ABSTRACT
CONTENTS 3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................. 55 3.2 Viruses .......................................................................................................... 56
3.2.1 Gastroenteritis Viruses................................................................... 56 3.2.2 Hepatitis Viruses............................................................................. 57 3.2.3 Possible Zoonoses ........................................................................... 58 3.2.4 Human Enteroviruses .................................................................... 58
3.3 Protozoa........................................................................................................ 58 3.3.1 Cryptosporidium spp. ....................................................................... 59 3.3.2 Giardia lamblia .................................................................................. 59 3.3.3 Toxoplasma gondii............................................................................. 60 3.3.4 Cyclospora cayetanensis .................................................................... 60 3.3.5 Entamoeba histolytica........................................................................ 61
3.4 Contamination............................................................................................. 61 3.5 Prevention .................................................................................................... 61
3.5.1 Sanitation.......................................................................................... 62 3.5.2 Inactivation ...................................................................................... 62
3.6 Summary ...................................................................................................... 62 References ............................................................................................................. 63
Viruses are now considered to be preeminent causes of foodborne diseases in the United States1 and some other countries. Protozoa are gaining recognition as causes of foodborne and waterborne diseases as well, though progress is somewhat slower. Prion diseases (transmissible spongiform encephalopathies) may well be the rarest of those transmitted via foods, but the majority of cases of new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) are thought to have been foodborne (see Chapter 20),2 and the impact of
these on the food industry has been enormous. These groups have little in common, except that they all differ from the better-recognized bacterial causes of foodborne diseases. It is neither possible to describe them in detail here, nor possible to cite ultimate source references. Instead, general discussions will be based largely on reviews and secondary references, which the reader can resort to for more extensive information.
