Identification and prioritization of effective food safety interventions require an understanding of the relationship between food and pathogen from farm to consumption. Critical to this cause is food attribution, the capacity to attribute cases of foodborne disease to the food vehicle or other source responsible for illness. A wide variety of food attribution approaches and data are used aroun...

This issue of the Journal includes 2 studies that highlight important emerging food-borne-disease threats from very different perspectives. The wide spectrum of ex-traintestinal disease caused by potentially foodborne Escherichia coli is often under-appreciated. Johnson et al. [1] present provocative data suggesting that antimi-crobial-resistant E. coli and extraintesti-nal pathogenic E. coli (...

Comprehensive Surveillance of Human Caliciviruses in The Netherlands Norwalk-like caliciviruses (NLV) are increasingly recognized as a significant cause of food-related illness. In recent years, The Netherlands has conducted four NLV studies: i) a physician-based case-control study, 1996-99; ii) a population-based cohort study with a nested case-control design, 1999; iii) NLV testing of stools ...

Various researchers have studied the importance of the oral transmission of Chagas' disease since the mid-20th century. Only in recent years, due to an outbreak that occurred in the Brazilian State of Santa Catarina in 2005 and to various outbreaks occurring during the last 3 years in the Brazilian Amazon basin, mainly associated with the consumption of Amazonian palm berry or açaí (Euterpe ole...

There is clearly a significant increase in awareness of the risks from food-borne diseases among consumers in western countries in the past decade. The concern about the quality and safety of food appears to be driven by increased affluence, new scientific discoveries, by more sophisticated measurements and analyses, by new information about linkages between diet and health, by new food technol...

Bacillus cereus is a prevalent, soil-dwelling, Gram-positive bacterium. Some strains are harmful to humans and cause food-borne illness, while other strains can be beneficial as probiotics for animals. To gain insight into the bacterial genetic determinants, we report the genome sequence of a strain, LCT-BC244, which was isolated from CGMCC 1.230.

I n today’s fast-paced, budget-driven world, environmental health practitioners need all the help they can get keeping up-to­ date with the latest research and best prac­ tices for their diverse field. The envir onmental health workforce needs to be strong, sustained, and prepared to meet today’s challenges and improve the health and safety of all. To help the environmental health work­ force m...