Epidemiology of Nationally Notifiable Zoonotic Foodborne Diseases in the United States

Zoonotic foodborne diseases (FBDs) are associated with different etiologic agents such as bacteria (e.g. Campylobacter jejuni), viruses (e.g. norovirus), and parasites (e.g. Taenia solium). Although a variety of pathogens may be responsible for causing these diseases, the most common zoonotic FBDs have their etiology attributed to bacterial pathogens. It is estimated that approximately 1 in every 6 people gets sick and over 100,000 are hospitalized each year in the United States. There is limited work on the distribution of FBDs among different sociodemographic characteristics and the relationship between these characteristics and the incidence rate (IR) of FBDs. The objectives of this study are to determine the major contributing pathogens to FBDs in the United States and to assess how these diseases are distributed demographically across the country. The data for this assessment was retrieved from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report from 2001 through 2019. The diseases analyzed in this study were salmonellosis, Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) infection, and campylobacteriosis. This study assessed the demographic (e.g. race, sex, and age group), spatial (e.g. state and national levels), and temporal (e.g. by month and by season) distributions of diseases based on their IR. American Indians had the highest IR of salmonellosis in 2001. Children under the age of 1 were the age group most affected by salmonellosis throughout the entire analysis. The highest IR of STEC infection from 2003 to 2019 was registered among Whites, with children under the age of 4 being the most impacted age group. Similar to what was observed for STEC infection, the incidence of campylobacteriosis was higher among Whites and children under the age of 4. Most states registered an increase in the IR of STEC infection from 2010 to 2019 and of campylobacteriosis from 2015 to 2019. There is limited work on the distribution of FBDs among different sociodemographic characteristics and the relationship between these characteristics and the incidence rates of FBDs. As the incidence of these zoonotic foodborne diseases increases across the country, control strategies that focus on the most impacted demographic groups are needed