Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #121510

Moshe S. Dreyfuss, MS¹, Xin Deng, BS¹, Nisha Oatman, BS¹, and Katherine S. Hogye, MS². (1) Microbiological Issues Branch, Microbiology Division, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Service, 901 D Street, SW, Room 344 Aerospace Center, Washington, DC 20024, 202-690-6379, moshe.dreyfuss@fsis.usda.gov, (2) Office of Management, Office of Chief Information Officer, Data Management Systems Division, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Service, 1400 Independence Ave., SW, Washington, DC 20250

The USDA FSIS tests regularly for the foodborne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes (Lm) in ready-to-eat meat and poultry products to verify the effectiveness of HACCP systems. Lm is known as a soil and water based organism which suggests that there are many ways for Lm to contaminate a processing plant. These plants were grouped into 16 main geographical areas based on geographical and seasonal (geo-seasonal) characteristics and subdivided into groups based on number of employees.

Analysis of 13,167 Lm samples from 2482 plants during CY 2002 and 2003 resulted in 163 positive samples. Plants in the Mid-Atlantic, Great Lakes, and California geo-seasonal regions showed the highest percent Lm positives per region. ARC-GIS mapping showed these positives are concentrated around New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Overall, 37.4% of all positives are within 5 miles of a body of water while only 32.3% of plants with only negative Lm tests are similarly located. Plants with positive test results tended to be in more urbanized areas. Geo-seasonal regions analysis showed positive results occurred in different months of the year. No pattern from the number of employees per plants by month could be determined. Analysis of plant size and region showed that the majority of positives come from small and very small plants. Plant demographic characteristics provide a potentially new way to view plants most likely to test positive for Lm which can provide for better monitoring and surveillance of this pathogen.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will be able to evaluate results based on a geographical-seasonal distribution of meat and poultry ready-to-eat product production plants. Utilizing weather and geographical locations to create new geo-seasonal regions, the data presented will describe external environmental effects on the incidence of Listeria monocytogenes in the plants.
• Participants will be able to apply characteristics learned to patterns of foodborne outbreaks and potential risk for Listeria monocytogenes harborage and contamination. These characteristics include proximity to water, month, size of plant, and surrounding population and topography.
• Participants wil be able to articulate a better demographic of food processing plants and describe characteristics identified for monitoring and surveillance of Listeria monocytogenes in meat and poultry production plants.

Keywords: Pathogens, Food Safety

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.