Advances on Control of Foodborne Pathogens: From Conventional to Cutting-Edge Approaches

Dear Colleagues,

Foodborne diseases are described as a serious threat to public health and a global burden worldwide. Each year, the ingestion of contaminated food and food products is estimated to be responsible for 600 million cases and 420,000 deaths, with 30% of them occurring among children under five years of age, according to data from WHO-2010. Norovirus, Campylobacter, Salmonella, and Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli are among the most common foodborne pathogens that affect millions of people annually, and Listeria monocytogenes an emerging hazard for people of risk groups. Control of foodborne pathogens is an active step in all stages of the food production chain, from primary production on-farm to the early stages of the production line (e.g., slaughter operations, equipment and meat handlers, retail meat) until the final distribution and consumption (e.g., food service). The control of foodborne pathogens is mainly due to the implementation of conventional measures such as surveillance, biosecurity (e.g., sanitation, disinfection, pest control, vaccination), feed and water additives (e.g., metals, organic acids, essential oils, probiotics) as well as preventive food safety management systems (good manufacturing practice—GMP, good hygienic practice—GHP, good agricultural practice—GAP, HACCP). Despite that, progress to develop effective control strategies has been slow and hampered by the adaptation of clinically-relevant foodborne pathogens to different environmental stresses (e.g., antimicrobial resistance, metals, biocides, or acid tolerance, enhanced colonization/virulence, biofilm formation). It is of utmost importance to understand the pathogen adaptive factors that may be contributing to their unsuccessful control, in order to develop faster and more effective strategies to limit persistence and spread of foodborne pathogens throughout the food chain.

The propose of this Special Issue is to provide a state-of-the-art repertoire of publications focusing on the efficacy of conventional or innovative/cutting-edge approaches for control of foodborne pathogens as well as novel high-throughput methodologies and computational tools for the fast characterization and identification of adaptive microbial factors. This issue will also place an emphasis on the understanding of microbial and environmental factors that can challenge and hinder the effectiveness of control measures. Potential topics include but are not limited to:

• Conventional and innovative control measures for control of foodborne pathogens;
• Foodborne microbial pathogens response to conventional control measures;
• Novel high-throughput methodologies and computational tools with potential for a fast identification of adaptive microbial factors;
• Characterization of microbial and environmental factors that can hamper the control of foodborne pathogens.

Thus, it is our pleasure to invite authors to contribute to this Special Issue with original research, communications, short notes or review articles.

Dr. Joana Mourão
Prof. Dr. Patrícia Antunes
Guest Editors

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