USDA Multi-Agency Project: Collaboration in Animal Health, Food Safety & Epidemiology (CAHFSE)

possible risk for determination of control Summary: Despite producer interventions, on-going research and continued surveillance, food borne outbreaks continue and multiple antimicrobial resistant bacteria have emerged. A multi-agency APublic Health Action Plan to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance@ was developed to address these concerns and one USDA response was the development of the Collaboration in Animal Health, Food Safety and Epidemiology (CAHFSE), a partnership among the Agriculture Research Service (ARS), Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), and Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS. The objective of CAHFSE is to implement and expand a surveillance system patterned after the APHIS National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS) which focuses on animal health and food safety. Swine is the first commodity in CAHFSE. To date, fecal samples from 8 farms have been collected and processed for culture of Salmonella, Campylobacter, Enterococci and E. coli. Preliminary results indicate that all four bacteria have been recovered from a number of operations and are currently being characterized. from pigs at least 22 wks old for culture, isolation, and characterization of Salmonella, Campylobacter, Enterococci, and E. coli. All Salmonella, Enterococcusand E. coli isolates are tested for susceptibility to antimicrobials using a semiautomated broth microdilution system (Sensititreì, Trek Diagnostics, Westlake, OH) and Campylobacterare tested using the E-Test (AB Biodisk, Piscataway, NJ). The antimicrobials used in evaluating the respective bacterial species are as described for the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS). Selected isolates will be characterized by molecular techniques to determine relatedness. Sample collection at slaughter (carcass swabs, lymph nodes, and ground product) will be implemented in 2004. Plant samples will be cultured and characterized similarly to on-farm isolates. Slaughter findings will be linked with on-farm and in-plant questionnaire and laboratory data to determine risk factors. Results: To date, fecal samples from 8 farms have been collected and processed for culture of Salmonella, Campylobacter, Enterococci and E. coli.Preliminary results indicate that all four bacteria have been recovered from a number of operations and are currently being characterized. indicated antimicrobials were fed to grower/finisher on 88.5% of swine farms, which represent 95.9% of grower/finisher USA. Summary: Mesenteric lymph nodes were collected from pigs from 115 Midwest U.S. swine herds at slaughter on two occasions separated by 6-9 months. These herds were sampled up to three additional times during a three-year period, with 30 herds sampled five times. Thirty pigs were sampled at each collection. Herds were categorized positive if one or more samples revealed Salmonella spp. While culture status at collection one was associated with the second sampling collection (p < 0.01), the association was only moderate in strength (OR = 2.6). Herds with three consecutive positive tests (9 of 38) were all positive on sample four. Prevalence estimates were weakly or not correlated between samplings. In conclusion, Salmonella culture status of these swine herds was weakly predictive of future culture results. Accurate description of Salmonellastatus based on bacterial culture appears to require repeated or ongoing testing.