NARMS Cooperative Agreement Program to Strengthen Antibiotic Resistance Surveillance in Retail Food Specimens, South Carolina Department of Health

SC DPH-NARMS Project Summary The South Carolina Department of Health (SC-DPH) serves as the state public health laboratory actively working towards improving the quality of life for South Carolinians by protecting and promoting the health of the public. The purpose of this project is to increase surveillance for antibiotic resistance in enteric bacteria from retail meat and seafood samples. The DPH Food Microbiology Laboratory has maintained the capacity to test for foodborne pathogens and food quality indicator organisms for over 45 years. During this cooperative agreement, the Food Microbiology Laboratory continue to build upon the testing capacity established over the previous nine years as an active participant in NARMS. Twenty-three retail meat and seafood samples will be collected each month with at least six days in between collections and analyzed according to established FDA NARMS protocols. Bacteria isolated from retail meat and seafood samples will be characterized where appropriate by serology and/or whole genome sequencing. Results will be up uploaded to the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database within 60 days and shared with the Center for Disease Control (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and DHP Foodborne Epidemiologists and will be used to drive identification of foodborne disease outbreaks. Isolates identified will submitted to FDA-CVM for antibiotic sensitivities. Antibiotic resistance data collected as a result of the surveillance sampling activities will be periodically analyzed and monitored for trends which will be disseminated to state epidemiologists, when appropriate state sentinel hospitals, and shared with the public through DHP’s external website. These activities will strengthen national efforts to monitor antimicrobial resistance among enteric bacteria isolated from retail meats and seafood and provide data to drive public health policy and program development.