Consequently, it becomes important to be able to genetically
screen pathogens for virulence capacity and to systematically
determine which environmental factors are
involved in stimulation under typical food and feed processing
conditions. Foodborne Salmonella, in addition to
being one of the more troublesome and resourceful pathogens,
has also served as a fairly useful model for gaining
a better understanding of not only host-pathogen relationships
but regulation of virulence genes under different
environmental conditions. Given the capabilities of
quantifying gene response at the mRNA synthesis level,
application of such approaches in the future should lead
to more detailed scenarios of pathogen responses during
all aspects of food and feed processing.