NARMS Cooperative Agreement Program to Strengthen Antibiotic Resistance Surveillance in Retail Food Specimens

Connecticut State Dept Of Public Health, Hartford CT

Investigators

Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract The Connecticut Department of Public Health (CT DPH) State Public Health Laboratory (SPHL) is currently participating in the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) retail meat program through the Food and Drug Administration/Center for Veterinary Medicine (FDA/CVM). The purpose of this surveillance is to monitor the prevalence and trends of antimicrobial resistance in Salmonella, Campylobacter; Enterococcus, Escherichia coli, Vibrio, and Aeromonas isolated from retail food samples purchased from grocery stores in the United States. This surveillance project is intended to improve the detection of antibiotic resistance among bacteria in food commodities. This application will seek funding to support the CT DPH SPHL’s continued participation in the NARMS antibiotic resistance surveillance of retail food samples. The requested funding will support one full-time employee (FTE) who will be responsible for surveillance activities. Specific duties of this position include: (a) purchasing 23 retail food samples from randomly selected grocery stores throughout Connecticut each month, samples include 4 chickens (bone-in/skin-on), 6 ground turkey, 4 ground beef, 1 chicken liver, 1 chicken heart and 1 gizzard, 2 salmon, 2 tilapia, and 2 shrimp. (b) performing all phases of microbiological testing including initial enrichments, secondary enrichments and culture testing for the identification of Salmonella, Campylobacter, Escherichia coli and Enterococcus isolates from retail meat and poultry samples and initial enrichments followed by culture testing for the isolation of Vibrio, Enterococcus, and Aeromonas from seafood samples. All testing is performed following protocols provided by FDA/CVM (c) entering all sample information and results into the electronic NARMS data sheets and the Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS); (d) shipping all isolates monthly to FDA/CVM (e) submitting all required NARMS electronic data sheets monthly (f) performing necessary quality assurance/quality control functions; (g) submitting Salmonella, Campylobacter, and primary Escherichia coli isolates to the CT DPH SPHL Advanced Molecular Detection (AMD) section for whole genome sequencing (WGS). (h) The CT DPH SPHL AMD section submits sequences to NCBI and uploads to PulseNet monthly. Clusters of 2 or more WGS-closely related isolates, clinical or clinical and food, (local or multistate involving CT) prompt same- day notification from the CT DPH SPHL to CT epidemiologists to facilitate a rapid and complete investigation. The CT DPH SPHL looks forward to participating in this program to provide data for the improvement of the detection and surveillance of resistance among foodborne bacteria.