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1. Pathogen transmission modes determine contact network structure, altering other pathogen characteristics

   https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.1389  

   Collier, Melissa; Albery, Gregory F.; McDonald, Grant C.; Bansal, Shweta (December 2022, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences)

   Pathogen traits can vary greatly and heavily impact the ability of a pathogen to persist in a population. Although this variation is fundamental to disease ecology, little is known about the evolutionary pressures that drive these differences, particularly where they interact with host behaviour. We hypothesized that host behaviours relevant to different transmission routes give rise to differences in contact network structure, constraining the space over which pathogen traits can evolve to maximize fitness. Our analysis of 232 contact networks across mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, arthropods, fish and molluscs found that contact network topology varies by contact type, most notably in networks that are representative of fluid-exchange transmission. Using infectious disease model simulations, we showed that these differences in network structure suggest pathogens transmitted through fluid-exchange contact types will need traits associated with high transmissibility to successfully proliferate, compared to pathogens that transmit through other types of contact. These findings were supported through a review of known traits of pathogens that transmit in humans. Our work demonstrates that contact network structure may drive the evolution of compensatory pathogen traits according to transmission strategy, providing essential context for understanding pathogen evolution and ecology. 

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2. Pathogen evolution during vaccination campaigns

   https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001804  

   Day, Troy; Kennedy, David A; Read, Andrew F; Gandon, Sylvain (September 2022, PLOS Biology)

   Following the initiation of the unprecedented global vaccination campaign against Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), attention has now turned to the potential impact of this large-scale intervention on the evolution of the virus. In this Essay, we summarize what is currently known about pathogen evolution in the context of immune priming (including vaccination) from research on other pathogen species, with an eye towards the future evolution of SARS-CoV-2. 

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3. Percolation models of pathogen spillover

   https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2018.0331  

   Washburne, Alex D.; Crowley, Daniel E.; Becker, Daniel J.; Manlove, Kezia R.; Childs, Marissa L.; Plowright, Raina K. (August 2019, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences)
4. Pathogen spillover during land conversion

   https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.12904  

   Faust, Christina L.; McCallum, Hamish I.; Bloomfield, Laura S.; Gottdenker, Nicole L.; Gillespie, Thomas R.; Torney, Colin J.; Dobson, Andrew P.; Plowright, Raina K.; Ostfeld, Richard (April 2018, Ecology Letters)
5. Advances in Foodborne Pathogen Analysis

   https://doi.org/10.3390/foods9111635  

   Bhunia, Arun K.; Bisha, Bledar; Gehring, Andrew G.; Brehm-Stecher, Byron F. (November 2020, Foods)

   null (Ed.)

   As the world population has grown, new demands on the production of foods have been met by increased efficiencies in production, from planting and harvesting to processing, packaging and distribution to retail locations. These efficiencies enable rapid intranational and global dissemination of foods, providing longer “face time” for products on retail shelves and allowing consumers to make healthy dietary choices year-round. However, our food production capabilities have outpaced the capacity of traditional detection methods to ensure our foods are safe. Traditional methods for culture-based detection and characterization of microorganisms are time-, labor- and, in some instances, space- and infrastructure-intensive, and are therefore not compatible with current (or future) production and processing realities. New and versatile detection methods requiring fewer overall resources (time, labor, space, equipment, cost, etc.) are needed to transform the throughput and safety dimensions of the food industry. Access to new, user-friendly, and point-of-care testing technologies may help expand the use and ease of testing, allowing stakeholders to leverage the data obtained to reduce their operating risk and health risks to the public. The papers in this Special Issue on “Advances in Foodborne Pathogen Analysis” address critical issues in rapid pathogen analysis, including preanalytical sample preparation, portable and field-capable test methods, the prevalence of antibiotic resistance in zoonotic pathogens and non-bacterial pathogens, such as viruses and protozoa. 

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