Sunday, July 26, 2015: 3:00 PM
Oregon Ballroom 201 (Oregon Convention Center)
The successful identification and investigation of foodborne infectious illness depends upon microbiological and epidemiological tools being used in concert to identify the pathogen, define and quantify the number of cases, detect the source of infection and determine the route of transmission. This enables effective control measures to be implemented and preventative action to be taken to prevent future outbreaks. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) of bacterial pathogens offers unprecedented resolution for determining the genetic relatedness of strains and has proven to be a powerful tool for epidemiological investigations and microbial population studies. By applying WGS to foodborne bacterial pathogens we have provided stronger evidence for linking isolates from human illness, food and environmental samples; identified clusters and outbreaks that were previously unidentified by conventional typing and surveillance tools; refined case definitions in outbreaks and thus honed epidemiological investigations. Additionally the phylogenetic context has provided insight into source attribution allowing contamination to be traced further along the food chain. This presentation will demonstrate how WGS of bacterial foodborne pathogens enhancing the way Public Health England detects and investigates outbreaks of gastrointestinal bacterial disease.