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Goal: To provide innovative and practical solutions to the beef industry to improve public health by mitigating bacterial food-borne threats<P> Objectives: 1. Characterize variation in regional, seasonal, and animal-type burden of Salmonella harborage in lymph nodes of cattle presented for harvest; 2. Identify and describe important biological and epidemiological factors associated with Salmonella in lymph nodes of cattle; 3. Develop and test practical solutions for control of Salmonella in the lymph nodes of cattle; and 4. Develop and disseminate best practices to improve food safety through mitigation of Salmonella in lymph nodes of cattle<P> Expected outputs: Activities - We will conduct a series of integrated activities to better understand the biological, epidemiological, and ecological factors that contribute to and may mitigate the risk associated with carriage of Salmonella in the lymph nodes of cattle. Within these activities, we will conduct observational and and experimental studies, and develop and disseminate best practices through producer engagement. <P>Events - We will hold 2 producer engagement workshops. The first is to engage producers to develop best practices and provide them the opportunity to inform its content and the second workshop will be to disseminate the final best practices document. <P>Products - A salient product of our activities will be a broad industry-university-academia network that works to provide solutions to public health needs. Other products include a model for stakeholder engagement to inform best practices and an adoptable and implementable best practice document that improves public health.
Non-Technical Summary: <BR>Informed regulatory oversight and improved process control through industry adoption of Pathogen Reduction-Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) plans have dramatically reduced the incidence of disease caused by E. coli O157:H7. Despite this tremendous success as well as improved sanitary slaughter processes, control of Salmonella in beef remains frustratingly elusive. Our preliminary data indicate that Salmonella may be carried in the lymph nodes of cattle and this phenomenon appears to be the likely avenue by which Salmonella evades carcass decontamination. Our preliminary data also provide salient insights into opportunities to mitigate this food-safety threat. In our integrated, multi-disciplinary, and multi-state project, we will conduct a series of experimental and observations studies to better understand the biology, epidemiology, and ecology of Salmonella in lymph nodes. These studies will also be used to explore candidate control strategies and identify those that are most successful and adoptable. We will use our newly generated knowledge to frame best practices that effectively mitigate the risk posed by Salmonella in lymph nodes. We will engaged stakeholders in this process as interventions have to be viewed as implementable by those responsible for that implementation. To this end, stakeholders, through our proactive engagement, will have ownership of the process and more likely to see the practices as implementable. Once the best practices have been completed, we will disseminate them to relevant stakeholders and evaluate the effect of our dissemination. Outcomes/Impacts of in project include generation of new knowledge about Salmonella in the lymph nodes of cattle, identification of mitigation strategies, practical and implementable best-practices guidelines, and improved food safety for all Americans. Moreover, we have secured matching Beef Checkoff funds to support this NIFSI request; these funds highlight the stakeholder relevance of our team and approach, and will increase the scale, scope, and impact of our activities. <P> Approach: <BR> We will conduct a series of observational and experimental studies. Efforts: * The experimental studies will include challenge models to estimate duration of Salmonella survival in the lymph nodes of cattle as well as an evaluation of potential mitigation strategies. The knowledge gained will increase our understand of the biology of Salmonella carriage including likely routes of infection, duration of carriage, and efficacy of candidate mitigation strategies such as control through chemical, immunomodulation, and biological strategies both before and after harvest. * The observational studies will include an ongoing surveillance program to better describe risk in terms of animal-type, region, and season. Risk will be defined in a number of ways such as a) all Salmonella pose a risk; or b) only a phenotypic or genotypic subset of Salmonella pose a risk. Further, we further explore the surveillance data through targeted epidemiological evaluation to identify herd-level factors associated with carriage of Salmonella in the lymph nodes of animals presented for harvest. * We will also engage producers (pre- and post-harvest) to share findings and build a best-practices document. An initial stakeholder-engagement workshop will be conducted to frame the best practices so that recommendations are perceived to be implementable by those responsible for that implementation. A second workshop will be used to disseminate these best practices to the stakeholders. Evaluation: The primary product of these activities is a producer-developed best-practice document. An important aspect of our work will be to evaluate adoption of these practices and an understanding of the mitigation of risk it provides.