Salmonella, Tomatoes and the Delmarva Peninsula

Joint Conference on 6^th Annual Conference on Microbiology & Annual Conference on Microbes and Beneficial Microbes

October 16-17, 2017 Baltimore, USA

Rebecca Bell

Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, USA

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Med Microb Diagn

Abstract :

Recurrent outbreaks of Salmonella enterica serovar Newport have been linked to produce, mainly tomatoes, grown on the Delmarva Peninsula. Environmental surveys have discovered multiple serovars present in this environment yet only large outbreaks of S. Newport have been reported. Understanding the ecology of S. Newport in this environment, and it�s interaction with plants is crucial to implementing better good agricultural practices to prevent the pre-harvest contamination of fresh produce. Traditional culture based microbiology, molecular biology and functional genomics intersect to aid in tackling this fundamental food safety issue.

Biography :

Dr. Rebecca Bell is a Research Microbiologist in the Molecular Methods and Subtyping Branch within the Division of Microbiology at the Food and Drug Administration Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. Dr. Bell received her Ph.D. in microbiology from The Ohio State University in 2005. Afterwards, she joined CFSAN in 2006 as a postdoctoral fellow in the Division of Analytical Chemistry where she worked on bacterial protein profiling using liquid chromatography/ mass spectrometry. In 2008, Dr. Bell moved to MMSB. She is currently a lead microbiologist with the Human Pathogens on Plants (HPOP) research group focusing on the ecological surveillance for Salmonella in agricultural areas of the United States, understanding Salmonella fitness in the pre-harvest environment and developing strategies to prevent or mitigate contamination of fresh produce. Dr. Bell serves as a subject matter expert on Salmonella biology and environmental ecology for CFSAN.