Illinois researchers receive $1 million FDA grant to study antimicrobial resistance in foodborne pathogens

Raw meat and seafood can carry harmful bacteria that cause foodborne illness, posing an ongoing public health risk. These pathogens frequently show resistance to multiple antimicrobials, making them harder to treat. A University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign research team has received a $1 million grant from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to participate in a retail surveillance program that monitors meat products for resistant bacteria.

This project supports the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) by expanding retail food antimicrobial resistance (AMR) surveillance in Illinois.

NARMS is a collaborative program of state and local health departments, the USDA, FDA, and the CDC. The program’s primary purpose is to monitor the spread and dynamics of antimicrobial resistance in the United States.

Retail meat products like beef, chicken, ground turkey, pork, and seafood are major sources of pathogens, including Escherichia coli, Salmonella, Campylobacter, Vibrio, and Aeromonas.

“These pathogens can cause disease, and they can transfer their antimicrobial resistance properties to other pathogens. We risk being surrounded by ‘superbugs’ which are difficult to kill by using traditional, anti-microbial drugs,” said principal investigator Pratik Banerjee, associate professor in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, part of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at U of I.

Gireesh Rajashekara, professor and associate dean in the College of Veterinary Medicine at the U. of I., is co-investigator on the grant.

The researchers will collect poultry, meat, and seafood samples twice monthly from selected retail outlets in Illinois and test them for major foodborne bacteria.

“We’ll conduct serotyping, whole-genome sequencing, and molecular analysis to identify resistance patterns in these samples. Then we will use the data to create a model that can help predict and address AMR and develop strategies to mitigate the risk,” Banerjee said. 

The long-term objective is to strengthen national AMR surveillance and protect public health by identifying emerging risks from resistant foodborne bacteria.

The grant, “Antimicrobial resistance in enteric pathogens from retail meat and seafood: a NARMS Retail Food Surveillance Program in Illinois,” is funded by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, project no. PAR-25-014. 

The College of ACES also acknowledges the ongoing support of Hatch funding from USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture to power its research enterprise.