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...