Identifying Emerging Pathogenic Threats Relevant to Fresh Beef Safety: A Literature Review and Proposed Analysis Framework

This literature review examines emerging pathogenic threats (EPT) relevant to the fresh beef industry across the production-to-consumption continuum. Sources were drawn primarily from peer-reviewed research in beef safety, meat science, and food science and supplemented by studies published in discipline-adjacent and commodity-adjacent journals in which pathogen emergence, evolution, or transmission mechanisms overlap with beef systems. Particular emphasis was placed on literature explicitly addressing emerging or reemerging pathogens and changing risk profiles driven by environmental, technological, or biological factors. In addition to hazards encountered during beef production and processing, this review considers pathogenic threats that may not directly affect fresh beef at the point of harvest and processing but could implicate beef-containing products further downstream in distribution, retail, or consumer handling environments. Several key conclusions are presented and ranked according to their relevance and potential impact on beef safety management. These include likely points of EPT emergence within beef supply chains, the role of microbial evolution and adaptation, ongoing and anticipated challenges associated with antimicrobial resistance, and the growing importance of detection, monitoring, and intervention technologies. Additionally, this review introduces structured approaches for anticipatory issue identification (via an anticipatory issue identification and management framework), risk assessment, and prioritization (via frameworks such as multicriteria decision analysis) to support proactive management of EPT. Collectively, this literature review serves as a strategic roadmap for future research and policy development while supporting efforts to anticipate, prepare for, and mitigate uncertain yet highly impactful pathogenic threats facing the beef industry.