Shannon E. Majowicz

Research interests

My research aims to prevent foodborne and related diseases in Canadian and international contexts, and to enhance public health practice both broadly and within environmental health.

To this end, I investigate the burden and risks for these illnesses, and identify and evaluate interventions (including those currently in use, like food handler training). My research applies a systems lens to food-related health outcomes: food and its consumption is a confluence of risks and benefits which impact infectious diseases, chronic conditions, and nutrition, and I explore food safety strategies that account for the multiple health outcomes associated with the production and consumption of food.

My research involves tools that improve the use of evidence in public health decision making, particularly those that allow multiple or competing perspectives. Before joining SPHS, I spent a decade as an epidemiologist with the Government of Canada. There, my work involved extensive knowledge translation, bringing research into Canadian and international public health practice, and creating a wide network of knowledge users, practitioners and researchers with whom I still collaborate.

I currently serve on the World Health Organization’s Foodborne Disease Epidemiology Reference Group, and the Editorial Boards for Epidemiology & Infection and Foodborne Pathogens and Disease.

Graduate supervision and student opportunities

I am currently accepting applications from graduate students with a strong academic record in epidemiology, and either statistics or qualitative methods and research interests related to:

• Foodborne diseases and food safety
• Systems approaches to food and health
• Knowledge synthesis and public health practice

Graduate studies application details 

Teaching interests

• Epidemiology, including environmental and infectious disease epidemiology
• Foodborne, waterborne, and enteric diseases
• Burden of illness methods
• Public health practice, including surveillance and outbreak investigations

Education

BSc Bio-medical Science, University of Guelph

MSc Epidemiology, University of Guelph

PhD Epidemiology, University of Guelph

Selected publications

​See Google Scholar for full list of publications.

Gohari, M.R., Taylor, M., MacKinnon, M.C., Panagiotoglou, D., Galanis, E., Kaplan, G.G., Cook, R.J., Patrick, D.M., Ethelberg, S., Majowicz, S.E. “Patterns of enteric infections in a population-wide cohort study of sequelae, British Columbia, Canada”, Epidemiology and Infection (2023).

Lambraki, I.A., Cousins, M., Graells, T., Léger, A., Abdelrahman, S., Desbois, A.P., Gallagher, R., Staaf Larsson, B., Mattson, B., Henriksson, P.J.G., Troell, M.F., Jørgensen, P.S., Wernli, D., Carson, C.A., Parmley, E.J., Majowicz, S.E. “Governing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in a changing climate: a participatory scenario planning approach applied to Sweden in 2050”, Frontiers in Public Health (2022).

Devleesschauwer, B., Pires, S.M., Young, I., Gill, A., Majowicz, S.E., and the study team. “Associating sporadic, foodborne illness caused by Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli with specific foods: a systematic review and meta-analysis of case-control studies”, Epidemiology and Infection (2019).

Diplock, K.J., Dubin, J.A., Leatherdale, S.T., Hammond, D., Jones-Bitton, A., Majowicz, S.E. “Observation of high school students’ food handling behaviors: do they improve following a food safety education intervention?”, Journal of Food Protection (2018).

Majowicz, S.E., Scallan, E., Jones-Bitton, A., et al. “The global incidence of human Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli infections and deaths: a systematic review and knowledge synthesis”, Foodborne Pathogens and Disease (2014).

Majowicz, S.E., Musto, J.A., Scallan, E., et al.  “The global burden of non-typhoidal salmonellosis”, Clinical Infectious Diseases (invited article; 2010).