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<p>Using Salmonella species as the model food-borne pathogen, the objectives of the proposed pilot project are: </p>
<p>(i) To quantify prevalence of Salmonella in matching rumen, feces, and carcass samples of goats at slaughter, </p>
<p>(ii) to quantify prevalence of antibiotic resistance in Salmonella isolated from matching rumen, feces, and carcass samples of goats at slaughter and </p>
<p>(iii) to characterize the serotype and determine genetic relatedness of Salmonella isolates obtained from matching rumen, feces, and carcass swab samples of goats at slaughter to understand the preliminary ecology of this pathogen in a slaughter environment.</p>
<p>NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY:<br/> Data on the safety of meats derived from goats raised under current US husbandry conditions is scarce. We propose a pilot cross-sectional study to quantify the apparent prevalence, uncover previously unknown prevalence of antibiotic resistance, and to characterize the genetic diversity among strains of Salmonella isolated from goats during slaughter.
<p>APPROACH:<br/> The study aims will be evaluated in a cross-sectional study design framework. Matching samples, including fecal, rumen, and carcass samples from the same animal will be collected from an USDA-APHIS approved abattoir. Standard microbiological methods for isolation, genotyping, and antibiotic resistance testing for salmonella will be employed. Salmonella isolates with similar antibiograms will be evaluated using pulse-field gel electrophoresis of digested chromosomal DNA. Different bands algorithm for clustering and the unweighted pair group for arithmetic means tree-building approach will be used, with optimization of 1 and 0.5% position tolerance. Analysis involving visual inspection of the patterns will be undertaken. Prevalence of Salmonella in each sample type, proportion of isolates resistant to one or more antimicrobial agents, and serotype
distribution will be calculated.