Understanding the Complexities of Food Safety Using a “One Health” Approach

Abstract

The philosophy of One Health is growing in concept and clarity. The interdependence of human, animal, and environmental health is the basis for the concept of One Health. One Health is a comprehensive approach to ensure the health of people, animals, and the environment through collaborative efforts. Preharvest food safety issues align with the grand concept of One Health. Imagine any food production system, and immediately, parallel images from One Health emerge: for example, transmission of zoonotic diseases, antibiotic residues, or resistance genes in the environment; environmental and animal host reservoirs of disease; challenges with rearing animals and growing fresh produce on the same farm; application and transport of manure or diseased animals. During a recent celebration of #OneHealthDay, information was shared around the globe concerning scientists dedicated to One Health research systems. An ever-growing trade and global commerce system mixed with our incessant desire for food products during the whole year makes it all the more important to take a global view through the One Health lens to solve these growing challenges. The recent explosion of Zika virus around the globe renewed the need for assessing transmissible diseases through the eyes of One Health. It is not good enough to know how a disease affects the human population without a thorough understanding of the environment and vector reservoirs. If 60 to 75% of infectious diseases affecting humans are of animal origin, the need for better One Health research strategies and overdue solutions is imperative.

Antimicrobial resistance and interspecies gene transfer in Campylobacter coli and Campylobacter jejuni isolated from food animals, poultry processing, and retail meat in North Carolina, 2018–2019

“…U.S. poultry processing incorporates scalding, washing, and chilling which are effective at reducing bacterial counts but do not eliminate all pathogenic bacteria from the finished meat products [7]. The animal carcass liquid film and skin crevasses provide a suitable microenvironment for Campylobacter survival during production [1,5]. Previous studies found Campylobacter contaminates approximately 50% of retail chicken meat in the U.S., and significantly less was found in other retail meat products [25].…”

“…Specifically, the consumption of poultry products are a known risk factor for human Campylobacter infections in the U.S and in other parts of the world. [1,[4][5][6]. Food animals (poultry, cattle and swine) are common asymptomatic reservoir hosts for pathogenic Campylobacter strains.…”

“…Food animals (poultry, cattle and swine) are common asymptomatic reservoir hosts for pathogenic Campylobacter strains. C. coli and C. jejuni coexist in large numbers in animal gastrointestinal tracts and within the environment by manure contamination [5,[7][8][9]. Campylobacter are known to have a hypervariable genome with evidence of interspecies genomic exchange [9].…”

“…Antibiotic resistance among bacterial pathogens is one of the world's growing public health threats [14]. Decades of antibiotic use in humans, animals, and agriculture have created selection pressures driving the emergence of AMR in many bacterial pathogens and an increase in clinical infections that do not respond to routine medical intervention [5,15]. Despite recent policy changes and restricted antibiotic use in some countries, drug applications in human and animal populations, environmental contamination, and increased globalization continue to steer selection pressures and foster opportunities for horizontal gene transfer among AMR bacteria [14,16].…”

Liquid Chromatography Analysis of Common Nutritional Components, in Feed and Food

“…Feed is a paramount target for analysis since it situates at the start of the food chain and poor feed quality can affect the yield on food-producing animals [6]. Understanding the complexities of food safety is the goal of approaches such as One Health [7], Farm-to-Fork [6], or MyToolbox [8]. Furthermore, feed contaminants carryover downstream can reach products such as meat, eggs, and milk (see for example the transference of aflatoxin M 1 from aflatoxin B 1 -contaminated feed).…”