Editorial: Campylobacter-associated food safety

Abstract

Introduction: Campylobacteriosis is an enteric bacterial zoonotic infection caused by members of the Campylobacter genus (Kirkpatrick and Tribble, 2011). C. jejuni (> 85%) and C. coli (5–10%) are the most common species associated with the disease (Patrick et al., 2018). Ingestion of as few as 500 bacteria can cause campylobacteriosis (Robinson, 1981). Although Campylobacter typically causes self-limiting human gastroenteritis, it can lead to prolonged post-infectious complications, such as Guillain-Barré syndrome, reactive arthritis, and/or post infectious-irritable bowel syndrome (Rees et al., 1995). The treatment of campylobacteriosis poses significant economic burdens worldwide, resulting in $1.56 billion in healthcare costs in the USA, $80 million in Canada, and €2.4 billion in the European Union per year (Devleesschauwer et al., 2017).

The high prevalence of Campylobacter in the agri-food system is likely a major contributing factor to the incidence of campylobacteriosis. Due to its microaerobic nature, Campylobacter can colonize the intestinal tract of food-producing animals such as poultry, cattle, sheep, and swine (Hansson et al., 2018). However, it can also survive under aerobic conditions and infect humans through the food supply chain by forming biofilms or entering the viable but non-culturable state (Lv et al., 2019; Ma et al., 2022). The main route of infection has been identified as the consumption of contaminated food commodities, such as unpasteurized dairy products, undercooked poultry meat and/or contaminated water (Silva et al., 2011). Therefore, detection, characterization, and reduction of Campylobacter in the agroecosystem are of great importance. This mini-review provides an overview of the current trends in understanding Campylobacter and its interaction with the agroecosystem. We first introduce the improved methods to detect Campylobacter in various agri-food settings. Then, the prevalence of this microbe in the agri-food system as well as its characteristics are summarized. Finally, novel control strategies of Campylobacter are summarized and discussed.