Food Safety and Animal Health

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: Food Safety is the most important public health problem on a worldwide basis. In the US each year foodborne illnesses affect 6 to 80 million persons, cause 9,000 deaths and cost an estimated 5 billion dollars. The most serious forms of foodborne illnesses are associated with animal products. Additionally, since 9/11, the threat of food systems to bioterrorist activities through intentional introduction of microbes and chemicals, new approaches and technologies are needed. It becomes increasingly important that potential infectious agents in the food chain be identified and eliminated before they can become serious opportunistic diseases. Improvement in animal health quality and food products through detection of microbes and residues will benefit all consumers and greatly enhance the U.S. export market.

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APPROACH: <BR> 1) Improved detection systems: The emphasis will be to develop rapid, sensitive diagnostic tests. The approaches to be used include the use of multiplex detection systems for nucleic acids and protein toxins, surveillance systems for identifying emerging microbes and developing systems to control infection. The immediate goals are to improve antibiotic residue tests for milk, develop multiplex detection procedures for salmonellas, E coli 0157:H7 and vibrio. <BR><BR>2) Critical control point studies will be conducted on production units to identify a) the most likely area for introduction of the contaminants and b) the production and processing systems. Programs are being implemented for on-farm antibiotic residue avoidance. These on-farm programs are based on determining pathogen ecology, establishing critical control points for monitoring and developing intervention strategies for receiving or eliminating the pathogen. New strategies for handling potential bioterrorist threats need to be integrated into the system.<BR><BR> 3) Risk analysis models will be developed for different microbes and contaminants on production units. An example of a risk assessment model for a processing system is as follows: data and information gathered on human pathogens on production units and the proposed interventions for reducing their prevalence will be assessed by sound scientific procedures which determine inherent riskiness of the procedures in terms of the foodborne illness and the value of any interventions. Quantitative risk assessment provides the methods for the decisions which need to be made on production units. The assessments include protecting public health by allowing for logical, orderly evaluation of risks and numerically estimating the potential for foodborne illness in old and new systems. This work will be carried out in the School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis and at the Veterinary Medicine Teaching Center at Tulare, California