Campylobacter is Ireland’s Highest-Burden Foodborne Pathogen
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) has published its first national risk ranking of microbiological foodborne hazards, identifying Campylobacter as the pathogen responsible for the greatest annual public health burden in Ireland. The assessment is intended to support risk-based food safety management by helping prioritize prevention, surveillance, and control efforts.
Microbial Foodborne Hazards Ranked by DALYs
An FSAI scientific committee evaluated seven major foodborne pathogens using disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), a metric that combines illness and premature mortality into a single measure of disease burden. The analysis drew on national surveillance data collected between 2015 and 2019, adjusted for underreporting and under-ascertainment, and incorporated expert estimates of the proportion of illness attributable to foodborne transmission.
Based on estimated annual foodborne DALYs, the pathogens ranked as follows:
- Campylobacter, 404.44 DALYs
- Norovirus, 155.51 DALYs
- Listeria monocytogenes, 98.11 DALYs
- Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC), 83.05 DALYs
- Salmonella, 15.02 DALYs
- Hepatitis A virus, 5.29 DALYs
- Hepatitis E virus, 1.25 DALYs.
According to the report, the findings highlight the different ways pathogens affect public health. Campylobacter ranked highest because of both its incidence and overall disease burden, while norovirus ranked second largely due to its high incidence despite generally less severe illness. L. monocytogenes ranked third because of the severe outcomes associated with infection, despite causing comparatively fewer cases.
The scientific committee said the rankings reflect the effectiveness of Ireland's food safety control measures during the 2015–2019 study period and are intended to guide strategic decision-making by identifying the pathogens with the greatest public health impact.
Data Gaps and Uncertainties
The report also identified significant data gaps that contributed to uncertainty in the analysis. Researchers noted that additional hazards, including Yersinia enterocolitica, Toxoplasma gondii, and biogenic amines, could not be included because sufficient data were unavailable to estimate disease burden. The committee also cited limitations related to underreporting of foodborne illness, reliance on expert judgment for estimating foodborne attribution, and the use of disease models incorporating data from countries outside Ireland.
Because the analysis was based on pre-pandemic surveillance data from 2015–2019, the report does not account for more recent developments, such as changes in surveillance systems or the emergence of new pathogens. The committee said improving surveillance data, source attribution studies, and disease modeling will reduce uncertainty and strengthen future microbiological risk rankings.
FSAI said the methodology provides a transparent framework for estimating the burden of foodborne disease in Ireland and will help inform future food safety policy, research priorities, and public health interventions.
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