URBANA, Ill. (Chambana Today) — As concerns grow over drug-resistant “superbugs” in the food system, a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign research team has received a $1 million grant from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to expand surveillance of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria in retail meat and seafood across Illinois.

The project strengthens the state’s participation in the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS), a nationwide collaboration among state and local health departments, the USDA, FDA, and CDC. NARMS tracks patterns and trends in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) to help safeguard public health.

Raw meat and seafood — including beef, chicken, turkey, pork, and fish — can contain pathogens such as Escherichia coli, Salmonella, Campylobacter, Vibrio, and Aeromonas. Many of these organisms show resistance to multiple antimicrobials, making infections harder to treat.

“These pathogens can cause disease, and they can transfer their antimicrobial resistance properties to other pathogens. We risk being surrounded by ‘superbugs’ which are difficult to kill by using traditional, anti-microbial drugs,” said principal investigator Pratik Banerjee, associate professor in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, part of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at U of I.

Gireesh Rajashekara, professor and associate dean in the College of Veterinary Medicine at the U. of I., is co-investigator on the grant.

Under the project, the research team will collect poultry, meat, and seafood samples twice a month from selected retail outlets around the state and test them for major foodborne bacteria.

“We’ll conduct serotyping, whole-genome sequencing, and molecular analysis to identify resistance patterns in these samples. Then we will use the data to create a model that can help predict and address AMR and develop strategies to mitigate the risk,” Banerjee said.

The long-term objective of the work is to strengthen national AMR surveillance and protect public health by identifying emerging risks from resistant foodborne bacteria.

The grant, “Antimicrobial resistance in enteric pathogens from retail meat and seafood: a NARMS Retail Food Surveillance Program in Illinois,” is funded by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, project no. PAR-25-014. The College of ACES also acknowledges Hatch funding from USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture for supporting its research efforts.