The National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) team in FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine launched an interactive research tool called Resistome Tracker, one of the first publicly available tools to provide visually informative displays of antibiotic resistance genes in bacteria. Resistome Tracker’s interactive interface allows users to customize visualizations by antibiotic drug class, compare resistance genes across different sources, identify new resistance genes, and map selected resistance genes to geographic region. This allows the determination of antibiotic resistance in foodborne bacteria just by examining the DNA.

The FDA Foods Whole Genome Sequencing Staff is coordinating efforts by public health officials to sequence pathogens collected from foodborne outbreaks, contaminated food products and environmental sources. The genome sequences are archived in an open-access genomic reference database called GenomeTrakr, that can be used: to find the contamination sources of current and future outbreaks; to better understand the environmental conditions associated with the contamination of agricultural products; and to help develop new rapid methods and culture independent tests.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is responsible for ensuring the safety of all domestic and imported fresh produce consumed in the United States. Outbreaks of illness due to food-borne pathogens associated with fresh produce have increased in the past decade. Despite some high-profile outbreaks, there has been no systematic means by which to compare the different agent-commodity combinations to determine which present the most significant risks and prioritize them as candidates for interventions that might help prevent contamination or inactivate contaminants when they are present in food.