Animals as sources of food-borne pathogens: a review
Open accessAbstract
Food-producing animals are the major reservoirs for many foodborne pathogens such as Campylobacter species, non-Typhi serotypes of Salmonella enterica, Shiga toxin-producing strains of Escherichia coli, and Listeria monocytogenes. The zoonotic potential of foodborne pathogens and their ability to produce toxins causing diseases or even death are sufficient to recognize the seriousness of the situation. This manuscript reviews the evidence that links animals as vehicles of the foodborne pathogens Salmonella, Campylobacter, Shiga toxigenic E. coli, and L. monocytogenes, their impact, and their current status. We conclude that these pathogenic bacteria will continue causing outbreaks and deaths throughout the world, because no effective interventions have eliminated them from animals and food.
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The presence of roaming live animals like chickens, goats, pigs and cats near the outlets contributes to pathogen contamination.
“Moreover, the presence of roaming live animals like chickens, goats, pigs and cats near the outlets, contributes to pathogen contamination (Pouokam et al., 2017;Heredia and García, 2018).”
From Food safety and hygiene knowledge, attitudes and practices in street restaurants selling chicken in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (2024) · cites this paper as Heredia and García, 2018
The Introduction identifies chickens and pigs as reservoirs of foodborne pathogens and says environmental fauna can contribute to contamination. The Campylobacter section also reports carriage in goats and an exposure pathway through domestic pets. Neither section establishes that roaming animals, specifically including cats, near outlets contribute to contamination there; no page numbers are available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.84)
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“Meat is a highly sensitive to microorganisms and is particularly vulnerable to contamination by pathogens [ 4 ].”
- Authors
- Heredia, N., & García, S.
- Affiliations
- Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León (MX)
- Corresponding author
- García, Santos
- Venue
- Animal Nutrition
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2018-09
- Volume
- 4
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 250-255
- ISSN
- 2405-6383 (ISSN-L)
- 2405-6545
- PMC
- PMC6116329
- OpenAlex
- W2802080273
- Cited by
- 554
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 40 · 2025: 67 · 2024: 86 · 2023: 97 · 2022: 91 · 2021: 75 · 2020: 66 · 2019: 31
- FWCI
- 4.36
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Animal nutrition (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- El Repositorio Academico Digital de la UANL (Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León) (acceptedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Salmonella and Campylobacter epidemiology
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Biotechnology › Listeria monocytogenes in Food Safety
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Food Safety and Hygiene
- Keywords
- foodborne pathogens, zoonoses, food-producing animals, Campylobacter, Salmonella, Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, reservoir hosts, food safety, pathogen transmission
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