Epidemiology, Prevention and Control of Foodborne Microbial Pathogens

Dear Colleagues,

According to the World Health Organization, “Each year worldwide, unsafe food causes 600 million cases of foodborne diseases and 420,000 deaths”; they also predicted that “30% of foodborne deaths occur among children under 5 years of age”. Thus, understanding the epidemiology, prevention methods, and control of microorganisms causing foodborne diseases is essential for public health. A detailed comprehension of these areas allows the most prevalent pathogenic agents (bacteria, parasites, prions, and viruses) and their transmission routes to be characterized and monitored, enabling the development of effective strategies in order to prevent the contamination of food intended for consumption and consequently outbreaks. This significantly reduces the incidence of diseases, lessens the burden on the healthcare system, and avoids economic losses associated with treatment and productivity loss of affected individuals. Additionally, controlling the spread of pathogens to consumers is crucial for industries which face significant economic impacts during outbreaks or when recalls are necessary.

Therefore, this Special Issue aims to collate scientific research studies and literature reviews that provide relevant contributions that improve our understanding of the main routes of food contamination by pathogens and their prevention and control. This includes studies on genetic characterization (PCR, NGS, and other techniques), as well as evaluations of the effectiveness of various strategies for the prevention and control of pathogen contamination along all steps of food production chains.

Potential topics that may be relevent within the scope of our Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Bacillus cereus;
• Biofilm control;
• Clostridium spp.;
• Disinfection procedures;
• Epidemiology;
• Escherichia coli;
• Foodborne outbreaks;
• Listeria monocytogenes;
• Molecular epidemiology;
• Non-thermal treatments;
• Next-generation sequencing;
• Parasites;
• Salmonella spp.;
• Viruses.

Prof. Dr. Marcia Nitschke
Prof. Dr. Gabriel Rossi
Prof. Dr. Juliano Gonçalves Pereira
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Microorganisms is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• biofilms
• Clostridium spp.
• Escherichia coli
• foodborne
• Listeria monocytogenes
• outbreaks
• parasites
• prions
• Salmonella spp.
• Staphylococcus aureus
• Vibrio spp.
• viruses