National Enteric Surveillance Program (NESP)
The national incidence of foodborne pathogens is actively collected and reported by the National Enteric Surveillance Program (NESP). The NESP has been in operation since April 1997 and is designed to provide timely analysis and reporting of laboratory confirmed enteric disease cases in Canada. This includes major enteric bacterial pathogens such as:
- Salmonella
- Campylobacter
- Shigella
- Vibrio
- Shiga toxin-producing E. coli
- Yersinia, and
- Listeria
This also includes intestinal parasitic organisms such as:
- Giardia
- Cryptosporidium
- Entamoeba, and
- Cyclospora
and enteric viruses such as:
- Norovirus
- Rotavirus
- Hepatitis A
- Adenovirus
- Astrovirus
- Sapovirus
- Enterovirus
Our Partners
The program is jointly administered by the Enteric Diseases Program at the National Microbiology Laboratory (NML) and the Centre for Food-borne, Environmental and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (CFEZID).
Each provincial public health laboratory (as represented by the Canadian Public Health Laboratory Network) provides the NML with weekly aggregate totals of new laboratory confirmed enteric diseases for centralized analysis for detection of emerging and priority disease trends. These analyses are returned in a weekly report to submitting laboratories and other stakeholders such as federal and provincial epidemiologists, researchers and public health professionals. The program also integrates data and information with national (i.e. PulseNet Canada) and international efforts to identify and respond to clusters of foodborne disease.
Annual reports
Annual reports including serotype tables since 2020 are available here. For reports prior to 2020, please contact nesp-pnsme@phac-aspc.gc.ca.
Distribution
Weekly Surveillance reports are available to recognized provincial and federal public health professionals. If you are interested in receiving the weekly surveillance reports and accessing the on-line data, please contact: nesp-pnsme@phac-aspc.gc.ca or nml.ed-lnm.me@phac-aspc.gc.ca