Impacts of globalisation on foodborne parasites

• Globalisation facilitates the spread of foodborne parasites.
• Globalisation of foodborne parasites poses novel risks to animal and human health.
• Detection, diagnostics, and traceability are substantial challenges.
• Globalisation may offer collaborative opportunities to combat foodborne parasites.

Globalisation is a manmade phenomenon encompassing the spread and movement of everything, animate and inanimate, material and intangible, around the planet. The intentions of globalisation may be worthy – but may also have unintended consequences. Pathogens may also be spread, enabling their establishment in new niches and exposing new human and animal populations to infection. The plethora of foodborne parasites that could be distributed by globalisation has only recently been acknowledged and will provide challenges for clinicians, veterinarians, diagnosticians, and everyone concerned with food safety. Globalisation may also provide the resources to overcome some of these challenges. It will facilitate sharing of methods and approaches, and establishment of systems and databases that enable control of parasites entering the global food chain.