Editorial Epidemiology, Detection, and Control of Foodborne Microbial...

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EditorialEpidemiology, Detection, and Control ofFoodborne Microbial Pathogens

Miguel Prieto,1 Pierre Colin,2 Pablo Fernández-Escámez,3 and Avelino Alvarez-Ordóñez4

1Veterinary Faculty, University of Leon, 24071 Leon, Spain2High School of Microbiology and Food Safety, University of Western Brittany, Technopole Brest-Iroise, 29280 Plouzane, France3Higher Technical School of Agricultural Engineering, Polytechnic University of Cartagena, Cartagena, Spain4Teagasc Food Research Centre, Moorepark, Fermoy, County Cork, Ireland

Correspondence should be addressed to Miguel Prieto; miguel.prieto@unileon.es

Received 13 October 2015; Accepted 13 October 2015

Copyright © 2015 Miguel Prieto et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Foodborne microbial diseases are a significant public healththreat. They occur in both developed and developing coun-tries with different food industry expansion, food safety reg-ulations, food hygiene and consumption habits, and climateand environmental situations. The subsequent economicburden associated to them is also different. Most foodbornediseases are sporadic and often not reported, but sometimesfoodborne outbreaksmay affect a large number of individualsand compromise economic sectors and sanitary resources.Contamination of foods can occur at any point along thefood chain, while pathogenic microorganisms enter the bodythrough the ingestion of contaminated food.

A series of pathogens and diseases are emerging, drivenby factors such as the change in pre- and postharvest stagesof food production and manufacturing, pathogen adaptationand evolution, and changes in lifestyle, consumption habits,or host susceptibility, which modify the global exposure tofoodborne pathogens. Other factors contemplated as possiblecontributors to the increased incidence include the recentchanges in the food supply system, which result in intensiveproduction and complexity of the supply chain. Becausefood production, manufacturing, and marketing are global,infectious agents present in foods can be disseminated fromthe original point of processing and packaging to the placeof consumption thousands of kilometers away. Travel andexpansion in international trade of foods have also increasedthe occurrence of outbreaks involving several countries andof cross-border transmission of agents and diseases.

There are a number of recent advances in the epidemi-ology, detection, and control of foodborne agents, includingthe development of novel methodologies and tools for thedetection of pathogens, the growing availability of genomesequences which provide unrestricted information on bac-terial genetics and physiology and give clues for the controlof pathogenic microorganisms, the expanding knowledge onthe epidemiology of the emerging pathogens, and the exten-sive application of molecular genomics and postgenomicstools for deciphering the behavior of foodborne pathogensin food-related environments. Surveillance studies contributealso to providing data and a better understanding into theexistence and spread of foodborne pathogens. There is a spe-cial interest to know the origin and routes of contaminationof foodborne pathogens, while farm animals and domesticandwild animals have been reported to be primary reservoirsfor foodborne pathogens. It is also increasingly known thatfoodborne pathogens are able to change and adapt to differentenvironmental conditions. The ability of these pathogens todevelop adaptive response networks has contributed to theircapacity to survive under a wide range of conditions and evenstimulate their virulence potential.

This special issue comprises several reviews and originalresearch articles which cover the most recent investigationson aspects such as the occurrence of foodborne pathogens,molecular typing of isolates, methods of detection or straincharacterization aimed at foodborne pathogens, investigationand management of outbreaks, mathematical modelling of

Hindawi Publishing CorporationBioMed Research InternationalVolume 2015, Article ID 617417, 2 pageshttp://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/617417

2 BioMed Research International

microbial growth and inactivation in foods, novel technolo-gies of food preservation and microbial stress responses, andthe impact of all this knowledge on food safety management,including the design of novel strategies for the (bio)control offoodborne pathogens.

Regarding occurrence surveys and molecular epidemiol-ogy studies, the contributions address a variety of relevantfoodborne pathogens at international level in different animaland human populations and food categories (Campylobacterjejuni in poultry in Italy by F. Marotta et al.; Shiga toxigenicEscherichia coli O157 and non-O157 in ruminant feces inMalaysia by A. Perera et al.; Salmonella enterica in poultryand humans in Algeria by R. Elgroud et al.; enteropathogenicYersinia spp. in pigs in Finland by M. J. Vilar et al.; food- andsmear-transmitted pathogens [E. coli, norovirus, Shigella spp.,Cryptosporidium parvum, Giardia duodenalis, Salmonellaspp., astrovirus, Rotavirus, and Sapovirus] in humans in Maliby H. Frickmann et al.; Listeria ivanovii in ready-to-eat foodsand food processing environments in Ireland by A. Alvarez-Ordonez et al.; Listeria spp. in food samples in Brazil by D. C.Vallim et al.;Arcobacter butzleri andArcobacter cryaerophilusin pork, beef, and chicken meat in Poland by I. Zacharow etal.; Escherichia coli in conventional and free-range poultry inBrazil by V. L. Koga et al.; Listeria monocytogenes in hospitalpatients in Spain by J. Ariza-Miguel et al.).

A number of studies deal with methods of detectionand isolation of foodborne pathogens and characterizationof isolates. M. Srisawat and W. Panbangred describe aloop-mediated isothermal amplification method (LAMP) forthe specific detection of Salmonella in food samples. A.Rohde et al. perform a systematic comparison of differenthomogenization approaches (stomaching, sonication, andmilling) for the accurate detection of foodborne pathogensin meat. K. Jaakkola et al. report a comparative genomichybridization analysis with a DNAmicroarray based on threeYersinia enterocolitica and four Yersinia pseudotuberculosisgenomes to shed light on the genomic differences betweenenteropathogenic Yersinia. One research article by F. Sayket al. describes the management activities implemented bythe Emergency Department in relation to the German ShigaToxin producing Escherichia coli (STEC) O104:H4 outbreakin two tertiary hospitals in Lubeck, northern Germany, inrelation to patients with food-related diarrhoea.

Two studies are related to microbial growth in foods.C. M. McAuley et al. evaluate the growth of SalmonellaTyphimurium and Salmonella Sofia on eggs under conven-tional production and retail conditions. M.-L. Pla et al.compare the accuracy of a variety of primary models topredict the growth of Bacillus cereus, Listeria monocytogenes,and Escherichia coli by the plate count and absorbancemethods.

Several contributions focus on novel food preservationmethodologies and food control strategies and on howmicrobial stress responses impact their efficacy. L. Wang andC. Shen assess the efficacy of hops beta acids (HBA) againstunstressed and stress-adapted Listeria monocytogenes in hamextract and evaluate the consumers’ acceptability of HBA onready-to-eat ham. M. Gouma et al. establish the process cri-teria for using UV-C light alone or combined with mild heat

(UV-H treatment) to inactivate 5 log10cycles of Escherichia

coli, Salmonella Typhimurium, Listeria monocytogenes, andStaphylococcus aureus in chicken broth. T. Hintz et al. reviewthe use of plant-derived products as antimicrobial agentsfor food preservation to control foodborne pathogens. L.Guevara et al. assess the impact of moderate heat, combinedwith carvacrol and thymol on the viability, injury status,and stress response of Listeria monocytogenes. E. Jonczyk-Matysiak et al. review the potential as control strategies ofbacteriophages active against Bacillus anthracis and otherBacillus cereus group members.

This editorial summarizes the topics discussed in thearticles published in this special issue, in the confidence thatreaders will find this information useful with the most recentresearch on major developments in the area of epidemiology,detection, and control of foodborne microbial pathogens.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the authors and reviewers for theirvaluable contributions and constructive criticisms to thisspecial issue. We sincerely hope that this collection of paperswill prompt further research and contribute to novel orimproved strategies of food safety management to be able tofurther reduce the incidence of foodbornemicrobial diseases.

Miguel PrietoPierre Colin

Pablo Fernandez-EscamezAvelino Alvarez-Ordonez

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