Penn State University (PSU) scientists have received a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to assess the level of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) among foodborne bacteria in Puerto Rico's dairy industry and to train farmers and students on AMR mitigation.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has identified a reoccurring, emerging, and persistent (REP) strain of Escherichia coli O157:H7—REPEXH02—that has been implicated in significant foodborne illness outbreaks linked to leafy greens from 2016–2019.

The prevalence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in Escherichia coli found on retail beef and pork meat samples in the UK is relatively low, according to surveillance conducted by the UK Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA).

The National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) recently published its 2020 Integrated Summary, which includes data providing phenotypic and genomic antimicrobial resistance (AMR) trends for Salmonella, Campylobacter, generic Escherichia coli, and Enterococcus isolated from retail meat and food-producing animals.

Research on plant defense responses against pathogens, specifically E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella Typhimurium, holds insights to preventing foodborne illnesses and improving food safety practices.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) recently highlighted a new rapid tool called GeneSeekR that can confirm if Escherichia coli detected in food samples can cause illness in humans.

A recent study, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA’s NIFA), has estimated the economic burden of foodborne illnesses linked to flour and flour-based food products in the U.S. from 2001–2021 to be as high as $258 million. Salmonella and Escherichia coli were implicated pathogens.

A new study from George Washington University suggests that Escherichia coli infection from meat products may be responsible for hundreds of thousands of urinary tract infections (UTIs) in the U.S. each year.

Researchers from Livsmedelsverket, known as the Swedish Food Agency in English, have developed a new approach for ranking and classifying strains of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) based on potential public health burden.

Further underlining the pertinence of mitigating the growing global public health threat posed by antimicrobial resistance (AMR), recent research revealed 40 percent of Spanish supermarket meat samples to be contaminated with multidrug-resistant Escherichia coli.