Work

Understanding and translating evolutionary adaptations in animals exposed to contaminated diets to guide strategies against human foodborne disease: a prioritisation framework

Year: 2026

Type: review

Abstract: Background: Humans face increasing vulnerability to foodborne and infectious diseases despite medical advances, while certain animal lineages cope with pathogen-laden diets and environments under the particular ecological pressures that selected their defences. Animals are not universally resistant, and wildlife and livestock outbreaks of Salmonella, Campylobacter, Vibrio and mycotoxins are documented; but certain lineages have evolved tolerance or rapid-clearance mechanisms with minimal pathology. This disparity arises from evolutionary adaptations in animals, contrasting with human reliance on hygiene and antibiotics, which contribute to antimicrobial resistance and zoonotic spillovers, while modern sanitation has also delivered dramatic reductions in waterborne disease mortality. Aim of review: This review aims to synthesize evidence on animal disease resistance mechanisms and translate these insights into clinical strategies for improving human health, addressing gaps in comparative biology and combating emerging threats like antimicrobial resistance. We introduce the Biomimetic Immunity Continuum, a translational framework for comparative immunology built on an explicit selection rule that rejects candidate adaptations as well as ranking them; four are rejected here. It maps animal defence pillars (genetic, ecological, behavioural, physiological, microbiome) along a spectrum from prevention to molecular tuning to therapeutic replacement, prioritizing feasibility, reversibility, safety, and scalability. These criteria are applied as three exclusion gates and four ranked criteria, with candidates ordered on the limiting step rather than on a composite numerical score. We predict that, among adaptations acting on conserved or reachable human pathways, translational potential depends more on conservation, accessibility, safety and deliverability than on the size of the phenotype in the source animal. Throughout, we distinguish avoidance (reduction of exposure), resistance (reduction of pathogen or toxin burden), tolerance (reduction of health cost per unit burden) and resilience (the composite property emerging when these operate together), because these axes carry different translational and safety implications. Key scientific concepts of review: Animals employ multifaceted defences: genetic (e.g., immune gene evolution), ecological (e.g., habitat avoidance), behavioural (e.g., grooming), physiological (e.g., vultures' hyperacidic stomachs neutralizing anthrax), immunological (e.g., epigenetic reprogramming), and microbial (e.g., microbiome-mediated exclusion). These synergize to prevent infections, as seen in bats tolerating high viral loads with minimal immunopathology. Candidate human applications differ widely in maturity: trained immunity via BCG and defined live biotherapeutic products are already in human use, dietary interventions mimicking animal microbiomes have reached controlled trials, and heat-shock induction has human data but no controlled trial against a foodborne endpoint. We separate mechanistic inspiration from candidate intervention throughout, and the evidence level attached to each proposal says which it is. Bridging evolutionary and clinical science offers candidate approaches to disease prevention. Every proposal is classified by translational maturity on a five-level scale from approved human use to source-species observation alone; this records maturity rather than certainty or demonstrated efficacy. Animal exemplars are included only where they meet stated relevance criteria for foodborne hazards as defined by the World Health Organization, which treats infectious and chemical hazards together.

Source: Frontiers in Immunology

DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2026.1883529