Q&A: How does technology help track foodborne pathogens and outbreaks?
After a cyclospora outbreak and recalls of imported beef over the summer, a recent Gallup poll found that Americans' confidence in food safety has fallen to a record low, and consumers may be wondering how foodborne illness outbreaks can be tracked and mitigated.
How do advancements in technology aid in tracking foodborne pathogens and outbreaks? Recent Gallup polling suggests that Americans' confidence in food safety has hit an all-time low, leading many to question the methods employed to monitor and mitigate foodborne illness. In a recent Q&A, experts from Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences shed light on the role of technology in safeguarding the food supply.
Jasna Kovac, a professor of microbiomes in food safety, explained that routine tracking focuses on bacteria that can be cultured from clinical, food, and environmental samples, including salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes, Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, and campylobacter. However, viruses like norovirus and hepatitis A pose challenges due to their inability to be easily cultured.
By tracking pathogens, researchers can identify major sources and reservoirs, which can inform targeted interventions to prevent spread from those sources to food and humans.
Edward Dudley, director of the E. coli Reference Center and professor of food science, highlighted the utility of whole genome sequencing, a method that determines an organism's complete DNA sequence. By comparing the DNA of samples from a food product and a patient, investigators can determine if the patient contracted the illness from that product. Nevertheless, applying this method to parasites, such as Cyclospora, remains challenging due to their larger genomes and less established analysis pipelines.
Kovac's lab employs whole-genome sequencing alongside other techniques to predict how foodborne pathogens survive and grow in food, as well as their potential to cause illness and resist antimicrobials. The team also investigates the connection between pathogen contamination in food processing facilities and the composition of microbial communities, aiming to use community composition as an early warning system for increased risk of pathogen persistence.
Pennsylvania's involvement in the federal GenomeTrackr program, led by Dudley's lab, focuses on sequencing common foodborne bacterial pathogens and making the genomic data publicly available. This data, combined with metadata, can aid public health labs worldwide in tracking outbreaks. The researchers are also exploring the potential of wastewater monitoring to detect foodborne pathogens within a community, similar to the approach used for tracking the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for COVID-19.
The experts see promise in leveraging additional technologies, such as social media and artificial intelligence, to identify and monitor foodborne outbreaks. By analyzing social media trends and search engine queries, researchers may be able to detect outbreaks early on, even before clinical cases become apparent.
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