Composite health measures are increasingly applied in studies aiming at describing the burden of diseases, and food and water-borne diseases (FWDs) are no exception. The Burden of Communicable Diseases in Europe (BCoDE) is a project led and funded by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) with the purpose of encouraging and empowering public health experts in the estimation of the impact of communicable diseases expressed in Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs). Calculation of DALYs and a critical assessment of burden of disease outputs require a thorough consideration of a number of methodological and epidemiological decisions ranging from modelling (e.g. incidence versus prevalence), disease model parameters (e.g. risks of developing complications or death) and the data feeding the number of cases.Burden of disease studies produce useful results for public health decision-making, in particular when they aim at informing preventive strategies. For this purpose, we attributed FWDs results from the BCoDE 2015 study to different exposure routes. We discuss these in the more general perspective of generating burden of disease evidence for planning and prioritisation, including the potentials and limitations of its methodology.

We manipulated the amount of food and water (soil moisture) available to natural populations of larval tiger beetles in Arizona. Supplemental food increased survivorship of first instars to the second instar in all species in at least one of two years. Supplemental soil moisture usually increased, but sometimes decreased, survival of first instars. Interaction of food and water treatments was significant in a few cases, but the nature of the interaction varied greatly among species and years. Significant mortality of first instars from natural enemies occurred, and may explain the anomalous cases of first—instar survival with food exclusion (since enemies were also excluded by this treatment). Food supplementation increased first—instar—to—adult survivorship for all species and third—instar—to—adult survivorship for most species; in contrast, water supplementation had no effect on most species. Food manipulation, but not water manipulation, also affected development time or size of adults (usually both) for all seven species tested. Supplemental food produced larger adults and resulted in more rapid maturation. Reduced food resulted in delayed development, and this usually resulted in death. The results of this study provide one of the few cases in which simultaneous effects of two major ecological factors have been analyzed for a large set of similar species in an array of habitats. The prevalence of food limitation and the frequent lack of a detectable consistent interaction between food availability and water availability in this system indicate that food limitation and resource competition may be the dominant factors controlling these organisms.

The microbiological safety of food and the environment in which we live is currently an intensely discussed topic. Increasing production and the demand-driven global market exert pressure on ensuring sufficient high-quality food and safe drinking water. Compared to the past, increased attention in this area is now paid to important viral agents associated with food/water contaminations in both intensive research and routine diagnostics. This interest in viral agents has also increased in recent years due to the ongoing global pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus. Food- and water-borne viruses usually cause only mild and short-term diseases. The most common is gastroenteritis manifested by fever, vomiting and watery diarrhoea. However, in addition to mild febrile illness, these agents can also cause more serious conditions – respiratory infections, hepatitis, conjunctivitis, aseptic meningitis, myocarditis, encephalitis and paralysis. Globally, these diseases have significant economic impacts and are still among the leading causes of death in developing countries.This manuscript provides an overview of food- and water-borne viruses and technologies developed and currently used for their identification as causative agents. Methods for the detection of these pathogens represent an important tool for the assessment and mitigation of potential risks associated with the contamination of food and water resources. There is currently a wide range of possible approaches. Their use is differently targeted and their sensitivity, effectiveness and specificity also vary. In the case of a specific application, it is therefore necessary to choose the appropriate method, optimize it, and then verify its applicability and limits. The chosen method should be sufficiently robust, sensitive, specific and, if possible, also time and labor saving.