Le Figaro Nantes
The last edition of the annual Christmas banquet, given at the Airbus factory in Montoir-de-Bretagne, in Loire-Atlantique, left its guests with a more lasting memory than usual.
A rather bitter memory, even, since some 700 of the 2,600 guests at these tragic feasts showed signs of very serious food poisoning.
An obsidional fever then seized the survivors of the monster colic: what could have been at the origin of this widespread collective contamination?
Was it the fault of infected oysters?
Unless it’s a question of wickedly strong cheeses?
After the buffet, a particularly marauding Rocamadour was even singled out.
Christmas gastronomy
A month after the accident, the Regional Health Agency (ARS) of Pays de la Loire finally sheds some light on the mystery of this toxic buffet.
“Given the clinical signs presented by the patients and the time it takes for symptoms to appear,”
the agency considers it very likely that contamination with norovirus, the gastroenteritis virus already responsible at the same period of the infection of oyster farming areas.
The state investigation, carried out jointly by the ARS and the prefectural services, has also refined the number of victims of this episode of Christmas gastro, re-evaluating them at 667
“minimum” people.
The origin of this norovirus contamination remains to be elucidated.
On this point, research is still slipping.
“
The investigation does not rule out a food origin.
However, the analyzes carried out on leftover meals came back negative
,” indicates the health agency in Le
Figaro
, specifying that only one stool analysis was judged positive for norovirus.
Out of a total sample of… one.
Or definitely not enough to allow serious conclusions to be drawn from the investigation.
Transmission
“from person to person, by hands”,
has still not been ruled out.