Salmonella is a tremendously diverse species that can be separated into over 2,500 serotypes, or serovars, based on cell surface antigens. Different serovars can exhibit differences in host restriction, pathogenesis, ecological niches, and antibiotic resistance. Dr. Nikki Shariat will describe the use of CRISPR-SeroSeq, an amplicon-based population analysis tool to examine Salmonella populations in a variety of different environments. This work will help examine the diversity of serovars present at different production stages and determine which serovars are still found post processing and, ultimately, the extents of the antibiotic resistome as it pertains to different serovars that are found in poultry.
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN:
- Why Salmonella is so difficult to isolate
- What practical applications CRISPR technology will have
- How biosecurity programs could change based on Salmonella heat-mapping
Note: This webinar is Part II of the Five-Part Dr. Clifford’s webinar series on feed as a fomite for pathogens where animal feed manufacturers, poultry and swine nutritionists, and biosecurity and safety professionals will learn about new research and proven innovative mitigation strategies to prevent pathogen transmission in the earliest stages of the food supply chain.
This webinar is proudly sponsored by Anitox and presented by Feed Strategy, WATTAgNet and WATT Global Media.
Speaker Info:
Dr. Nikki Shariat, Assistant Professor, Department of Population Health, at University of Georgia
Dr. Nikki Shariat completed her Ph.D. in Biological Sciences at Vanderbilt University in 2008. After a postdoc at the University of California, San Francisco, she joined the Food Science Department at Penn State University as a postdoctoral fellow, where she became an expert on molecular approaches for subtyping Salmonella. In 2015, she started her own research group at Gettysburg College that was focused on studying Salmonella serovar diversity and ecology in varied environments by employing novel CRISPR-based detection technologies. In 2019, she joined the faculty in the Poultry Diagnostic and Research Center in the Department of Population Health in the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Georgia where she continues to examine Salmonella serovar populations in food animals, with an emphasis on poultry, using high-throughput next generation sequencing technologies. Dr. Shariat has published multiple scientific papers addressing methodologies for molecular typing of Salmonella.