Speaker: Dr Kathie Grant, Head of Public Health England’s Gastrointestinal Bacteria Reference Unit will present a seminar: Identifying the Source of Foodborne Outbreaks: Whole genome sequencing, the new sleuth on the block

Host: Mike Peck

Foodborne infectious outbreaks are a major public health and food safety concern. Their successful detection and investigation depends upon microbiological and epidemiological tools being used in concert with food trace back studies to define and quantify the number of cases, identify the pathogen, detect the source of infection and determine the route of transmission. This enables effective control measures to be implemented and action to be taken to stop further cases and prevent outbreaks in the future.  Tracking food back to its source is often complicated; many foods go through multiple processing and distribution steps and more than one country may be involved.  Once the food source has been established, the point at which and exactly how contamination occurred needs to be determined to enable effective public health measures to be implemented.

Whole genome sequencing (WGS) offers unprecedented resolution for determining the genetic relatedness of bacterial strains and has proven to be a transformational tool for investigating foodborne infectious illness. The application of WGS to foodborne bacterial pathogens is able to provide strong microbiological evidence to identify clusters and outbreaks previously unidentified by conventional typing and surveillance tools; to link isolates from human illness with those from food and environmental samples; to refine case definitions in outbreaks and thus hone epidemiological investigations. In addition the phylogenetic context derived from WGS can provide enhanced source attribution and evidence for the initial point of contamination in the food chain. This presentation will demonstrate how WGS of bacterial foodborne pathogens is transforming the investigation of foodborne bacterial disease leading to improved public health outcomes.

Background:

Dr Kathie Grant is Head of Public Health England’s Gastrointestinal Bacteria Reference Unit with responsibility for delivering national microbiological references services for bacterial foodborne pathogens. She has over 30 years’ scientific experience in clinical and public health microbiology within academia, the National Health Service, Public Health England and its predecessor organisations. During the past 15 years she has championed the development and implementation of molecular identification and typing methods, most recently spearheading the implementation of whole genome sequencing such that PHE is the first reference laboratory internationally to use whole genome sequencing routinely for national surveillance and outbreak investigation for Salmonella, Campylobacter, E. coli STEC and Listeria monocytogenes.

All staff from organisations on the Norwich Research Park are welcome to attend.