Diagnosis and control of brucellosis through food: The contribution of omics sciences

More than 60 percent of emerging infectious diseases in humans are zoonoses, and about 70 percent of these come from wildlife. In this context, infectious diseases in animals are no longer a problem confined to the livestock and animal health sector but have important repercussions in public health-related risk assessment and management. One of the most relevant risks in the transmission of zoonoses is certainly the consumption of food contaminated with pathogens, especially because of the potential epidemiological relevance of foodborne outbreaks. Brucellosis represents one of the most prevalent zoonoses worldwide and one of the most important foodborne zoonoses, particularly in the Mediterranean and developing countries; The European Union has funded numerous eradication and control programs in at-risk herds. This review aims to analyze current diagnostic methods used in the detection of Brucella in food matrices. It will highlight issues related to the timing and specificity of classical diagnostic methods while also analyzing new diagnostic methods in the current literature. The focus of this work is on emphasizing the potential that integrated omics sciences have in developing early and highly sensitive diagnostic tools. It analyzes strengths and weaknesses and underscores, through a review of recent scientific articles in the “PubMed” and “Google Scholar” databases, the importance of current and future research, especially those based on an omics approach, in providing fundamental biological data and knowledge. This, in turn, could play a crucial role in designing innovative diagnostic tests to complement those currently in use.