Metagenome analysis of poultry litter collected from commercial farms in southeast Kansas with a focus on antibiotic resistant and foodborne pathogens
Category
Sciences and Technology
Department
Biology
Student Status
Undergraduate
Research Advisor
Dr. Anuradha Ghosh
Document Type
Event
Location
Student Center Ballroom
Start Date
10-4-2025 2:00 PM
End Date
10-4-2025 4:00 PM
Description
There is growing concern on the use of antibiotics in food animals and poultry. Efforts are in place to bring in a change to the usage of antibiotics in animal husbandry primarily addressing the negative impact on human health besides acknowledging other confounding factors. As per CDC data shows each year in the U.S., Salmonella causes about 1.35 million infections, 26,500 hospitalizations, and 420 deaths while more than 2.8 million antimicrobial-resistant infections occur. The specific aims of this research were to investigate the abundance of antibiotic resistant enterococci as well as to determine the prevalence of pathogenic Salmonella serovers in poultry samples. Poultry litter was collected from 13 different farms around southeast Kansas using the collection kit that contained 5 collection tubes. One gram of each sample was diluted with phosphate-buffered saline and evenly distributed on Neogen Petrifilm Rapid Aerobic Count plate and subsequently based on dilution count plated on mEnterococcus agar. A total of 65 putative enterococcal colonies were streaked on nutrient agar and confirmed at the genus level using esculin hydrolysis. All confirmed isolates will be characterized for antibiotic resistance and virulence profile. A fraction of each litter sample was processed for total DNA extraction using MagBeads FastDNA Kit for feces. DNA concentration was determined using agarose gel electrophoresis and nanodrop. Further experiments will focus on PCR amplification and metagenome sequence analysis. The data obtained from this research will not only address food safety issues but will actively contribute to potential risk mitigation strategies.
Metagenome analysis of poultry litter collected from commercial farms in southeast Kansas with a focus on antibiotic resistant and foodborne pathogens
Student Center Ballroom
There is growing concern on the use of antibiotics in food animals and poultry. Efforts are in place to bring in a change to the usage of antibiotics in animal husbandry primarily addressing the negative impact on human health besides acknowledging other confounding factors. As per CDC data shows each year in the U.S., Salmonella causes about 1.35 million infections, 26,500 hospitalizations, and 420 deaths while more than 2.8 million antimicrobial-resistant infections occur. The specific aims of this research were to investigate the abundance of antibiotic resistant enterococci as well as to determine the prevalence of pathogenic Salmonella serovers in poultry samples. Poultry litter was collected from 13 different farms around southeast Kansas using the collection kit that contained 5 collection tubes. One gram of each sample was diluted with phosphate-buffered saline and evenly distributed on Neogen Petrifilm Rapid Aerobic Count plate and subsequently based on dilution count plated on mEnterococcus agar. A total of 65 putative enterococcal colonies were streaked on nutrient agar and confirmed at the genus level using esculin hydrolysis. All confirmed isolates will be characterized for antibiotic resistance and virulence profile. A fraction of each litter sample was processed for total DNA extraction using MagBeads FastDNA Kit for feces. DNA concentration was determined using agarose gel electrophoresis and nanodrop. Further experiments will focus on PCR amplification and metagenome sequence analysis. The data obtained from this research will not only address food safety issues but will actively contribute to potential risk mitigation strategies.
