Persistence of non-typhoidal Salmonella across hosts and environments: a One Health perspective

Salmonella (S.) enterica remains a major global pathogen, with non-typhoidal Salmonella (NTS) causing millions of infections in humans and animals each year. While acute salmonellosis is well characterized, less is understood about the factors that enable NTS to persist across hosts, food systems, and environmental reservoirs. In this review, we integrate epidemiological, experimental, and genomic evidence on bacterial, host, and environmental determinants that promote long-term survival and persistence within a One Health framework. Persistence is examined across human, animal, and environmental contexts, encompassing prolonged host carriage, endemic circulation in animal reservoirs, and long-term survival in agro-environmental and food-processing settings. Within hosts, biofilm formation, intracellular adaptation, and stress-response pathways contribute to chronic colonization, while persistence in soil, water, manure, and on-farm or food-processing environments supports environmental endurance and ongoing transmission. Persistence strategies vary among NTS lineages and are shaped by ecological context and antimicrobial pressure, underscoring the need for integrated approaches to surveillance and control. Addressing these interconnected challenges requires a One Health perspective that links biological mechanisms with environmental and genomic surveillance-guided interventions across clinical, agricultural, and environmental sectors to disrupt persistence and transmission cycles and reduce the global public health burden of Salmonella infections.