Correspondence and reprint requests should be addressed to: Dr. Leanne E. Unicomb Head, Water and Sanitation Cluster Programme on Infectious Diseases and Vaccine Sciences Health Systems and Infectious Diseases Division ICDDR,B GPO Box 128, Dhaka 1000 Bangladesh Email: [email protected] Fax: +880-2-8811568 Improvements in food safety require initiatives that address risks identified along the ‘f...

Human activities create novel food resources that can alter wildlife-pathogen interactions. If resources amplify or dampen, pathogen transmission probably depends on both host ecology and pathogen biology, but studies that measure responses to provisioning across both scales are rare. We tested these relationships with a 4-year study of 369 common vampire bats across 10 sites in Peru and Belize...

Selection can alter predator-prey interactions. However, whether and how complex food-webs respond to selection remain largely unknown. We show in the field that antagonistic selection from predators and pathogens on prey body-size can be a primary driver of food-web functioning. In Windermere, U.K., pike (Esox lucius, the predator) selected against small perch (Perca fluviatilis, the prey), wh...

We consider a mathematical model for a host-pathogen interaction where the host population is split into two categories: those susceptible to disease and those resistant to disease. Since the model was motivated by studies on insect populations, we consider a discrete-time model to reflect the discrete generations which are common among insect species. Whether an individual is born susceptible ...

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) analyses information on the occurrence of zoonosis and food-born outbreaks submitted by the 27 EU member states in its annual report (EFSA, 2012). Among the 13 zoonosis monitored, Campylobacter is the most commonly reported gastrointestinal bacterial pathogen in the EU since 2005. Reporte...

Recognizing a deadly pathogen and generating an appropriate immune reaction is essential for any organism to survive in its natural habitat. Unlike vertebrates and higher primates, invertebrates depend solely on the innate immune system to defend themselves from an attacking pathogen. In this study, we report a behavioral defense strategy observed in Drosophila larvae that helps them escape and...

If the ideal of assured "Food for All" is to be attained, it will be necessary to do a better job of preventing the debilitation or destruction of crop plants by noxious weeds, voracious animals, and devastating plant diseases. For these destructive agents continually tend to nullify the constructive efforts to increase food production. Food production per unit area of land has been increased g...

Despite continuing research efforts, timely and simple pathogen detection with a high degree of sensitivity and specificity remains an elusive goal. Given the recent explosion of sensor technologies, significant strides have been made in addressing the various nuances of this important global challenge that affects not only the food industry but also human health. In this review, we provide a s...