10 December 2025
According to the 2024 report recently released by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Campylobacter continues to be the most common zoonotic agent in humans in the EU, a position it has held since 2005.
In 2024, 168,396 confirmed human cases of campylobacteriosis were reported, corresponding to a notification rate of 55.3 cases per 100,000 population, an increase of 11.9% compared to 2023. The five-year trend analysis (2020–2024) indicates a statistically significant increase in infections.
Monitoring of Process Hygiene Criteria (PHC) in poultry slaughterhouses revealed a significant divergence between official sampling results and industry own-checks:
Official Controls (Competent Authorities): 24.3% of broiler neck skin samples exceeded the limit of 1,000 CFU/g.
Industry Own-Checks (FBOps): Reported exceeding the limit in only 16.4% of samples. Statistical analysis from Member States reporting both data types showed that the percentage of samples exceeding the limit was significantly higher in official controls (26.0%) compared to own-checks (14.7%).
In fresh meat (non-RTE), high contamination rates were observed, particularly in turkey meat (26.0%) and broiler meat (22.8%). Conversely, the occurrence in ready-to-eat (RTE) foods remained very low at 0.36%.
Monitoring data in animals indicate a high prevalence of Campylobacter in livestock: 70.5% in turkeys, 57.5% in pigs, and 20.9% in broilers.
