Listeria is everywhere.
L. monocytogenes causes death in as many as 20 percent of people who contract listeriosis. It also poses serious health risks to agricultural animals. While scientists understand the microbiology of the bacterium, how it is transmitted through food, animals, water and soil is not well understood. All the while we will be trying to understand the basic biology that forms the base for those associations. Wiedmann will be joined in the study by Ynte Schukken, Cornell associate professor of veterinary medicine, and Yrjo Grohn, Cornell professor of veterinary medicine, both of the university's College of Veterinary Medicine.