Project Summary/Abstract Detection and surveillance of antimicrobial resistance among enteric bacteria from raw retail meat and seafood in Iowa: A NARMS Retail Food Surveillance Project Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a major health threat affecting the well-being of humans, animals, and the environment worldwide. Robust and comprehensive surveillance systems emphasizing the “One Health” approach are necessary for effectively combatting AMR. In the United States, the retail arm of the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) under the Food and Drug Administration, Center for Veterinary Medicine (FDA- CVM) performs surveillance of AMR in select enteric bacteria (non-typhoidal Salmonella, Campylobacter, Enterococcus and Escherichia coli) from retail raw meats (chicken, ground turkey and beef, and ground/chop pork) in 18 states. Recently, surveillance of AMR in retail seafood (tilapia, shrimp, salmon) for select bacteria (Vibrio, Aeromonas, E. coli, Enterococcus, carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaciae) has also been started in at least 8 states. The NARMS program has contributed significantly to monitoring the sources and trends of AMR in the food chain. To enhance the effort on combating AMR, FDA launched a cooperative agreement program to expand the NARMS surveillance network throughout the U.S in 2016. Under the initiative, Iowa State University (ISU) became a NARMS network laboratory in late 2016. Since then, the ISU site has contributed substantially to strengthening the capacity and effectiveness of the national AMR surveillance program in retail food. In this application, we propose to continue the collaborative partnership with NARMS to address the updated goals of the Retail Food Surveillance Program as described in FOA PAR-20-124 “NARMS Cooperative Agreement Program to Strengthen Antibiotic Resistance Surveillance in Retail Food Specimens”. Specifically, we will continue to collect and process raw meat samples and seafood samples from grocery stores in Iowa and culture them for isolation of bacteria of interest as defined by NARMS, and ship the isolates to FDA on a monthly basis. In addition, we will continue to perform whole-genome sequencing of Salmonella, Campylobacter and E. coli isolates from the meat samples and share the sequences with FDA via GenomeTrakr. This application is built on existing experience and is a natural extension of our current effort with NARMS. Trained personnel and logistic infrastructure required for successful completion of the planned work are already in place. We strongly believe that ISU’s continued participation in this collaborative network will contribute significantly to mitigation of AMR in the food chain and ultimately to enhancement of food safety and public health.

Project Narrative Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a significant public health concern. The National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) conducts national surveillance of AMR in retail raw meat and seafood and provides critical information for mitigating AMR. By continuing our partnership with the NARMS as a network laboratory, our work will enhance NARMS effort in the surveillance of AMR in retail meat/seafood, and thus will contribute to mitigation of AMR in the food chain and consequently to enhancement of food safety and public health.