Polymorphic locus sequence typing of foodborne pathogens

This SBIR (small business innovationresearch) Phase I projectis responsive to National Challenge Area: Food Safety, and to USDA Strategic Goal 4.3 - Protect Public Health by Ensuring Food is Safe (www.ocfo.usda.gov/usdasp/usdasp.htm). The detection and investigation of foodborne outbreaks associated with pathogens such as E. coli O157 is highly dependent on strain typing. The typing methods employed must provide sufficient strain resolution to justify the commitment of considerable resources to epidemiological fieldwork. Ideally, the strain typing method is also expedient, since time is a critical factor in tracking pathogens to their food and environmental sources. Finally, if an affordable, user-friendly, outsourced, and confidential strain typing service were available to food processors, there is considerable potential for its use in tracking down pathogens within the food chain before an outbreak occurs.