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The overall goal of this integrated postdoctoral fellowship project is to identify routes of produce microbial contamination on farms and packing sheds, disseminate these scientific data to farmers and the produce industry, and assess the impact of an intervention to minimize the risk of produce microbial contamination on farms. The specific aims of the proposed integrated project are:<P> 1. (Through applied research) By analyzing existing datasets from previous epidemiological field studies, to assess whether there is a relationship between microbial contamination on produce in farms and packing sheds and microbial contamination of water, workers' hands, and equipment surfaces. Establishment of this relationship will enable the development of effective intervention measures.<P> 2. (Through extension) to develop, test, and refine bilingual (Spanish/English) training materials to communicate current and past scientific data on farm and packing shed contamination of produce to Mexican and American farmers and the produce industry. Maintenance of an open dialogue with end-users will enable identification of intervention measures that can be integrated with current production practices, increasing the likelihood of adoption.<P> 3. (Through research and extension) to design and implement the post-intervention phase of the current NIFA-funded parent study and collect data to quantify the impact of the intervention on produce contamination on farms.
Non-Technical Summary: <BR>Outbreaks of illness caused by contaminated produce have been increasing over the last decade. However, little information is available about how the produce became contaminated. Although contaminated soil, poor water quality, animal fecal droppings, and poor worker hygiene all have the potential to contaminate produce, the contribution by all of these factors is unknown. This limits the ability of government and industry groups to make recommendations to reduce food safety risks and advise industry on good agricultural practices. In order to develop solutions to reduce the risk of produce contamination, there is a need for research tools to identify contamination routes and improve communication of scientific evidence and recommendations to agricultural stakeholders so they can make informed decisions about their production practices. For any agricultural operation that has to allocate limited resources, the available information is inadequate to answer questions such as: is it more effective to build more sanitary facilities for the field workers and enforce hand-washing practices, or is it more important to disinfect irrigation waters The goal of this project is to identify routes of produce microbial contamination on farms and packing sheds, communicate our results to farmers, and determine the effectiveness of solutions to minimize produce microbial contamination on farms. Our findings have the potential to improve food safety on a national scale by enabling the agricultural community to make informed practical decisions to minimize risk of produce contamination and improve food safety. <P> Approach: <BR> Activities toward achievement of Aim 1 will be conducted over the course of the first year, including study set-up, preliminary data analysis, and communication of results through publications and through presentations at scientific meetings. Activities toward achievement of Aim 2 will be carried on throughout the study duration, including: the development of surveys and conduction of farmer interviews in Mexico during the first year; implementation of intervention strategies on Mexican study sites during the second year; and development of internet-based eXtension modules and organization of extension workshops at national and international meetings during both years. Activities toward achievement of Aim 3 will be planned over the course of the first year, including interpretation of preliminary data and combining it with information from farmer surveys and input obtained from stakeholders through extension activities. Pathogen detection assays will be conducted to obtain baseline measures of microbial levels in environmental samples at Mexican study sites. Finally, the strategies developed for Aim 3 will be formulated and implemented in the second year. Methods for Aim 1: Novel epidemiological and biostatistical approaches will be employed to identify and quantify routes of produce contamination using existing data sets on microbial levels at various potential sites of introduction onto produce during the production and packaging process. This will be accomplished with multivariate regression analyses to simultaneously adjust for multiple variables. Methods for Aim 2: At the completion of both years of the study, Dr. Bartz will set up conferences and workshops concurrent with existing stakeholder meetings such as annual state produce association meetings and national food safety meetings. These workshops will: 1) present our scientific data and findings from Aim 1 as well as previous work and 2) solicit practical recommendations and specific interventions from the produce community (Aim 3). In the second extension and education activity, Dr. Bartz will develop an eXtension educational module, or Community of Practice. Content for farmers, farm managers, and produce associations will include information on commodity-specific evidence-based interventions shown to reduce produce contamination at the pre-harvest and harvest level based on work from this study and that of others. Summaries and recommendations from the produce association meetings will also be included. Methods for Aim 3: The timeframe of the proposal will not allow Dr. Bartz to assess the effectiveness of the implemented intervention measures towards reducing on-farm contamination levels. However, she will have the opportunity to participate in the planning and implementation of the intervention, as well as to collect data on baseline levels of fecal contamination on crops at the study sites. She will also be able to assess the effectiveness of her contribution to the project by conducting a post-intervention survey to measure compliance with intervention measures.