The team preparing for a field study!
Walmart, McDonald’s and Other Food Companies Urge Congress to Fund National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria
Although this is meat focused, something similar could be envisioned down the road for vegetables.
From Food Safety Magazine:
Walmart, McDonald’s and Other Food Companies Urge Congress to Fund National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria
Leigh-Anne Krometis and Emily Sarver win inaugural environmental science award
From VT News:
Sarver and Krometis received the award due to the exemplary quality of their research and their research partnership, said John Craynon, Appalachian Research Initiative for Environmental Science project director.
Read the VT News article here.
"Agriculture and Environment" Seminar series
Jill Stewart, Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill will present a talk entitled, “The impact of intensive livestock production on the evolution and dissemination of antibiotic resistant Staphylococcus.” An expert in microbial source tracking, Dr. Stewart is well known for her work in environmental health microbiology. The talk will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 3:00-4:00 pm, in the Fralin Auditorium on the campus of Virginia Tech. Refreshments will be served in the Fralin Atrium at 2:45. For more information about this event, please contact megorust@vt.edu.
Undergraduate Research Symposium
One of our Project Team students, Kendall Fogler, shares about her summer experience in the Virginia Tech Fralin Student Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURF) program, under the tutelage of Dr. Monica Ponder: “The Fralin SURF program that I participated in this summer mirrored graduate school training accompanied by weekly professional-developmental seminars. The final research symposium, held on July 30th, was the pinnacle of the summer. Through sharing my poster, I was able to discuss research on the validation of recovery methods for antibiotic-resistant bacteria with anyone willing to listen. I loved being able to talk about antibiotic resistance and how it is currently affecting humanity. Many listeners had never considered the subject before and immediately became fascinated; others were informed on the topic and were relieved to hear that research was being conducted in order to understand the consequences of overuse of antibiotics. The whole summer was an educational experience of a life time.”
NIFA Food Safety Project Directors Meeting
NIFA holds an annual project directors’ meeting for their grantees each year at the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP). This year Dr. Pruden attended the meeting in Portland OR and networked with other project directors. She presented a poster that provided an overview about this new award and joined in learning about the latest findings from NIFA grants presented in the oral presentations.
Advisory Board Meeting
We had our inaugural Advisory Board meeting in Blacksburg, VA, on July 20, 2015, and it was an incredible privilege for the Core Project Team, students, and post-docs to interact with the Advisory Board members personally. Some of the Advisory Board members delivered morning presentations, which were insightful overviews about how other groups in the US and the world are responding and working to identify the issues surrounding the spread of antibiotic resistance. 
Subsequently, Project Team PIs shared briefly about their respective plans of action for each of the project objectives, in which the Advisory Board provided excellent targeted feedback to our current progress and future plans. Not only did we work hard during our day-long meeting, but we were able to enjoy each other’s company over delicious feasts the previous evening and after the meeting at two of the finest dinner spots in the New River Valley!
Engineers, scientists to examine antibiotic resistance in food chain from farm to fork
From VT News:
Growing evidence suggests that agricultural practices, especially widespread antibiotic use, could be contributing to the increasing antibiotic resistance problem in humans.
In order to learn how to effectively control this spread of antibiotic resistance from livestock manure, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has awarded a $2.25 million grant to a Virginia Tech team of engineers and scientists to examine the food chain from farm to fork.
Read the entire article here.
Environmental Dimension of Antibiotic Resistance (EDAR) Conference
The EDAR Conference is attended by a consortium of scientists from around the world that are interested in better understanding how the environment (e.g., water, soil, wastewater, agriculture) can serve as a source and pathway for the spread of antibiotic resistance. The group was founded by Ed Topp of Agri Food Canada in 2011, with an expert workshop held in Montebello, Canda. Since then, the group has grown substantially, meeting in 2013 in Xiamen, China, and most recently in May 2015 in Wernigerode, Germany. Here, Dr. Pruden delivered an invited lecture on the closing day of the conference, synthesizing some of the key themes from the conference and her own work in order to develop a framework for identifying mitigation strategies for limiting the spread of antibiotic resistance through the environment.