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...

BACKGROUND Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis (Salmonella Enteritidis) has become a significant pathogen in South Africa, and the need for improved molecular surveillance of this pathogen has become important. Over the years, multi-locus variable-number tandem-repeats analysis (MLVA) has become a valuable molecular subtyping technique for Salmonella, particularly for highly homogenic serot...

Abstract Listeria monocytogenes is an important opportunistic foodborne pathogen causing listeriosis, often fatal infection leading to meningitis, sepsis, or of the fetus and abortion in susceptible individuals. Diverse ready-to-eat food (RTE) like dairy, meat, fish, vegetables, complex foods are linked with listeriosis outbreaks. L. capable surviving stressful environmental conditions grow ref...

Although many rapid and high throughput molecular methods have been developed in the recent years for the multiplex detection of foodborne pathogens, the simultaneous recovery and enrichment of sublethally injured cells is still a problem that needs to be considered. Combined with previous established multiplex real-time PCR assay, the capability of simultaneous recovery and enrichment of suble...

Escherichia coli O157:H7, a major foodborne pathogen, has been associated with numerous cases of foodborne illnesses. Rapid methods have been developed for the screening of this pathogen in foods in order to circumvent timely plate culture techniques. Unfortunately, many rapid methods are presumptive and do not claim to confirm the presence of E. coli O157:H7. The previously developed method, e...

Foodborne diseases are a major health concern that can have severe impact on society and can add tremendous financial burden to our health care systems. Rapid early detection of food contamination is therefore relevant for the containment of food-borne pathogens. Conventional pathogen detection methods, such as microbiological and biochemical identification are time-consuming and laborious, whi...

Campylobacter jejuni, a major foodborne human pathogen, has become increasingly resistant to fluoroquinolone (FQ) antimicrobials. By using clonally related isolates and genetically defined mutants, we determined the fitness of FQ-resistant Campylobacter in chicken (a natural host and a major reservoir for C. jejuni) in the absence of antibiotic selection pressure. When monoinoculated into the h...

Abstract Purpose of Review In this article, we aim to provide an overview the occurrence and characteristics livestock-associated (LA-) meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). We further question role LA-MRSA as a potential foodborne pathogen. investigate recent findings developments from One Health perspective also highlighting current strategies initiatives aiming improve reporting...