FOODBORNE PATHOGEN AND NONPATHOGEN MICROBIAL ECOLOGY IN MEAT ANIMAL PRODUCTION

Goals:1) Pathogen gastrointestinal ecology: The first goal involves determining the environmental factors that must be modified to prevent the establishment of Salmonella and Campylobacter in meat production environments along with virulence stress responses under these conditions. 2) Preharvest food safety interventions: The second goal is to screen potential prebiotic and other feed additive compounds that would promote beneficial bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract for humans and animals and limit Salmonella and Campylobacter survival in the gut as well as the impact on the indigenous gut microbial population. 3) Foodborne pathogen detection and microbiome mapping of meat and poultry processing operations: The third goal is to develop more rapid detection approaches that allow for real-time quantitation of pathogens in meat production environments as well as identify optimal indicator microorganisms by characterizing the native microbial population using microbiome 16S rDNA sequencing. In this proposal, the focus will primarily be on poultry production and processing. In the future but beyond the current proposal, these approaches will establish the concepts for applications to other meat animal species and complete longitudinal studies to characterize the microbial and pathogen ecology in all phases of meat animal production.