Identification of Human Enteric Viruses in Foods and Foodborne Disease Outbreaks

Enteric viruses are significant human pathogens, recently ranked fifth and sixth amongst identified causes of foodborne disease in the U.S.
<P>While these agents are responsible for diseases such as gastroenteritis and hepatitis, the true scope and significance of foodborne viral infection is drastically underestimated due to inadequacies in reporting and detection methods. The introduction of molecular biological techniques offers sensitive and specific alternatives for the detection of these previously non-detectable viral agents. <P>The purpose of this research is to refine molecular methods to detect human enteric viruses from foods and to further develop approaches forthe investigation of outbreaks of foodborne viral disease.

<P>The specific objectives are as follows: <ol><LI> Refine methods to extract humanenteric viruses from foods, <LI> Improve sensitivity,specificity, and speed of virus detection and confirmation, <li> Develop methods specifically for the detection and identification of small-round structured viruses of epidemiological significance to humans, and <LI>Develop a comprehensive approach to the investigation of outbreaks of foodborne viral disease by linking detection and identificationin clinical (fecal) and food specimens. </ol>