A study of Salmonella isolated from retail poultry meat has demonstrated a concerning presence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) genes with the ability to transfer between bacteria.
At the July 15 grand opening event for the new USDA-FSIS Midwestern Food Safety Laboratory in Missouri, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins teased the agency’s new food safety policy plan aimed at reducing foodborne illness.
USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA-FSIS) laboratories now use an improved enrichment method for Campylobacter in poultry meat samples, which reduced enrichment incubation time by half, and shaved a day off of reporting times for results.
Per Trace One’s analysis of FDA National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) data, the U.S. states with the highest levels of Salmonella and Campylobacter contamination in retail meat are Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee.
Local authorities have been managing high volumes of overdue inspections accumulated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite some workforce growth, backlog issues persisted in 2024.
A key component of the project was a field and laboratory study conducted to assess the presence and potential transmission of AMR Campylobacter and Escherichia coli during the processing of chicken in two similar-sized, large-scale UK chicken processing sites.
Rollins said she will exercise USDA’s authority to provide a “much-needed” funding increase of $14.5 million in reimbursements to states for meat and poultry inspection programs.
Consumer purchase records were successfully used for hypothesis generation in the outbreak investigation and provided a critical foundation for traceback activities.
In this bonus episode of Food Safety Matters, we speak to Dr. Savannah Applegate, Senior Consultant at Elanco Poultry Food Safety, about the role of diagnostics and testing in poultry food safety and disease management.