Campylobacteriosis is the most important bacterial food-borne disease in the developed world. Consumption of chicken meat, beef or raw milk, direct contact with ruminants and exposure to contaminated surface water or even consumption of tap water have been identified as risk factors for human disease. However, the most important risk factor is consumption of and/or handling contaminated chicken...

The natural contamination of foods with a bacterial pathogen frequently consists of a mixture of strains with their own characteristics of survival, growth potential and virulence. Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment (QMRA) must account for this genetic diversity to reflect the variability of the pathogen risk and to identify the genetic groups present at key stages of the food pathway. To d...

Escherichia coli O157:H7 has caused serious outbreaks of food-borne illness via transmission in a variety of food vehicles, including unpasteurized apple juice, dried salami, and spinach. To understand how this pathogen responds to the multiple stresses of the food environment, we compared global transcription patterns before and after exposure to model apple juice. Transcriptomes of mid-expone...

Leafy green vegetables have been identified as a source of foodborne illnesses worldwide over the past decade. Human enteric pathogens, such as Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella, have been implicated in numerous food poisoning outbreaks associated with the consumption of fresh produce. An understanding of the mechanisms responsible for the establishment of pathogenic bacteria in or on veg...

Entrohemorrhagic Escherichia coli is a human pathogen that causes hemorrhagic colitis due to its verotoxin. It is an agent with food poisoning importance; a significant number of cases subsequntly develop hemolitic uremic syndrome (HUS) which is probably the most common cause of renal failure in childeren and occasionally resulting in death. Inhibition of bacterial growth in food is the most im...

While the food-borne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes can persist in food associated environments, there are no whole-genome sequence (WGS) based methods to differentiate persistent from sporadic strains. Whole-genome sequencing of 188 isolates from a longitudinal study of L. monocytogenes in retail delis was used to (i) apply single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-based phylogenetics for subtypin...

Transmission of food- and milkborne pathogens often involves complex interactions among the pathogen, the environment, and one or multiple host species. A complete understanding of these interactions is critical to allow the development of science-based, effective intervention strategies for foodborne infectious diseases. This article summarizes our studies on the transmission, ecology, pathoge...

Although flies are important vectors of food-borne pathogens, there is little information to accurately assess the food-related health risk of the presence of individual flies, especially in urban areas. This study quantifies the prevalence and the relative risk of food-borne pathogens associated with the body surfaces and guts of individual wild flies. One hundred flies were collected from the...

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Food safety criteria for Listeria monocytogenes in the ready-to-eat food category have been applied since 2006. In territory of European Union 2019, there were 2 621 confirmed cases invasive listeriosis humans, with a high mortality rate (17.6%). A broader understanding ecology is crucial successful control this pathogen chain continuum. The paper presents new knowledge on reservoirs/sources co...