Most diagnoses of foodborne infections are currently done by culturing specimens from patients. However, methods that do not require isolation of an organism by culture are increasingly being implemented by clinical laboratories for some pathogens, e.g., enzyme immune assays (EIAs) for Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) and Campylobacter. Molecular methods that simultaneously detect the presence of the most common bacterial, viral and parasitic diarrheal pathogens without culture have been developed and the first are being considered by FDA for licensing and will be available commercially shortly. Since all public health laboratory surveillance systems including PulseNet and NARMS use data from the characterization of cultured isolates, the introduction of culture independent diagnostic methods in clinical practice will drastically change our ability to detect, investigate and control outbreaks, follow trends to document the effect of public health interventions to prevent foodborne infections and antimicrobial resistance of foodborne pathogens. This symposium will present the problem and discuss the implications of this new technology to the food regulatory agencies and the food industry. The symposium will also address possible solutions to the problems including opportunities to strengthen the surveillance system and food safety in general.

Presentations