Advances in Diagnosis and Therapeutic Intervention for Foodborne Parasitic Diseases

Foodborne Parasitic Diseases (FPD) are human and animal diseases caused by parasites presenting significant public health and socioeconomic issues. Infections are usually caused by the consumption of infected or contaminated meat, fish, plants or water. Although foodborne parasites are globally relevant for human and animal health, it is a neglected topic in food safety, partly due to a gap of awareness of their impact on public health, especially since no significant clinical symptoms tend to develop immediately after exposure. Moreover, only some specialized laboratories are performing research, diagnostics and detection assays for FPD in food matrices, and focusing only on specific species or groups of FPD. Another important factor is the fact that there is a huge gap in research on FPD, especially on new therapeutic interventions and new diagnostic tools. All these factors lead to a largely fragmented research field, hampering the visibility of FPD as an important challenge for public health.
Effective control of FPD is a very difficult task and there is an urgent need for more basic science and clinical research. Thus, we welcome the submission of basic and translational Original Research, Review and Mini-Review articles on the following sub-topics linked to FPD:
1) New therapeutic interventions to treat these infections.
2) New diagnostic tools for active infection and novel biomarkers for disease morbidity.