ECDC starts pilot phase for collection of molecular typing data.

The European Surveillance System (TESSy) molecular surveillance service (MSS) was launched in late November 2012. This new service enables European Union and European Economic Area countries to upload detailed molecular typing data for Salmonella, Listeria, E. coli (VTEC/STEC) and multidrug-resistant M. tuberculosis (MDR-TB) to the MSS database, hosted by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). So far, 13 countries are providing data for the three food and waterborne pathogens, and it is likely that more countries will join the system in 2013. For M. tuberculosis, 23 countries are currently providing molecular typing data. It is likely that in the future, more pathogens will be added to the MSS.