Foodborne Enteric Pathogen Testing
Mission
To assist with national and state surveillance, and subsequent epidemiological investigations, of diarrheal infectious diseases linked to food by providing an array of molecular and conventional detection and characterization methods for enteric pathogens isolated from food and/or patient specimens. These enteric pathogens include Salmonella spp., Campylobacter spp., Shigella spp., toxigenic Escherichia coli (e.g. O157:H7), Listeria monocytogenes, Vibrio spp., Yersinia spp., and norovirus, among other food-borne illnesses.
What we do
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Test clinical specimens and microbiological isolates routinely submitted by hospital and commercial laboratories, health centers, the Rhode Island State Medical Examiner, and medical practitioners throughout the state for the presence of infectious diarrhea-causing pathogens of public health significance.
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Characterize detected enteric pathogens and help to define and track outbreaks by a variety of methods including serotyping and serogrouping, as well as genotyping by molecular "DNA fingerprinting" methods, such as Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS), to support state and national epidemiological investigations.
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Participate in Centers for Disease Control (CDC) programs such as PulseNet and the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System for Enteric Bacteria (NARMS) for the national and international epidemiologic tracking of foodborne pathogens and illnesses and to provide continuous monitoring of antimicrobial resistance in enteric bacterial isolates.
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Share test results with the RIDOH Center for Acute Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology (CAIDE)to assist them with surveillance for the presence and spread of enteric pathogens with outbreak potential in Rhode Island.
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Support foodborne illness surveillance initiatives of the RIDOH Center for Food Protection and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Food Emergency Response Network (FERN) by providing accurate and prompt food testing capabilities following the ISO/IEC 17025 quality standard for the Food Testing Laboratories.
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Enable the prompt investigation of problems identified in the food supply including, but not limited to, the removal of enteric pathogen-contaminated products from the market.
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Maintain readiness to provide increased sample analyses in the event of food outbreaks or other large-scale food emergency events requiring surge capacity testing of implicated food samples.
Accomplishments
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Performed Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) as part of a CDC capacity-building initiative amongst the network of U.S. state Public Health Laboratories. The Rhode Island State Health Laboratory (RISHL) currently sequences all Salmonella enterica, toxigenic E. coli, and Listeria monocytogenes isolates from food and clinical specimens.
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Participated in food surveillance activities to protect public health, such as targeted food surveillance activities, as well as surveillance testing of grocery store produce and prepared foods.
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Participated in epidemiological investigations, such as ruling-in or ruling-out potential Norovirus outbreaks in nursing homes.
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Isolated multi drug-resistant Salmonella from pig ear dog treats that was linked to a national outbreak involving several Salmonella serotypes.
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Provided support to help ensure a rapid response by the Rhode Island State Health laboratories during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020/2021.
Rhode Island Department of Health