Food without Zoonotic Agents: Fact or Fiction?

Abstract

Over the last decades considerable investment has been made to produce safe food. In many industrialised countries food is safer than ever before due to continuous efforts, but this can never be taken for granted. Some existing microbiological food safety problems still remain a challenge; well-known pathogens may be transmitted by hitherto unknown vehicles and new pathogens will continue to emerge. Many factors influence the changing epidemiology of pathogens and their emergence is only partly predictable or explainable. The majority of foodborne pathogens have their reservoir in the animal population. Therefore, one of the keys for future preparedness to detect new trends, to implement control measures and to predict the effect of interventions is intersectoral collaboration between animal health, the food sector and public health.