Designed for professionals in the food industry, Emerging Foodborne Pathogens is a practical book covering the methods of identifying emerging pathogens.

Emerging Foodborne Pathogens is divided into two parts: Part One deals with how pathogens evolve, surveillance methods in the USA and Europe, risk assessment techniques and the use of food safety objectives.

Part Two of the book looks at individual pathogens, their characteristics, methods of detection and methods of control.

Contents

Part I: Identification Issues

How bacterial pathogens evolve

• Evolution and diversification of bacterial pathogens
• Genetic mechanisms of bacterial evolution
• Case studies and the evolution of pathogenic Yersinia

Surveillance for emerging pathogens in the United States

• Detecting new and emerging pathogens
• Range of methods used for surveillance in the United States
• Use of surveillance data

Surveillance of emerging pathogens in Europe

• The WHO surveillance programme for control of foodborne infections and intoxications in Europe
• Disease specific networks funded by the European Commission
• Other sources of data on foodborne pathogens in Europe
• Challenges for European surveillance of emerging foodborne pathogens

Tracking emerging pathogens: the case of noroviruses

• Detection
• Virus tracking
• Transmission routes
• Prevention and control
• Inactivation of caliciviruses
• Thoughts on other viruses

Industrial food microbiology and emerging foodborne pathogens

• How to approach the issue of emerging pathogens
• How to identify emerging risks – sources of information
• Control measures during food manufacture

Microbiological risk assessment for emerging pathogens

• The importance of changes on levels of risk
• Interaction with legislation
• Users of risk assessments
• Risk assessment
• Modelling
• Risk management
• Risk communication

The role of food safety objectives in dealing with emerging pathogens

• Recent cevelopments in risk Analysis
• Definitions
• When setting a PO may be more efficient than establishing an FSO
• Designing an FSM system using the new concepts

Part II: Individual Pathogens

Acrobacter

• The Arcobacter genus
• Arcobacter identification and typing methods
• Methods of detection using growth media
• Human and animal infections
• Prevention and control measures
• Future recognition of Arcobacter species as pathogens

Foodborne trematodes and helminths

• Biology, transmission and risk to public health
• Detection
• Economic impact
• Prevention, control and treatment

Emerging strains of E.coli

• Detection methods
• Sources of VTEC infection in humans
• Prevalence of VTEC
• Survival, persistence and growth in the food chain
• Control measures

Hepatitis viruses

• Characteristics of hepatitis A and E viruses (morphology, pathogenesis, symptoms of infection)
• Epidemiology
• Outbreaks of foodborne hepatitis
• Detection methods for hepatitis viruses in foods
• Prevalence in the environment and routes of transmission through foodstuffs
• Prevention and control
• Areas for further research

Prion diseases

• Epidemiology
• Detection
• Transmission
• Prevention and control
• Prion terminology

Vibrios

• Taxonomy and brief historical background
• Clinical signs and symptoms
• Virulence factors
• Epidemiology of Vibrio infections
• Methods of detection
• Subspecies typing
• New Pandemic strains of Vibrio parahaemolyticus
• Pandemic spread of cholera
• Prevention and control
• Vibrios: the genomic era

Yersinia enterocolitica

• Taxonomy and characteristics of Yersinia enterocolitica
• Phenotype characterisation
• Methods of detection
• Epidemiology
• Risk factors connected to the agent
• Risk factors in connection with the host
• Risk factors in connection with survival and growth in foods
• Risk factors based on epidemiological studies
• Prevention and control at different steps of the food chain

Listeria

• Historical summary and emergence of listeriosis as a major foodborne disease
• Listeria taxonomy, properties, occurrence and pathogenicity
• The disease listeriosis
• Epidemiology, surveillance, typing and routes of transmission
• Growth and isolation of Listeria
• Prevention and control

Helicobacter pylori

• Physiology and growth requirements
• Disease associations and mechanisms of virulence
• Epidemiology and routes of transmission
• Detection methods and culture from clinical samples, food and water
• Survival in food and water

Enterobacteriaceae

• Methods of detection
• Epidemiology
• Health risks and underlying factors
• Prevention and control

Campylobacter

• Seasonal and sporadic disease
• Outbreaks
• Non-diarrhoeal human disease
• Reservoirs of ECS in the food and water supply
• Culture and isolation of ECS from human faeces, food and water sources
• Detection and differentiation methods
• Comparative genomics of C coli, C lari, C upsaliensis and C jejuni
• Putative and potential ECS virulence factors
• Genotyping
• Prevention and control

Mycobacterium paratuberculosis

• Johne’s disease
• Crohn’s disease
• Mycobacterium paratuberculosis and Chrohn’s disease
• Prevalence of mycobacterium paratuberculosis in foods
• Survival in the environment
• Detection, enumeration and typing
• Control

Enterocci

• Habitat
• Use of enterococci as probiotics
• Infections caused by enterococci and epidemiology
• Incidence of virulence factors among food enterococci
• Incidence of antibiotic resistances among food enterococci
• Survival of gastrointestinal transit

Index

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