Food-borne disease and climate change in the United Kingdom

Abstract

This review examined the likely impact of climate change upon food-borne disease in the UK using Campylobacter and Salmonella as example organisms. Campylobacter is an important food-borne disease and an increasing public health threat. There is a reasonable evidence base that the environment and weather play a role in its transmission to humans. However, uncertainty as to the precise mechanisms through which weather affects disease, make it difficult to assess the likely impact of climate change. There are strong positive associations between Salmonella cases and ambient temperature, and a clear understanding of the mechanisms behind this. However, because the incidence of Salmonella disease is declining in the UK, any climate change increases are likely to be small. For both Salmonella and Campylobacter the disease incidence is greatest in older adults and young children. There are many pathways through which climate change may affect food but only a few of these have been rigorously examined. This provides a high degree of uncertainty as to what the impacts of climate change will be. Food is highly controlled at the National and EU level. This provides the UK with resilience to climate change as well as potential to adapt to its consequences but it is unknown whether these are sufficient in the context of a changing climate.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12940-017-0327-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

How will climate change impact microbial foodborne disease in Canada?

“…Similarly, a time-series analysis showed that rates of enteric illness varied seasonally within Canada, with a strong association between infections with Campylobacter spp., pathogenic Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp., and ambient air temperature (24). These results are generally similar to those reported from other countries (13)(14)(15)(16)(17)25,26).…”

“…Food safety, food security and food system challenges are thought to represent the most significant climate change-related threats to human health globally (7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12). Researchers anticipated a link between foodborne illness and climate change, since the pathogens that cause many foodborne infectious diseases are known to be influenced by climate and weather variables (13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21). Despite their obvious importance, these food safety issues have received little attention in the climate-health literature relative to other health indicators (12).…”

Managing the risk of Vibrio parahaemolyticus infections associated with oyster consumption: A review

“…Despite the controversy surrounding climate change, evidence suggesting that climatic conditions affect the level of pathogens in seafood (Marques et al., 2010; Smith et al., 2015) and that they are correlated with the occurrence of foodborne illnesses is available (Aik et al., 2018; Choi et al., 2015; Jiang et al., 2015; Lake, 2017; Park, Park, & Bahk, 2018). The World Health Organization recently suggested that its member nations should increase awareness of the increase in foodborne diseases associated with climate change and urged relevant authorities and stakeholders to incorporate food safety measures for mitigating the effect of climate change on health (WHO, 2019).…”

Quelles seront les répercussions des changements climatiques sur les maladies microbiennes d’origine alimentaire au Canada?

“…On estime que les défis liés à la salubrité des aliments, à la sécurité alimentaire et au système alimentaire posent les plus grandes menaces à l'échelle mondiale pour la santé humaine, du fait de leur lien avec les changements climatiques (7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12). Les chercheurs s'attendaient à un lien entre les maladies d'origine alimentaire et les changements climatiques en raison de la sensibilité aux variables climatiques et météorologiques des agents pathogènes responsables de nombreuses maladies d'origine alimentaire (13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21). Malgré leur importance évidente, les questions relatives à la salubrité des aliments ont reçu peu d'attention dans les articles sur le lien entre le climat et la santé, comparativement à d'autres indicateurs de la santé (12).…”