MONITORING ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE (AMR) IN SALMONELLA, CAMPYLOBACTER, ESCHERICHIA COLI AND ENTEROCOCCUS SPP. ISOLATED FROM RETAIL MEATS IN NORTH CAROLINA

Food animals, including retail pork, chicken, ground turkey and ground beef have beenimplicated as sources of Salmonella and Campylobacter and are the leading causes ofbacterial foodborne illness. Indicator pathogens, including Escherichia coli andEnterococcus spp., are also frequently isolated from these meat products. The situationis further complicated when the strains are also resistant to different antimicrobials. It is,therefore, important that we monitor the prevalence and trends of antimicrobial resistant(AMR) foodborne bacterial strains in the retail meat products that can eventually pass tothe consumers along the farm-to-fork chain resulting in significant public health impact.The National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) plays an importantrole in surveillance of AMR bacterial pathogens in humans, food animals and retailmeats. Though North Carolina is an important food producing state in the US and ranksamong the top states in pork and poultry production, it is currently not a part of theNARMS program. Our major objective, therefore, is to enhance the surveillance of AMRpathogenic and indicator bacterial strains in retail meats in North Carolina and generatecritical data to contribute to the NARMS mission. We propose to conduct this study incollaboration with the FDA GenomeTrakr program and strong support from the NCDepartment of Agriculture and Consumer Services (NCDACS). The PI (Dr. Thakur)laboratory is a GenomeTrakr laboratory, which will provide the opportunity to generatethe whole genome sequences (WGS) of the bacterial strains thereby significantlyassisting us in tracking the emergence of potential new AMR bacterial and allowing thepublic health agencies to take appropriate steps.The specific objectives of our proposal are:1) Monitor antimicrobial resistance (AMR) trends in Salmonella, Campylobacter, E. coliand Enterococcus spp. from retail meat samples collected in North Carolina region.2) Generate and compare the WGS profiles of Salmonella, Campylobacter, E. coli andEnterococcus spp. isolated from retail meat in North Carolina to detect the emergenceof new AMR strains.The long-term objective of our proposal is to protect and promote public health byenhancing and strengthening the surveillance of AMR Salmonella, Campylobacter, E.coli and Enterococcus spp. in retail food specimens the US.