Description

Campylobacter has emerged as the leading cause of bacterial foodborne disease worldwide with a significant impact on human health and a corresponding economic burden. Reports on quantitative epidemiology reveal a high contamination rate of poultry and poultry meat by Campylobacter. Campylobacter is also prevalent in other farm animals and is frequently found on a range of foodstuffs due to cross contamination. Current guidelines highlight the importance of biosecurity but these measures are failing to mitigate the risk of Campylobacter. As an obligate microaerophile, Campylobacter does not survive for long periods in atmospheric oxygen at ambient temperatures, and therefore constitutes a puzzle as to how it can survive from farm to retail outlets. The underlying molecular mechanisms of persistence survival and pathogenesis appear to be unique to this pathogen, which distinguishes it from many of the mechanisms adopted by other foodborne bacterial pathogens (Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella enterica, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus). Recent research has indicated how genomic polymorphism, restricted catabolic capacity, self regulation or deregulation of genes, bacterial cooperation and unknown contamination routes may be connected to this specificity.

This Research Topic aims to address concerns related to Campylobacter spp, and will include studies on survival and adaptation, stress response, cellular biology, control strategies, NGS and 'omics analyses, genome plasticity, the emergence of new species, molecular typing and epidemiology, risk assessment, detection, virulence, related organisms, contamination routes and bacterial cooperation. Abstract submissions for Original Research, Reviews, Methods and Protocols, Cutting-edge Technologies, Case reports, New Insights, Hypotheses and Theory are all welcome.