EU Zoonoses Report "One Health 2024"

Zoonoses pose a growing challenge to public health and food safety in Europe. These diseases, transmissible between animals and humans and caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites, can spread through contaminated food and water, direct contact with infected animals, vectors such as mosquitoes and ticks, or contaminated environments.

To effectively address zoonotic risks, constant monitoring based on reliable and up-to-date data is essential , capable of detecting trends, preventing outbreaks and protecting the population.

In this context, the EFSA-ECDC report “One Health 2024” provides a comprehensive overview of the spread of major zoonoses in the EU , examining human, animal and food cases and offering strategic information for veterinary and food safety authorities.

Directive 2003/99/EC requires EFSA , in collaboration with the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control ( ECDC ), to collect, analyse and report annually data on zoonotic diseases from Member States.

This information allows us to plan targeted interventions to reduce the presence of zoonotic agents in animals and the environment, thus minimizing the risk to human health.

How did EFSA and ECDC carry out this work and what data were used?

EFSA and ECDC used Member States' surveillance and monitoring data on the occurrence of zoonotic diseases in humans, zoonotic agents in food, animals and the environment, and microbiological contaminants in food.

The data were analyzed to create summaries and identify trends, taking into account data quality and sampling strategies for food and animals.

What were the most important results?

In 2024, the five most reported zoonoses in humans were:

• Campylobacteriosis , with 168,396 cases (55.3 cases per 100,000 people)
• Salmonellosis , with 79,703 cases (18.6 cases per 100,000 people)
• Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) infections , with 11,738 cases (3.5 cases per 100,000 people)
• Listeriosis , with 3,041 confirmed invasive cases of Listeria monocytogenes (0.69 cases per 100,000 people)
• Echinococcosis , with 984 cases (0.22 cases per 100,000 people)

The number of cases reported over the past five years has shown a significant increase in brucellosis, campylobacteriosis, listeriosis, salmonellosis, and STEC.

For listeriosis , the increase may reflect changes in demographics and dietary habits, while for STEC it is related to more sensitive tests .

For others, the increase mainly reflects disruptions in surveillance during the pandemic years.

The number of foodborne outbreaks reported in 2024 (6,558) increased by 14.5% compared to 2023, as did the number of reported human cases (62,481) and hospital admissions (3,336), which increased by 19.7% and 15.2%, respectively.
On the contrary, the number of deaths (53) decreased by 18.5%.

Salmonella spp., norovirus, and Campylobacter were the most common causes of foodborne outbreaks identified in 2024.

The number of countries meeting all targets for reducing Salmonella in poultry populations has decreased, with only 14 Member States compliant in 2024, compared to 15 in 2023 and 19 in 2022.

In 2024, L. monocytogenes was the zoonosis with the highest proportion of hospital admissions and deaths among outbreak cases (72.1% and 8.3%, respectively) and non-outbreak-related infections (97.3% and 15.6%, respectively).

Regarding zoonotic tuberculosis , 17 Member States had free status in 2024, while for brucellosis no human outbreaks have been reported in the EU.

What were the limitations/uncertainties?

The main uncertainty concerned the comparability of data between Member States (e.g., outbreaks, official control samples). When data were not comparable, extreme caution was exercised in interpreting the results at EU level.