Ecological Factors that Enable Colonization, Retention, and Dispersal of Foodborne Pathogens and Intervention Strategies to Control the Pathogens and Antimicrobial Resistance in Cattle and Swine

Objective 1: Determine factors affecting colonization, maintenance, and dissemination of foodborne pathogens and antimicrobial resistant bacteria in the bovine and swine gastrointestinal tract, lymphatic system and their production and processing environments. Sub-objective 1.A: Identify and characterize factors affecting the infection, colonization, carriage and dissemination of foodborne pathogens and antimicrobial resistant bacteria within the production environment and the resident and transient populations of arthropods in farm and processing environments. Sub-objective 1.B: Identify and characterize factors affecting colonization and maintenance of Salmonella in the swine proximal alimentary, distal gastrointestinal tract, and associated lymphatics system. Sub-objective 1.C: Evaluate factors influencing intestinal mucosal integrity of the distal intestinal tract of feedlot cattle and correlation to Salmonella carriage in peripheral lymph nodes. Objective 2: Identify, develop, and test interventions, including possible synergies of multiple interventions and GRAS (generally regarded as safe) alternatives, to yield effective technologies to control foodborne pathogens or mitigate their virulence and resistance. Sub-objective 2.A: Determine best-user practices to achieve effective pathogen control for commercially relevant organic acid mixtures and biocides under the varied applications protocols currently used by industry. Sub-objective 2.B: Overcome the lipophilic limitations of essential oils by chitosan-encapsulation, use of natural or synthetic higher molecular weight carbohydrate-glycosidic conjugates or co-administration with appropriate emulsifiers. Sub-objective 2.C: Characterize effects of short chain nitrocompounds on hydrogen ecology, redox homeostasis, pathogen competitiveness and gene expression by zoonotic pathogens and resolve uncertainties pertaining to their safe use in animal agriculture.