The Danish Annual Report on Zoonoses summarizes trends in foodborne disease, zoonotic pathogens, and surveillance activities across humans, animals, food, and the environment.
Reoccurring, emerging, and persisting (REP) strains cause foodborne illnesses over extended periods of time, rather than through isolated outbreaks. The REP framework was jointly developed by CDC, FDA, and USDA-FSIS through the Interagency Foodborne Outbreak Response Collaboration.
In a new peer-reviewed article, researchers make a case for linking data from both routine foodservice establishment inspections and foodborne illness surveillance, while acknowledging existing challenges, like inconsistent adoption of FDA’s Food Code and electronic data collection systems.
Improvements in national food safety infrastructure by the 17 countries included in the analysis would cost an estimated $492 million USD over ten years, but would avert 19 million cases of foodborne illness and 13,000 associated deaths, generating a value of $23 billion.
The scientists will isolate and identify pathogens like Salmonella enterica and Listeria monocytogenes from Pennsylvania wastewater using whole genome sequencing (WGS), then work with the State Department of Health to connect isolates to foodborne illness outbreaks.
Researchers estimate that the use of whole genome sequencing (WGS) for routine pathogen surveillance in Australia prevents up to 10,900 foodborne salmonellosis cases and delivers as much as $17 million in cost savings annually.
WHO has released a set of updated manuals to help national authorities strengthen foodborne illness outbreak surveillance and response, contributing to faster and more reliable communication and response internationally (i.e., through INFOSAN).
A two-year study of Southeastern U.S. watersheds confirmed that surface water harbors complex, clinically relevant Salmonella populations that differ from food animal datasets—revealing critical gaps in understanding environmental Salmonella transmission and the need for robust One Health surveillance systems.
Although novel data streams like crowdsourced reports and social media posts may allow for rapid identification of foodborne illness events, they can also amplify false signals and lead to inaccurate self-reporting among consumers, as demonstrated in a recent survey.
A UK-based study, led by Quadram Institute researchers, underscores the limitations of traditional enumeration methods for foodborne pathogen surveillance and highlights the need for whole genome sequencing (WGS) to better assess the food safety risk posed by commensal or opportunistic Escherichia coli lineages.
