THE OVERARCHING LONG-TERM GOAL OF THIS PROJECT IS TO IMPROVE FOOD-BORNE DISEASE (FBD) SURVEILLANCE AND DETECTION TECHNOLOGY THAT WILL ALLOW FOR THE EVENTUAL REDUCTION AND PREVENTION OF MICROBIAL CONTAMINATION ACROSS THE COMPLETE NETWORK OF FOOD PRODUCTION, REDUCTION OF THE RECALL RATE DUE TO FOOD CONTAMINATION, AND THE ULTIMATE REDUCTION OF THE FBD BURDEN (INCLUDING THE ACCOMPANYING ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE IMPACT). WE PROPOSE TO ADVANCE THE CAPACITY FOR NEXT GENERATION SURVEILLANCE OF FBD PATHOGENS ACROSS THE FOOD PRODUCTION NETWORK THROUGH THE DEVELOPMENT OF FOOD-PATH, AN ADVANCED, BUT ACCESSIBLE, AMPLICON SEQUENCING-BASED FBD SURVEILLANCE TOOL. TO ACCOMPLISH THIS WE WILL ACHIEVE THE FOLLOWING OBJECTIVES: 1) DEVELOP A HIGH-THROUGHPUT AMPLICON SEQUENCING ASSAY SYSTEM (INCLUDING AUTOMATED DATA ANALYSIS) TO DETECT FBD ORGANISMS THAT ARE RELEVANT TO BOTH FOOD SAFETY AND PUBLIC HEALTH; 2) EVALUATE THE FOOD-PATH TOOL'S ABILITY TO DETECT AND CHARACTERIZE CRITICAL FBD PATHOGENS IN UPSTREAM AND DOWNSTREAM FOOD PROCESSING SAMPLES (I.E., COMPLEX MIXED GENOME SAMPLES); AND 3) EVALUATE THE ABILITY OF FOOD-PATH TO DISCERN STRAIN TYPES, SEROTYPES AND OTHER GENOTYPES WITH COMPARATIVE WHOLE GENOME SEQUENCING.