The Microbiology, Virulence and Antimicrobial Resistance of Foodborne Pathogens

A special issue of Antibiotics (ISSN 2079-6382).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2024) | Viewed by 4399

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Guest Editor
Unit of Food Microbiology, Institute of Food Safety, Food Technology and Veterinary Public Health, Vetmeduni Vienna, Vienna, Austria
Interests: bacterial dormancy; ionic liquids; API-ILs; food safety; diagnostics; bacterial survival
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Foodborne pathogens are an important reason for deaths, hospitalizations, and illnesses. In the European Union (EU) alone, infections of the top five bacterial zoonoses resulted in 326.000 cases, 40.000 hospitalizations and 500 deaths in 2019. Despite the increase in food safety measures from both government agencies and industry, this significant health burden highlights the continued need for research aimed to understand the microbiology, virulence, and antimicrobial resistance of foodborne pathogens. With there being already numerous research topics available focusing on genetic alteration due to mutations and recombination as well as the prevalence and spread of antimicrobial resistance or virulence genes, the role and impact of phenotypic variation of foodborne pathogens are less understood. Phenotypic variation describes the fact that even genetically identical organisms will often behave differently because the same genotype can lead to many different phenotypes. This happens because of environmental factors and the organism’s history and the different phenotypes can significantly differ in terms of their growth behavior, antimicrobial resistance profile, or virulence.

Therefore, this Special Issue will focus on bacterial phenotypes that influence the survival, persistence, or virulence of foodborne pathogens along the food chain. The Special Issue will consist of 15–20 manuscripts, which may include original qualitative and quantitative research, review articles, case series, and opinion papers to provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of knowledge and ongoing research initiatives.

Dr. Patrick-Julian Mester
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • foodborne pathogens
  • phenotype
  • phenotypic variation
  • virulence
  • antimicrobial resistance
  • food safety

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

53 pages, 4751 KiB  
Review
Mobile Colistin Resistance (mcr) Gene-Containing Organisms in Poultry Sector in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Epidemiology, Characteristics, and One Health Control Strategies
by Madubuike Umunna Anyanwu, Ishmael Festus Jaja, Charles Odilichukwu R. Okpala, Emmanuel Okechukwu Njoga, Nnenna Audrey Okafor and James Wabwire Oguttu
Antibiotics 2023, 12(7), 1117; https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics12071117 - 28 Jun 2023
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3886
Abstract
Mobile colistin resistance (mcr) genes (mcr-1 to mcr-10) are plasmid-encoded genes that threaten the clinical utility of colistin (COL), one of the highest-priority critically important antibiotics (HP-CIAs) used to treat infections caused by multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant bacteria [...] Read more.
Mobile colistin resistance (mcr) genes (mcr-1 to mcr-10) are plasmid-encoded genes that threaten the clinical utility of colistin (COL), one of the highest-priority critically important antibiotics (HP-CIAs) used to treat infections caused by multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant bacteria in humans and animals. For more than six decades, COL has been used largely unregulated in the poultry sector in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), and this has led to the development/spread of mcr gene-containing bacteria (MGCB). The prevalence rates of mcr-positive organisms from the poultry sector in LMICs between January 1970 and May 2023 range between 0.51% and 58.8%. Through horizontal gene transfer, conjugative plasmids possessing insertion sequences (ISs) (especially ISApl1), transposons (predominantly Tn6330), and integrons have enhanced the spread of mcr-1, mcr-2, mcr-3, mcr-4, mcr-5, mcr-7, mcr-8, mcr-9, and mcr-10 in the poultry sector in LMICs. These genes are harboured by Escherichia, Klebsiella, Proteus, Salmonella, Cronobacter, Citrobacter, Enterobacter, Shigella, Providencia, Aeromonas, Raoultella, Pseudomonas, and Acinetobacter species, belonging to diverse clones. The mcr-1, mcr-3, and mcr-10 genes have also been integrated into the chromosomes of these bacteria and are mobilizable by ISs and integrative conjugative elements. These bacteria often coexpress mcr with virulence genes and other genes conferring resistance to HP-CIAs, such as extended-spectrum cephalosporins, carbapenems, fosfomycin, fluoroquinolone, and tigecycline. The transmission routes and dynamics of MGCB from the poultry sector in LMICs within the One Health triad include contact with poultry birds, feed/drinking water, manure, poultry farmers and their farm workwear, farming equipment, the consumption and sale of contaminated poultry meat/egg and associated products, etc. The use of pre/probiotics and other non-antimicrobial alternatives in the raising of birds, the judicious use of non-critically important antibiotics for therapy, the banning of nontherapeutic COL use, improved vaccination, biosecurity, hand hygiene and sanitization, the development of rapid diagnostic test kits, and the intensified surveillance of mcr genes, among others, could effectively control the spread of MGCB from the poultry sector in LMICs. Full article
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