**-  North Atlantic  
-  Eastern Regional Rsch. Ctr. 
-  Microbial Biophysics and Residue Chemistry Research 
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**Location: Microbial Biophysics and Residue Chemistry Research**
**2008 Annual Report**
**1a.Objectives (from AD-416)**													To develop and implement new technologies and systems to detect and prevent chemical and microbial contaminants in foods.						
**1b.Approach  (from AD-416)**													Continue a cooperative agreement with the Food Safety Engineering Center, Purdue University, Indiana.  Details of research and development are indentified in the agreement (1935-42000-061-02G).						
**3.Progress Report**													During this reporting period a Project Plan was reviewed and certified by the Office of Scientific Quality Review. This project replaces 1935-42000-049-00D.Relation to the components with the National Program Action Plan: The research described addresses two components of the USDA-ARS National Program 2006-2010 Action Plan - 108 Food Safety, specifically Problem Statements 1.2.1: Detection and Validation, and 1.2.9: Food Security under Component 1.2 Pathogens, Toxins and Chemical Contaminants - Postharvest as well as the 2006-2011 ARS Strategic Plan Performance Measure 4.1.1 "Develop new technologies that assist USDA-ARS customers in detecting, identifying, and controlling foodborne diseases that assist USDA-ARS customers in detecting, identifying, and controlling foodborne diseases that affect human health." 
This project is aimed at developing faster biosensor-based methods for the detection of bacterial pathogens and chemical toxins in food. Significant progress has been made in a number of areas related to microbial detection. A microbial media, called SEL broth, was optimized for recovery of 3 targeted pathogens in food: Salmonella, E. coli and L. monocytogenes.   This broth was formulated for simultaneous enrichment of three target pathogens when present in mixtures at various proportions and within a contaminated food system with other microflora present.  A sandwich immunofluorescent assay, in a microarray format, was developed and is being used for rapid and accurate detection of L. monocytogenes, E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella. An antibody-coupled fiber optic biosensor was developed for detection of L. monocytogenes, E. coli and Salmonella.  A light scattering technique, or BARDOT, has had the greatest advancement this year.  This system is being used to detect L. monocytogenes, E. coli, Salmonella and Vibrio in a wide variety of food matrices (ground beef, pre-cooked shredded beef, hotdog, ground turkey, chicken, frozen spinach, fresh spinach, tomato, seafood). For most targeted organisms, the successful identification exceeds 95%. We are hopeful that this system, that uses traditional plating agar in conjunction with a laser light system, will be available for industry and regulatory use within the next year. We are also using technologies that include Raman spectroscopy and a library has been created for 28 different bacterial pathogens including recent food outbreak strains. Considerable progress has also been made for detection of toxin producing molds. A procedure was developed and optimized for detection of Fusarium graminearum and Fusarium verticillioides using real-time quantitative PCR.  Finally, our multi-disciplinary group has continued to develop better procedures for an L. monocytogenes biochip. Considerable progress has been made to improve cell concentration/recovery and PCR-based technologies have been incorporated into the chip making detection more accurate and more rapid.

**4.Accomplishments**									1.																									Optical forward scattering for bacterial colony differentiation and identification: Rapid methods for the detection of harmful bacteria (pathogens) in food are necessary to prevent the distribution of contaminated foods, thus protecting consumers from bacterial food poisoning.  A semi-automated Bacteria Rapid Detection using Optical scattering Technology, or BARDOT system, was developed to identify bacteria from colonies on a plate, without the need for expensive and time consuming biochemical or microbiological tests.  The simple system involves shining a red laser light through a bacterial colony and collecting the image generated using a digital camera.  The BARDOT system was validated for the identification of the pathogens L. monocytogenes, E. coli, Salmonella and Vibrio isolated from food and for L. monocytogenes isolated from clinical samples.  After growth of the pathogens from the food in specialized liquid culture media and plating on a solid media, the actual BARDOT analysis took only 5-10 minutes to identify all of the bacterial colonies on the plate.  This simple and rapid method for bacterial identification will be useful to the food industry and regulatory agencies, and three BARDOT systems are being built for collaborative evaluation by an academic, a government, and a food testing reference lab. (This project is aligned to National Program 108, Food Safety, Action Plan Component 1.2.1 Pathogen, Toxins and Chemical Contaminants Post Harvest: Detection and Validation)
**5.Significant Activities that Support Special Target Populations**													None.						
**6.Technology Transfer**Number of Other Technology Transfer2    Project TeamTu, Shu-I  
Project Annual Reports FY 2009 FY 2008 
Related National Programs Food Safety, (animal and plant products)(108) Related Projects  Improved Detection Techniques for Foodborne Pathogens  							Last Modified: 03/24/2010 		ARS Home |USDA.gov |Site Map |Policies and Links FOIA |Accessibility Statement |Privacy Policy |Nondiscrimination Statement |Information Quality |USA.gov |White House

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