Escherichia coli

Complex transmission networks enable microbes and their genetic content to move between people, animals, food, soil, water and wildlife, resulting in diverse and impactful threats to human and animal health, environmental wellbeing and economic productivity. This fact is central to “One Health” frameworks for the study and management of infectious disease and associated phenomena like antimicrobial resistance.

Escherichia coli is an exemplar organism to study through such a framework as it is identified in all such settings and is also a major human and animal pathogen. One Health microbial genomic surveillance is increasingly adopted as a central theme in national and international public health agencies’ strategies for infectious disease and antimicrobial resistance management. Accordingly, we have assembled a team of experts spanning human health, veterinary medicine, food-safety, water quality and wildlife monitoring to work toward a national, One Health Escherichia coli genomic surveillance network to provide insights which can inform interventions that improve human, animal and environmental health.

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Project Aims

1. Perform a retrospective analysis of available Escherichia coli sequences in current collections and in public repositories

2. Establish a framework for prospective analysis  

3. Perform a pilot prospective study for One Health Escherichia coli surveillance

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