Specific programme: European Food Safety Authority grants (EFSA)
UPV/EHU Partner Status: Beneficiary
UPV/EHU PI: Javier Garaizar
Project start: 15/01/2016
Project end:   15/07/2018

Brief description:  Multinational outbreaks of food-borne pathogens cause considerable threats to European public health. An increased level of cooperation between the local, national and European competent authorities by dedicated training, development of a common pathogen database and validation of new approaches in microbial characterization is warranted. Implementing whole genome sequencing (WGS) in routine surveillance and outbreak investigations is becoming a strategic goal for many public health authorities all over the world. However, small countries with limited resources might not be able to succeed in reaching this goal in the near future, putting several EU member states in a condition of inferior capabilities for outbreak detection and investigation. Therefore, to guarantee the reinforcement of European capacities to ensure protection of citizens against cross border health threats, EU must enable wider access to the new methodologies. The potential of widespread, routine use of WGS analysis for public health protection is essentially restricted by the absence of accessible IT framework, and the limited skills of public health microbiologists in handling these novel methodologies.

By boosting scientific cooperation between scientists and research organizations in the food, veterinary and human health sectors, the overall objective of the project is to deliver a standardized, cross-sectorial framework of the integration of bacterial whole genome sequencing (WGS) in routine surveillance and epidemiological investigation for reducing the disease burden of epidemic and sporadic food-borne zoonotic infections.