 gevallen in het labo bevestigd werd, 61 gevallen epidemiologisch gelinkt waren aan een labo-bevestigd geval en 29 personen enkel op basis van symptomen als mogelijk geval geregistreerd werd.
• Dit is het hoogste aantal gevallen sinds de grote mazelenuitbraak in 2011. Er waren in 2024 beduidend meer gevallen dan bij de laatste grote uitbraken in 2017 (N=367) en 2019 (N=480).
• Twee op drie gevallen (356/526) was jonger dan 10 jaar. De incidentie was het hoogst bij kinderen <1 jaar, die nog te jong zijn voor vaccinatie. De leeftijdsverdeling verschilde per regio.
• Van alle gevallen was de helft ongevaccineerd (286/526) en voor ca. 1 op 4 gevallen ontbrak informatie over de vaccinatiestatus (11⅘56).
• De meerderheid van de gevallen (300/526) kwam voor in Brussel. De incidentie in Brussel lag daarmee op 24/100.000 inwoners, of zo’n 10x hoger dan in Wallonië (97 gevallen, 2.6/100.000 inwoners) en Vlaanderen (129 gevallen, 1.9/100.000).
• De piek van de epidemie was in juni, met die maand 192 gevallen. Daarna daalde het aantal gevallen sterk, met slechts 13 gevallen in totaal tussen begin september en het einde van het jaar.
• Van 33 besmettingen weten we dat ze werden opgelopen in het buitenland, vooral in Roemenië. Een aantal van deze besmettingen vormden het startpunt van 6 clusters met in totaal 25 gevallen.
• Voor minstens 118 gevallen was een ziekenhuisopname nodig.
• Mazelen is één van de meest besmettelijke infectieziekten en kan leiden tot ernstige complicaties. Alle Europese landen engageerden zich in samenwerking met de Wereldgezondheidsorganisatie (WGO) om mazelen te elimineren.</p
Comparing the applicability of de facto population markers for spatiotemporal trend analysis in wastewater-based epidemiology
No full textWastewater-based epidemiology is an effective public health approach that enables early detection, monitoring, and assessment of community health trends by analysing human excretion products in wastewater. Here, accurate population normalization is essential to ensure correct exposure estimates. Prior work often assumes a fixed population size, which can lead to major over- or underestimation. To account for daily population fluctuations, dynamic population markers have been proposed including hydrochemical parameters, xenobiotics, biological markers, and mobile phone signalling records. This study compared the daily mass loads of 32 population markers with mobile phone derived population estimates in two Belgian cities. Weak to moderate Spearman correlations (|r| ≤ 0.46) were found with the strongest correlation for MDMA (rs = −0.46), and the lowest for Pepper Mild Mottle Virus (rs = 0.03). A random forest regression model was applied to one city to evaluate the importance of these proxies. Model interpretability analysis indicated that certain psychoactive substances (MDMA, paraxanthine, hydroxybupropion) and the hydrochemical parameter chloride have potential as population markers. However, their applicability is influenced by sociodemographic factors and thus site-specific. Overall, their value lies in providing complementary information for multiparameter models rather than serving as a standalone population marker.</p