Antibiotic Resistance Surveillance in Retail Meat Samples From South Dakota and North Dakota

The objective of the FDA-NARMS cooperative agreement program (CAP) is to build a network of30 laboratories distributed throughout the United States to determine the prevalence ofantimicrobial resistance among animal enteric bacteria (Salmonella, Campylobacter, E. coli andenterococci) isolated from samples of chicken, ground turkey, ground beef and pork chopspurchased from grocery stores. Our proposed portion of this CAP grant would be to determinethe prevalence of antibiotic resistance among these microbes isolated from retail meat samplesfrom South Dakota and North Dakota stores. Eighty retail meat samples will be purchased eachmonth for five years from five sites in South Dakota and North Dakota. The samples will beobtained by the South Dakota Animal Industry Board Meat Inspection service in South Dakotaand North Dakota Meat and Poultry Inspection Program in North Dakota. These retail meatsamples will be sent to the Food Safety Microbiology (FSM) Laboratory in the Animal DiseaseResearch and Diagnostic Laboratory at South Dakota State University. All samples will be testedfor the presence of Salmonella, Campylobacter, E. coli and Enterococci using established foodsafety analysis protocols. The microbes isolated from these food samples will be shipped toFDA-CVM for analysis of antibiotic resistance profiles. These results will be communicated backto the FSM lab for dissemination to the South Dakota Department of Health, North DakotaDepartment of Health, South Dakota Animal Industry Board, North Dakota Board of AnimalHealth, Cooperative Extension Services, Consumers, and Producers.