About this Research Topic
remains the most reported zoonotic infection in humans in Europe since 2005, representing almost 70% of all reported cases. While Campylobacter typically causes self-limiting gastroenteritis, it can also lead to life-threatening post-infection complications, such as Guillain-Barré syndrome and septicemia. The high infection rates of campylobacter pose great economic burdens.
Campylobacter-associated food safety is a significant concern worldwide. Even though Campylobacter spp. are quite susceptible to environmental or technological stressors, they are able to survive in the environment and in food products. Both domesticated and wild birds are natural reservoirs of Campylobacter, and once this microaerobic bacterium colonizes the avian gastrointestinal tract, there is no effective intervention to reduce its footprint in the agro-ecosystem. Although this microbe is microaerobic, it is highly prevalent everywhere in the aerobic food processing environment, such as poultry farms, dairy farms, and animal slaughter facilities. It is not clear at what step in the food chain the cross-contamination starts to occur. Furthermore, Campylobacter genomes are highly dynamic thus requiring detection and intervention strategies to be adaptable to these genetic changes. Taken together, novel research works are required to better understand this microbe and its interaction with the agri-food system.
This Research Topic focuses on every perspective of Campylobacter-associated food safety, such as cultivation, detection, typing, sequencing, survival, ecology, adaptation, antimicrobial resistance, and control strategy. Eventually, we aim to help the agri-food industry to develop systemic strategies, such as a “One Health” approach, to combat this microbe in the agro-ecosystem so as to improve food safety.
Keywords: sequencing, ecology, control, antibiotic resistance, detection
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