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magazine
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ARS scientists have developed a way to tell
Arcobacter butzleri from look-alike species, and to distinguish specific
strains within those species, information that can help when tracking the
source of foodborne-illness outbreaks. Click the image for more information
about it.
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Arcobacter: Foodborne Pathogen's Genome
Exposed
By Marcia Wood
April 24, 2009 If a little-known microbe called
Arcobacter butzleri has contaminated the water you drink or the food you
eat, this troublesome pathogen could make you sick. Symptoms include diarrhea,
stomach cramps, nausea, vomiting and fever, all of which can become chronic if
left untreated.
But investigations by Agricultural
Research Service (ARS) microbiologist
William
G. Miller and colleagues may speed discovery of innovative ways to control
this microbe.
In 2007, Miller and co-researchers deciphered the sequence of the pathogen's
genetic material, or genome. This work was a scientific "first" for
any of the world's Arcobacters. Based at the ARS
Western
Regional Research Center in Albany, Calif., Miller did the research with
co-investigators there and with others in the United States and abroad.
Since then, Miller has employed the genomic data in developing what's known
as a "typing method" to differentiate A. butzleri from
look-alike species, and to distinguish specific strains within those species.
Medical professionals, public health agencies and researchers can use it when
they're tracking the source of foodborne-illness outbreaks. In the past, for
example, A. butzleri has been implicated as a cause of such outbreaks in
Europe and Southeast Asia.
Read
more about this research in the April 2009 issue of Agricultural
Research magazine.
ARS is the principal intramural scientific research agency of the
U.S. Department of Agriculture.
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