Projects
Factors Affecting the Transfer of Bacterial and Viral Pathogens to Produce to Protect Food Safety and Security
Topic: Influenza
Objectives & Deliverables
Objective:
To determine the survival and transfer dynamics of enteric foodborne pathogens in pre-harvest environments and their fate on field-grown fruit and vegetable commodities. This includes evaluating highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella isolates recovered or related previous outbreaks or isolated from irrigation water sources by USDA ARS.
Challenges
Approach:
Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella enterica isolates will be evaluated for their persistence in pre-harvest environments. This will include realistic agricultural environments, which includes soils containing biological amendments like cattle manure and poultry litter. Amendments will be evaluated for HPAI. Evaluated soils which contain organic amendments will beplanted with cucumbers to evaluate transfer of pathogens to cucumber fruits. Pathogens (E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella, HPAI) will be evaluated in soils and on cucumbers.
Principle Investigator(s)
Planned Completion date: 31/08/2026
United States