review · Infection and Drug Resistance
Foodborne pathogens present a critical challenge to food safety and public health, with low-income countries like Ethiopia facing pronounced risks. Contamination takes place across all stages of the food chain, including agricultural production, animal sources, and handling during food preparation. Previous studies in Ethiopia have largely relied on conventional culture-based diagnostic methods, often examining human, animal, or environmental samples in isolation. Pathogens of clinical significance encompass various parasites, viruses, and bacteria, including Salmonella, Escherichia coli, and Staphylococcus species. Significantly, all isolated foodborne bacterial pathogens demonstrate high rates of antimicrobial resistance, displaying widespread resistance to the antibiotics most frequently prescribed in the country. Because drug-resistant pathogens persist in food and circulate between human, animal, and environmental domains, coordinated interventions under a unified One Health approach are required to manage resistance.
Foodborne contamination and widespread antimicrobial resistance threaten both human and animal populations by reducing the effectiveness of critical medicines. When bacteria in food supplies resist standard antibiotics, ordinary infections become significantly harder to treat. Recognising how these resistant pathogens circulate across farms, food handlers, and the environment enables authorities to coordinate more effective cross-sector health and food safety programmes.
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Abstract: Foodborne pathogens are the most common cause of foodborne disease worldwide. They contaminate food at all stages of the food chain, at the agricultural production level (soil and irrigation), from animal sources or at the time of preparation by food handlers. Therefore, food security is a critical issue that affects everyone in the world. Current studies indicate that the problem is more severe in low-income countries like Ethiopia. The majority of studies in Ethiopia have been conducted partially on human, animal or environmental samples with conventional culture-based diagnostic methods. Therefore, this review was conducted to gather information on the main foodborne pathogens and identify gaps in their traceability. Clinically important foodborne pathogens in Ethiopia include ( A. lubmbricoids, Toxocara spp., H. nana. E. histolytica/dispar, G. intestinalis, H. diminuta and C. belli ), bacteria ( Salmonella spp, E. coli O157:H7, B. anthracis, Yersinia, C. perfringens, Klebsiella spp. M. paratuberculosis , and L. monocytogenes ), and viruses like (rotaviruses, enteroviruses and astroviruses, hepatitis E virus). In Ethiopia, all isolated foodborne bacterial pathogens showed high rates of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). In particular, the most studied foodborne pathogens, Staphylococcus spp., Salmonella spp., and E. coli from specific sources, showing high levels of resistance to most of the antibiotics prescribed in Ethiopia. The occurrence and persistence of AMR in food is one of the main factors causing the spread of antimicrobial resistance in different compartments, humans, animals and the environment. Therefore, strategies of coordination and struggle from a One Health perspective is an urgent strategy to control antibiotic resistance in order to achieve better outcomes for human and animal health. Keywords: foodborne pathogens, antimicrobial resistance, food, Ethiopia, one health
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DOI: 10.2147/idr.s375043
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