NARMS Retail Food Surveillance in Ohio

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Summary Antimicrobial resistance is an increasingly critical threat to human and animal health. In the US alone, >23,000 individuals die each year because of infections with antimicrobial resistant organisms. A common source of resistant bacterial pathogen exposure is food, in particular fresh retail meat products. Most foodborne bacterial pathogens present in retail meat products also colonize the gastrointestinal tract of food animals during production. Contamination of meat products occurs during the slaughter process when GI contents, including fecal bacteria, contaminate the carcass. Despite improved food safety, the burden of foodborne illness has remained relatively unchanged for the past decade, affecting 1 in 6 individuals in the US annually. To help address this important public health problem, we propose to accomplish the following specific aims: 1) Contribute to national surveillance of foodborne pathogens and indicator bacteria as part of the NARMS retail food surveillance program, 2) Support outbreak investigations of foodborne disease by providing field epidemiology and laboratory support to other agencies in Ohio, and 3) Conduct field research to understand the reservoirs for zoonotic foodborne transmission, and the molecular epidemiology of antimicrobial resistant pathogens and indicator bacteria in fresh retail meat products. To accomplish these specific aims, we will serve as a NARMS retail meat and seafood surveillance project contributing laboratory. As a large cluster surveillance site, we will sample retail poultry, beef, pork, and seafood from retail stores within both metropolitan and rural Ohio. Forty-eight monthly samples will be cultured for specific pathogens and indicator bacteria. The resulting isolates will be further characterized and shipped monthly to FDA for antimicrobial susceptibility testing, with duplicate isolates maintained in our culture collection. We expect to successfully sample 528 packages of retail beef, pork, poultry, and seafood annually that will help to track the current state of antimicrobial resistance among foodborne pathogens and indicator bacteria found in retail meat and seafood but will also impact future FDA policy and regulations and monitor the success of actions and interventions. In addition to our contributions to the retail food surveillance program, as a NARMS participating laboratory we will be available to support foodborne disease outbreak investigations in Ohio and nearby states as needed.