Urbanisation and agriculture cause declines for many wildlife, but some species benefit from novel resources, especially food, provided in human-dominated habitats. Resulting shifts in wildlife ecology can alter infectious disease dynamics and create opportunities for cross-species transmission, yet predicting host-pathogen responses to resource provisioning is challenging. Factors enhancing tr...

UNLABELLED The bacterial plant pathogen Pseudomonas syringae causes disease in a wide range of plants. The associated decrease in crop yields results in economic losses and threatens global food security. Competition exists between the plant immune system and the pathogen, the basic principles of which can be applied to animal infection pathways. P. syringae uses a type III secretion system (T3...

As public and private demand for food safety grows, firms need to be able to evaluate the optimal (least-cost) combinations of interventions to reduce pathogens. We use data from input suppliers to hog packing firms and from meat science studies to examine the cost function for pathogen reduction. An economic optimization model is used to explore the trade offs in achieving multiple pathogen re...

Khan I., Khan J., Miskeen S., Tango C.N., Park Y.S., Oh D.H. (2016): Prevalence and control of Listeria monocytogenes in the food industry – a review. Czech J. Food Sci., 34: 469–487. Listeria monocytogenes is a Gram-positive facultative intracellular organism and causative agent of the severe foodborne infection listeriosis. L. monocytogenes is more likely to cause death rather than other path...

natural plant extracts / products have the potential as safe alternatives for chemical fungicides in plant disease management. methanol and pure methanol: water (50:50 v/v) extracts of peppermint, lavandula, eucalyptus, datura and nettle were screened for their antifungal activity against alternaria sesami, the causal agent of alternaria leaf spot of sesame at 5, 10 and 15% concentrations in sh...

Aim: To evaluate the antibacterial activity of lactic acid bacteria against selected food pathogens (Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus). Method: A total twenty (20) traditionally fermented samples were purchased from a market in Umuahia metropolis. Isolation identification (LAB) conducted using standard microbiological techniques. LAB identified morphological biochemical tests. They te...

In July 1996, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), published the Pathogen Reduction; Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) Systems final rule to improve food safety of meat and poultry products. The final rule established, among other requirements, pathogen reduction performance standards for Salmonella for food animal carcasses and ra...

The foodborne pathogen Listeria is the causative agent of listeriosis, a severe disease with high hospitalization and case fatality rates. Listeria monocytogenes can survive and grow over a wide range of environmental conditions such as refrigeration temperatures, low pH and high salt concentration. This allows the pathogen to overcome food preservation and safety barriers, and pose a potential...

Campylobacteriosis, like many human diseases, has its own ecology in which the propagation of human infection and disease depends on pathogen survival and finding new hosts in order to replicate and sustain the pathogen population. The complexity of this process, a process common to other enteric pathogens, has hampered control efforts. Many unknowns remain, resulting in a poorly understood dis...

Salmonellosis caused by Salmonella bacteria is a food-borne disease and a worldwide health threat causing millions of infections and thousands of deaths every year. This pathogen infects an unusually broad range of host organisms including human and plants. A better understanding of the mechanisms of communication between Salmonella and its hosts requires identifying the interactions between Sa...