Maintenance and Enhancement of Iso/iec 17025 Accreditation and Whole Genome Sequencing For State Food Testing Laboratories

The Laboratories Administration, like many other State public health laboratories, is still seekingadditional resources to maintain and enhance ISO 17025 Accreditation. By applying for this cooperativeagreement, the Division of Environmental Sciences will continue to (1) maintain a quality system thatmeets the management and technical requirements of ISO/IEC 17025:2005 with the goal of maintainingand obtaining additional accreditation; (2) continue employment of a QA Technical Assistant to assistwith the plethora of both management and technical requirement documents; (3) prepare an estimated costanalysis required for continued accreditation and (4) analyze a minimum of 75 samples for chemical andmicrobial parameters. These efforts will lead to harmonization of tests performed and data generated tosupport Maryland State Manufactured Food Regulatory programs. The Division also intends tostrengthen its collaboration between the laboratories and DHMH?s Environmental Health Bureau?s Officeof Food Protection and the Infectious Disease and Outbreak Emergency Response Bureau. Thesubsequent surveillance and outbreak programs will help to maintain the program proficiency andefficiency needed to ensure surge capacity and an adequate response during a food outbreak or anemergency. In addition this cooperative agreement will allow the Administration to continue to strengthen itswhole genome sequencing program. The Division of Molecular Biology will (1) sequence a minimum of400 Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes, shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) and otherfoodborne related pathogen isolates; (2) increase collaboration with other researchers through the sharingof live isolate cultures; and 3) actively participate in the GenomeTrackr network. These efforts will leadto stronger international rapid surveillance for pathogen traceback through Genome Trackr network byfurther enhancing GenomeTrackr and increasing the database. The Laboratories Administration proposes to carry out these projects in Year 1 with a requestedfunding of $340,000 and continue in Year 2 with a budget of $340,000.