Food-Borne and Water-Borne Viruses

Dear Colleagues,

We are inviting the submission of reviews and original research papers that present basic and applied research into food-borne and water-borne viruses.

Human norovirus and hepatitis A virus are the most common foodborne viruses, which are transmitted by food consumed raw, such as shellfish, fresh vegetables, and berry fruit. In addition, in industrialized countries hepatitis viruses are recognized as an emerging viral agent and includes zoonotic transmission via pork products.

Risk assessment for food-borne and water-borne viruses requires the development and availability of specific and sensitive analytical systems to evaluate the potential hazard for public health of contaminated food and water. In the last few years, innovative and sensitive molecular methods have been developed for detection of these viruses. Rapid and sensitive robust detection methods are therefore needed to prevent food recalls and outbreaks. As the most relevant foodborne viruses are RNA viruses, reverse-transcription (RT) PCR has reportedly been the ‘gold standard’ for their detection. Recent standardization of RT-qPCR methods has allowed monitoring of enteric viruses in food and water samples (e.g. ISO TS 15216-1 and ISO TS 15216-2). Despite these improvements, there is still a need to better understand the relationship between RT-qPCR signals and virus infectivity. A further challenge is the determination of live vs. dead organisms. Advances in this field are expected to impact the food production/testing industry and regulatory agencies alike.

The EU regulations do not provide indications for the virological risks. The need for adequate sampling plans for virological investigations in food matrices has arisen in recent years along with the understanding of the risks posed by viruses in food products. Evaluation of the microbiological contamination status is useful to define risk-based planning for official controls, whilst implementation of the management practices and knowledge of the prevalence of foodborne viruses in food could represent a contribution for assessing consumer exposure.

In this Special Issue, we will present the more relevant advances in epidemiology, development and/or improvement of rapid methods for the detection and/or identification of foodborne and waterborne viruses, and where possible, assessment of their infectivity.

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Emerging foodborne viruses
• HAV
• HEV
• NoV
• Enteric viruses
• Molecular methods
• Food safety
• risk assessment
• food hygiene