Location: Environmental Microbial & Food Safety Laboratory
Project Number: 8042-42610-001-013-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Sep 1, 2024
End Date: Aug 31, 2025
Objective:
To determine the survival and transfer dynamics of enteric foodborne pathogens in pre-harvest environments and their fate on field-grown fruit and vegetable commodities. This includes evaluating E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella isolates recovered or related previous outbreaks or isolated from irrigation water sources by USDA ARS.
Approach:
Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella enterica isolates will be evaluated for their persistence in pre-harvest environments. This will include realistic agricultural environments, which includes soils containing biological amendments, soils containing fungicide runoff, and treatment water containing various levels of fungicides. Evaluated Soils will contain organic amendments like heat-treated poultry pellets and seabird guano, and may be planted with cucumbers to evaluate transfer.
E. coli O157:H7 REP strains will, along with Salmonella Infantis isolates from irrigation water, will be inoculated into these various matrices. Their survival in soils / water will be tracked, along with their transfer to growing fruits like cucumbers. Differences in strain survival, pre-harvest environments (soils with amendments, soils with fungicide levels, water, water with fungicide) Will be compared to determine if these pre-harvest environments affect the amount of cells transferred to a growing fruit like cucumbers.
