Understanding the Roles of Bacterial Foodborne Pathogens in Global Food Safety

A special issue of Pathogens (ISSN 2076-0817). This special issue belongs to the section "Bacterial Pathogens".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 July 2022) | Viewed by 27929

Special Issue Editors

The University of Arizona, Tucson, United States
Interests: Genomics; genomic epidemiology; Campylobacter; Salmonella; Listeria; Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli
United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Albany, CA 94710, United States
Interests: Genomics; Campylobacter, Salmonella, Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli
The University of Arizona, Tucson, United States
Interests: Epidemiology; Campylobacter; Salmonella; post-infectious sequelae; post-infectious irritable bowel syndrome

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Globalization of the food supply is growing at a tremendous rate to meet the rapidly growing demands of increasing populations. Factors like climate change add to the rising challenge of delivering safe food to consumers around the world. The expansion of moving different commodities between countries on a daily basis offers many commodity and foodborne pathogen specific challenges to maintain a safe global food supply. Worldwide, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 600 million foodborne illnesses occur annually, and approximately 1 in every 10 people will fall ill from eating unsafe food every year. These illnesses result in 420,000 deaths per year, of which 30% are children under the age of five. Global foodborne illness costs an estimated 33 million years of healthy lives lost every year. While there are numerous viral and parasitic foodborne pathogens that result in a large global disease burden, bacterial foodborne pathogens by themselves represent a sizable burden. As bacterial foodborne pathogens are a diverse group, they present with specific problems that must be overcome to improve the safety of our global food supply. Different commodities, countries, and cultural practices are associated with unique challenges regarding bacterial foodborne pathogens. Additionally, bacterial foodborne pathogens have evolved to survive and flourish in a wide range of agricultural environments and hosts, as they continue to quickly adapt to the ever-changing global food system. Although pathogens of the same species do have some common epidemiological traits, the variations in both the global food supply and in the pathogens also lead to unique epidemiological concerns around the world. Additionally, we are learning that these bacterial foodborne pathogens can affect lives well beyond the acute disease. Specifically, they may have a major post-infectious impact through a wide variety of post-infectious sequelae like post-infectious irritable bowel syndrome (PI-IBS). Global food safety is immensely more challenging than it was even a few decades ago, and it will continue to offer new challenges on almost a daily basis.

As the global food supply and system continues to grow, adapt, and ultimately change in response to the ever-changing world, it is vital to understand the impact of bacterial foodborne pathogens on the world’s population, particularly due to the globalization of the food supply. We need to improve our understanding of the effects that diverse cultural practices, different global commodities, and the variety of regulations imposed by countries have on the epidemiology of different bacteria foodborne pathogens and their roles in global food safety as a whole. Additionally, we need to expand our currently limited knowledge about the impact of bacterial foodborne post-infectious sequelae around the world, within different countries and cultures. We need to build on the growing amount of genomic information by focusing on genomics related to bacterial foodborne pathogens isolated from different locations and/or sources around the world and understand the evolutionary drivers of these pathogens between commodities, countries, and cultures. Finally, we need to determine whether new bacterial foodborne pathogens are emerging due to some new factor in the global food supply.

Pathogens is launching a Special Issue entitled “Bacterial foodborne pathogens: advancing knowledge of global food safety”, which aims to provide the latest research on global food safety issues related to bacterial foodborne pathogens that are vital to the challenges facing the global food system both now and in the future. Both original research and review articles will be accepted. Potential topics include, but are not limited to the following areas:

  • Genomics of bacterial foodborne pathogens from around the world;
  • Global epidemiology of bacterial foodborne pathogens;
  • Post-infectious sequelae of bacterial foodborne pathogens;
  • Globally emerging bacterial foodborne pathogens.

Dr. Kerry Cooper
Dr. Craig Parker
Dr. Kristen Pogreba-Brown
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Pathogens is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Escherichia coli
  • Salmonella
  • Listeria
  • Campylobacter
  • Vibrio
  • Clostridium
  • Cronobacter
  • Arcobacter
  • Shigella
  • Staphylococcus
  • emerging bacterial foodborne pathogens
  • epidemiology
  • post-infectious sequelae
  • post-infectious irritable bowel syndrome
  • genomics
  • global food safety

Published Papers (7 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

Jump to: Review

12 pages, 571 KiB  
Article
The Enterotoxin Production and Antimicrobial Resistance of Campylobacter Strains Originating from Slaughter Animals
by Beata Wysok, Joanna Wojtacka, Agnieszka Wiszniewska-Łaszczych, Marta Sołtysiuk and Aleksandra Kobuszewska
Pathogens 2022, 11(10), 1131; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/pathogens11101131 - 30 Sep 2022
Viewed by 1334
Abstract
The pathogenicity of animal-origin Campylobacter strains, including antimicrobial resistance and enterotoxigenicity, was determined in this study. Overall, 149 Campylobacter isolates originating from cattle, swine and poultry were tested. The antimicrobial resistance profiles were examined by the diffusion disk method. The dominant resistance pattern [...] Read more.
The pathogenicity of animal-origin Campylobacter strains, including antimicrobial resistance and enterotoxigenicity, was determined in this study. Overall, 149 Campylobacter isolates originating from cattle, swine and poultry were tested. The antimicrobial resistance profiles were examined by the diffusion disk method. The dominant resistance pattern was CIP_TET. The resistance rates for ciprofloxacin among swine, cattle and poultry isolates were 84%, 51% and 66%, respectively; for tetracycline, they were 82%, 57.1% and 76%, respectively. None of the obtained isolates was resistant to all four antimicrobials tested. The ability to produce enterotoxins was assessed by the use of a suckling mouse bioassay, with intestinal fluid accumulation as a positive result, and by CHO assay, with the elongation of cells as a positive result. The ability to produce enterotoxins was significantly higher among cattle isolates (61.2% and 71.4% positive isolates, respectively, in the bioassay and the CHO assay) than among swine (16% and 32% positive isolates, respectively) or poultry isolates (14% and 22% positive isolates, respectively). A strong positive correlation between in vitro and in vivo enterotoxicity tests was demonstrated. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

9 pages, 761 KiB  
Article
MIRU-VNTR Typing of Atypical Mycobacteria Isolated from the Lymph Nodes of Slaughtered Pigs from Poland
by Marta Majchrzak, Aleksandra Kaczmarkowska, Anna Didkowska, Sylwia Brzezińska, Blanka Orłowska, Daniel Klich, Ewa Augustynowicz-Kopeć, Krzysztof Anusz and Paweł Parniewski
Pathogens 2022, 11(5), 495; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/pathogens11050495 - 21 Apr 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1769
Abstract
No regulations currently require the excision of lymph nodes from pig carcasses or the thermal processing of pork before consumption. Therefore, the presence of anatomopathological lesions with signs of coagulation necrosis in lymph nodes from pigs during post-mortem inspection is concerning, as is [...] Read more.
No regulations currently require the excision of lymph nodes from pig carcasses or the thermal processing of pork before consumption. Therefore, the presence of anatomopathological lesions with signs of coagulation necrosis in lymph nodes from pigs during post-mortem inspection is concerning, as is the increasing incidence of mycobacteriosis in humans. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to verify whether mycobacteria can be isolated from tuberculous-like lesions in mandibular lymph nodes in slaughtered pigs, and whether further molecular analysis based on MIRU-VNRT, used to identify mycobacteria from the Mycobacterium avium complex, can indicate zoonotic potential. Forty of the fifty isolates from the lymph nodes with signs of coagulation necrosis were classified as Mycobacterium avium complex. MIRU-VNTR analysis allowed for the isolation of six strains, one of which was classified as M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP). Our findings confirm the presence of atypical mycobacteria in the lymph nodes of slaughtered pigs. While the isolated strains (other than MAP) do not pose a significant or direct health risk to consumers, further research and monitoring are necessary. Atypical mycobacteria can cause a wide range of diseases in children and compromised adults, and often show resistance to many classes of antibiotics, including those used to treat tuberculosis. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

13 pages, 5363 KiB  
Article
Microbiological Quality of Nuts, Dried and Candied Fruits, Including the Prevalence of Cronobacter spp.
by Anna Berthold-Pluta, Monika Garbowska, Ilona Stefańska, Lidia Stasiak-Różańska, Tamara Aleksandrzak-Piekarczyk and Antoni Pluta
Pathogens 2021, 10(7), 900; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/pathogens10070900 - 15 Jul 2021
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 5357
Abstract
Cronobacter genus bacteria are food-borne pathogens. Foods contaminated with Cronobacter spp. may pose a risk to infants or immunocompromised adults. The aim of this study was to determine the microbiological quality of nuts, seeds and dried fruits with special emphasis on the occurrence [...] Read more.
Cronobacter genus bacteria are food-borne pathogens. Foods contaminated with Cronobacter spp. may pose a risk to infants or immunocompromised adults. The aim of this study was to determine the microbiological quality of nuts, seeds and dried fruits with special emphasis on the occurrence of Cronobacter spp. Analyses were carried out on 64 samples of commercial nuts (20 samples), dried fruits (24), candied fruits (8), seeds (4), and mixes of seeds, dried fruits and nuts (8). The samples were tested for the total plate count of bacteria (TPC), counts of yeasts and molds, and the occurrence of Cronobacter spp. Cronobacter isolates were identified and differentiated by PCR-RFLP (Polymerase Chain Reaction - Restriction Fragments Length Polymorphism) and RAPD-PCR (Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA by PCR) analysis. TPC, and yeasts and molds were not detected in 0.1 g of 23.4%, 89.1%, and 32.8% of the analyzed samples. In the remaining samples, TPC were in the range of 1.2–5.3 log CFU g−1. The presence/absence of Cronobacter species was detected in 12 (18.8%) samples of: nuts (10 samples), and mixes (2 samples). The 12 strains of Cronobacter spp. included: C. sakazakii (3 strains), C. malonaticus (5), and C. turicensis (4). The results of this study contribute to the determination of the presence and species identification of Cronobacter spp. in products of plant origin intended for direct consumption. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

17 pages, 887 KiB  
Article
Prevalence of Salmonella spp. and Staphylococcus aureus in Chicken Meat and Pork from Cambodian Markets
by Chea Rortana, Hung Nguyen-Viet, Sothyra Tum, Fred Unger, Sofia Boqvist, Sinh Dang-Xuan, Sok Koam, Delia Grace, Kristina Osbjer, Theng Heng, Seng Sarim, Or Phirum, Roeurn Sophia and Johanna F. Lindahl
Pathogens 2021, 10(5), 556; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/pathogens10050556 - 04 May 2021
Cited by 33 | Viewed by 7811
Abstract
Salmonella spp. and Staphylococcus aureus are two of the most common foodborne bacteria in animal-source foods (ASF) that cause illness worldwide. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of Salmonella spp. and S. aureus in chicken meat and pork in markets in Cambodia. [...] Read more.
Salmonella spp. and Staphylococcus aureus are two of the most common foodborne bacteria in animal-source foods (ASF) that cause illness worldwide. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of Salmonella spp. and S. aureus in chicken meat and pork in markets in Cambodia. Sampling was done in 52 traditional markets and 6 supermarkets in 25 provinces of Cambodia between October 2018 and August 2019. In total, 532 samples were obtained: chicken meat and pork (n = 408, 204 of each), chicken and pork cutting board swabs (n = 124, 62 of each). All samples were analyzed for the presence of Salmonella spp. and S. aureus; colony-forming units per gram (CFU/g) of coagulase-positive Staphylococci (CPS) were counted, and a subset of samples was also analyzed for the most probable number (MPN, n = 136) of Salmonella. The overall prevalence of Salmonella spp. and S. aureus were 42.1% (224/532) and 29.1% (155/532), respectively, with 14.7% (78/532) of samples containing both bacteria. The prevalence of Salmonella spp. in chicken meat was 42.6%, on chicken cutting board it was 41.9%, on pork it was 45.1%, and the pork cutting board 30.6%. Chicken meat had a significantly (p-value < 0.05) higher prevalence of S. aureus, 38.2%, compared to the chicken cutting board, 17.7%, pork 28.9%, and pork cutting board 11.3%. Mean MPN-Salmonella was 10.6 MPN/g in chicken and 11.1 MPN/g in pork samples. Average Log CFU/g of CPS in chicken and pork samples were 2.6 and 2.5, respectively. The results indicate that chicken meat and pork in Cambodia were highly contaminated with Salmonella spp. and S. aureus, posing risks to consumers’ health. Urgent interventions are necessary to improve hygiene for safer meat in Cambodian markets. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

19 pages, 5835 KiB  
Article
Genomic Characterization of Salmonella typhimurium DT104 Strains Associated with Cattle and Beef Products
by Craig T. Parker, Steven Huynh, Aaron Alexander, Andrew S. Oliver and Kerry K. Cooper
Pathogens 2021, 10(5), 529; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/pathogens10050529 - 27 Apr 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2314
Abstract
Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Typhimurium DT104, a multidrug-resistant phage type, has emerged globally as a major cause of foodborne outbreaks particularly associated with contaminated beef products. In this study, we sequenced three S. Typhimurium DT104 strains associated with a 2009 outbreak caused [...] Read more.
Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Typhimurium DT104, a multidrug-resistant phage type, has emerged globally as a major cause of foodborne outbreaks particularly associated with contaminated beef products. In this study, we sequenced three S. Typhimurium DT104 strains associated with a 2009 outbreak caused by ground beef, including the outbreak source strain and two clinical strains. The goal of the study was to gain a stronger understanding of the genomics and genomic epidemiology of highly clonal S. typhimurium DT104 strains associated with bovine sources. Our study found no single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) between the ground beef source strain and the clinical isolates from the 2009 outbreak. SNP analysis including twelve other S. typhimurium strains from bovine and clinical sources, including both DT104 and non-DT104, determined DT104 strains averaged 55.0 SNPs between strains compared to 474.5 SNPs among non-DT104 strains. Phylogenetic analysis separated the DT104 strains from the non-DT104 strains, but strains did not cluster together based on source of isolation even within the DT104 phage type. Pangenome analysis of the strains confirmed previous studies showing that DT104 strains are missing the genes for the allantoin utilization pathway, but this study confirmed that the genes were part of a deletion event and not substituted or disrupted by the insertion of another genomic element. Additionally, cgMLST analysis revealed that DT104 strains with cattle as the source of isolation were quite diverse as a group and did not cluster together, even among strains from the same country. Expansion of the analysis to 775 S. typhimurium ST19 strains associated with cattle from North America revealed diversity between strains, not limited to just among DT104 strains, which suggests that the cattle environment is favorable for a diverse group of S. typhimurium strains and not just DT104 strains. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

10 pages, 1005 KiB  
Article
Virulence Characterization of Listeria monocytogenes, Listeria innocua, and Listeria welshimeri Isolated from Fish and Shrimp Using In Vivo Early Zebrafish Larvae Models and Molecular Study
by Arkadiusz Józef Zakrzewski, Wioleta Chajęcka-Wierzchowska, Anna Zadernowska and Piotr Podlasz
Pathogens 2020, 9(12), 1028; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/pathogens9121028 - 08 Dec 2020
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3500
Abstract
Listeriosis is one of the most notable foodborne diseases and is characterized by high rates of mortality. L. monocytogenes is the main cause of human listeriosis outbreaks, however, there are isolated cases of disease caused by other species of the genus Listeria. [...] Read more.
Listeriosis is one of the most notable foodborne diseases and is characterized by high rates of mortality. L. monocytogenes is the main cause of human listeriosis outbreaks, however, there are isolated cases of disease caused by other species of the genus Listeria. The aim of this study was to evaluate strains of L. monocytogenes (n = 7), L. innocua (n = 6), and L. welshimeri (n = 2) isolated from fish and shrimps for their virulence based on the presence of virulence genes and the in vivo Danio rerio (zebrafish) larvae models. A total of 15 strains were analyzed. The zebrafish larvae model showed that the larvae injected with L. monocytogenes strains were characterized by the lowest survival rate (46.5%), followed by L. innocua strains (64.2%) and L. welshimeri (83.0%) strains. Multiplex PCRs were used for detection of selected virulence genes (luxS, actA2, prfA, inlB, rrn, iap, sigB, plcB, actA, hlyA), the majority of which were present in L. monocytogenes. Only a few virulence-related genes were found in L. welshimeri, however, no correlation between the occurrence of these genes and larval survival was confirmed. This research highlights the importance of the potential impact that Listeria spp. strains isolated from fish and shrimps may have on consumers. Full article
Show Figures

Graphical abstract

Review

Jump to: Research

33 pages, 935 KiB  
Review
The Persistence of Bacterial Pathogens in Surface Water and Its Impact on Global Food Safety
by Rebecca L. Bell, Julie A. Kase, Lisa M. Harrison, Kannan V. Balan, Uma Babu, Yi Chen, Dumitru Macarisin, Hee Jin Kwon, Jie Zheng, Eric L. Stevens, Jianghong Meng and Eric W. Brown
Pathogens 2021, 10(11), 1391; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/pathogens10111391 - 27 Oct 2021
Cited by 17 | Viewed by 4724
Abstract
Water is vital to agriculture. It is essential that the water used for the production of fresh produce commodities be safe. Microbial pathogens are able to survive for extended periods of time in water. It is critical to understand their biology and ecology [...] Read more.
Water is vital to agriculture. It is essential that the water used for the production of fresh produce commodities be safe. Microbial pathogens are able to survive for extended periods of time in water. It is critical to understand their biology and ecology in this ecosystem in order to develop better mitigation strategies for farmers who grow these food crops. In this review the prevalence, persistence and ecology of four major foodborne pathogens, Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC), Salmonella, Campylobacter and closely related Arcobacter, and Listeria monocytogenes, in water are discussed. These pathogens have been linked to fresh produce outbreaks, some with devastating consequences, where, in a few cases, the contamination event has been traced to water used for crop production or post-harvest activities. In addition, antimicrobial resistance, methods improvements, including the role of genomics in aiding in the understanding of these pathogens, are discussed. Finally, global initiatives to improve our knowledge base of these pathogens around the world are touched upon. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop