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Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only Publication Acceptance Date: 5/18/2014 Publication Date: 5/18/2014 Citation: Ward, T.J. 2014. Update on the status of NRRL [abstract]. USCCN. Interpretive Summary: Technical Abstract: The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Culture Collection (also known as NRRL) in Peoria, IL, maintains more than 95,000 strains of agriculturally and industrially important bacteria and fungi. Most of these isolates are maintained in an open collection that distributes 6,000 – 8,000 strains annually in response to requests from scientists in the U.S. and around the world. NRRL recently received a funding increase to enhance existing foodborne pathogen collections and to acquire new foodborne pathogen collections as appropriate. This will enable us to improve staffing for the collection. However, maintenance of scientific capacity and expertise for major portions of the collection that are important to microbiological research areas outside of food safety remains a major concern. In response to the recent OSTP memo on scientific collections, ARS has put together a team to formulate agency policy. NRRL scientists are contributing to this effort along with representatives from plant, animal, insect, weed, parasite, and other microbial collections within ARS. |
