title: Practical Value of Food Pathogen Traceability through Building a Whole-Genome Sequencing Network and Database.
abstract: The FDA has created a United States-based open-source whole-genome sequencing network of state, federal, international, and commercial partners. The GenomeTrakr network represents a first-of-its-kind distributed genomic food shield for characterizing and tracing foodborne outbreak pathogens back to their sources. The GenomeTrakr network is leading investigations of outbreaks of foodborne illnesses and compliance actions with more accurate and rapid recalls of contaminated foods as well as more effective monitoring of preventive controls for food manufacturing environments. An expanded network would serve to provide an international rapid surveillance system for pathogen traceback, which is critical to support an effective public health response to bacterial outbreaks.
authors.affiliation: Food and Drug Administration, College Park, Maryland, USA marc.allard@fda.hhs.gov.
authors.forename: Marc W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Allard
authors.affiliation: Food and Drug Administration, College Park, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Errol
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Strain
authors.affiliation: Food and Drug Administration, College Park, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Melka
authors.affiliation: Food and Drug Administration, College Park, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Kelly
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bunning
authors.affiliation: Food and Drug Administration, College Park, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Steven M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Musser
authors.affiliation: Food and Drug Administration, College Park, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Eric W
authors.initials: EW
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.affiliation: Food and Drug Administration, College Park, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Ruth
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Timme
mesh_terms: D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D005516:Food Microbiology / Q000379:methods*; D059022:Food Safety / Q000379:methods*; D005517:Foodborne Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D023281:Genomics / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology