The emerging foodborne and waterborne pathogen, Arcobacter, has been linked to various gastrointestinal diseases. Currently, 19 species are established or proposed; consequently, there has been an increase in the number of publications regarding Arcobacter since it was first introduced in 1991. To better understand the potential public health risks posed by Arcobacter, this review summarizes the current knowledge concerning the global distribution and the prevalence of Arcobacter in food and water. Arcobacter spp. were identified in food animals, food‐processing environments and a variety of foods, including vegetables, poultry, beef, dairy products, seafood, pork, lamb and rabbit. A wide range of waterbodies has been reported to be contaminated with Arcobacter spp., such as wastewater, seawater, lake and river water, drinking water, groundwater and recreational water. In addition, Arcobacter has also been isolated from pets, domestic birds, wildlife, zoo and farm animals. It is expected that advancements in molecular techniques will facilitate better detection worldwide and aid in understanding the pathogenicity of Arcobacter. However, more extensive and rigorous surveillance systems are needed to better understand the occurrence of Arcobacter in food and water in various regions of the world, as well as uncover other potential public health risks, that is antibiotic resistance and disinfection efficiency, to reduce the possibility of foodborne and waterborne infections.

The integrative approach of water, energy, and food nexus (WEF nexus) is now widely accepted to offer better planning, development, and operation of these resources. This study presents a first attempt towards understanding the WEF nexus of urban environments in the Nile River Basin under conditions of hydrological droughts and fluvial floods. A case study was conducted for the capital of Sudan, Khartoum, at the confluence of the White Nile and the Blue Nile for illustration. The results were based on analyses of river flow and water turbidity data, field observations, a printed questionnaire and an interview of farmers practicing irrigated agriculture, and hydropower modeling. The study analyzes indicators for the association of the river water resources environment (intra-annual regime, quantity, and quality), the status of urban irrigated agriculture, water treatment for domestic use, and hydropower generation under hydrological extremes, i.e. droughts and fluvial floods. It additionally examines the consequent interactions between the impacts on three sectors. The present study shows how floods and droughts impose impacts on seasonal river water quality and quantity, water treatment for domestic use, irrigated agriculture, and hydro-energy supply in an urban environment. The results demonstrate how the two hydrological phenomena determine the state of hydropower generation from dams, i.e. high energy production during floods and vice versa during droughts. Hydropower dams, in turn, could induce cons in the form of low fertile soils in the downstream due to sediment retention by the reservoir. Finally, present and potential options to minimize the above risks are discussed. This study is hoped to offer good support for integrated decision making to increase the resource use efficiency over the urban environment within the Nile Basin.

Preconcentration of aluminum Al³⁺ was carried out by a novel deep eutectic solvent based ultrasound-assisted liquid phase microextraction (DES-UALPME) method. The deep eutectic solvents (DESs), a green solvent was first time used for enrichment and quantification of very low concentration of Al³⁺ in water and food samples, prior to analysed by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS). In present method it was observed that % recovery of Al-8-hydroxyquinoline chelates efficiently extracted by DES solvent. Pre-enrichment factor and limit of detection were observed to be 50, and 0.032μgL⁻¹, respectively. Developed procedure was validated with the CRM (SLRS-5 river water) of Al and a good agreement was observed in results of measured value to the certified value. The RSD was calculated as 3.3%. The presented procedure was successfully carried out to different water and food samples.

Water contamination by pathogenic bacteria is a global public health problem. Contamination of surface water utilized to irrigate food products, or for human consumption, causes outbreaks of foodborne and waterborne disease. Of these, those caused by diarrheagenic Escherichia coli (DEC) strains present substantial morbidity and mortality. The aim of this study was, therefore, to investigate the microbiological quality of surface water and the presence of DEC strains in different water bodies. A total of 472 water samples were collected from irrigation canal, dam, river, and dike water bodies from January through December 2015 in Sinaloa, a State located in Northwestern Mexico. Our studies demonstrated that 47.0% (222/472) of samples contained thermotolerant coliforms above permissive levels whereas E. coli strains were isolated from 43.6% (206/472). Among these E. coli isolates, DEC strains were identified in 14% (29/206) of samples including in irrigation canal (26/29) and river water (3/29) collected from the northern (83%) and central area (17%). Isolated DEC strains were classified as enteroaggregative E. coli (EAEC) 34.4% (10/29), enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC) 31.0% (9/29), diffuse adherent E. coli (DAEC) 27.5% (8/29), and enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC) 6.8% (2/29). Moreover, 90% of isolated DEC strains exhibited resistance to at least one commonly prescribed antibiotic in Mexico whereas 17% were multi-drug resistant. In conclusion, the presence of DEC strains in surface water represents a potential source for human infection, and thus routine monitoring of DEC in surface water and other indirect affected areas should be considered at northwestern Mexico.

A quantum-dot-based immunochromatographic assay (QICA) and a fluorescence quenching immunochromatographic assay (FQICA) were developed to visually detect bisphenol A (BPA). The proposed QICA and FQICA were based on traditional immune competition and on fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) from fluorescence donors (quantum dots) to fluorescence acceptors (colloidal gold nanoparticles), respectively. For the QICA, the concentration of the target negatively correlated with the fluorescent signals, whereas this correlation was positive for the FQICA. The visual limits of detection (LOD) of proposed QICA and FQICA were 10 and 4 μg kg⁻¹ (μg L⁻¹) in samples, respectively. Additionally, the results obtained with the two proposed assays agreed well with those obtained by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), indicating the high accuracy of the proposed assays. These two proposed fluorescence immunochromatographic assays can be applied to rapidly, sensitively, and accurately detect BPA in distillate spirits (42%, v/v), cabbage, grass carp, and river water samples on a large scale.