Characterization of foodborne pathogens and association with clinical illness and colonization in animal reservoirs

Diarrheal disease is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in children under the age of five and is commonly caused by multiple bacterial pathogens often found in food animals. In developing countries, few effective treatments are available given the high cost of antibiotics, while resistance to antibiotics is common in developed countries. The goals of this study are to: 1) Describe the epidemiology of common foodborne pathogens in Michigan patients over a 15 year time period; 2) Identify genotypic and phenotypic characteristics of foodborne pathogens recovered from patients with clinical infections and make comparisons to those recovered from animal reservoirs (i.e., cattle) to examine pathogen distributions, trends, and epidemiological associations; and 3) Using metagenomics, determine how the composition and function of different microbial communities impacts colonization of a pathogen in cattle and disease in humans with enteric infections. Characterizing common foodborne pathogens from food animals as well as patients with clinical infections will allow us to track the circulation of different strain types, monitor disease trends and resistance frequencies over time, and identify risk factors for disease and specific strain characteristics. In addition, characterizing the intestinal microbiome in patients with clinical infections and livestock colonized with common foodborne pathogens will enable the identification of beneficial microbes that may be used to control infection. Together, these studies could facilitate the development of prevention and treatment strategies resulting in a reduction in disease incidence and decreased contamination of the food supply.