Grant: Operating Grant - Priority Announcement: Infection and Immunity (Bridge Funding)

There is strong new evidence in Canada that a link exists between the E. coli recovered from retail meat, specifically chicken, and the E. coli that cause urinary tract infections (UTIs) in healthy women. This proposal seeks to demonstrate whether chicken meat may be a source for the E. coli that cause infections in people. Our hypothesis examines whether there are genetically indistinguishable or closely related E. coli found in retail chicken, but not beef or pork, that cause UTIs in humans. The study has two research aims. First, the project will compare the DNA fingerprints (or genotypes) of E. coli collected by the Public Health Agency of Canada, which monitors antimicrobial resistance in bacteria from meat obtained from grocery and other retail stores, to E. coli recovered from cases of community-acquired UTIs in four sites across Canada (2011 - 2013). Second, the study will determine whether food animals (chicken, cows and pigs) themselves are infected with E. coli that cause infections in humans at the time they are slaughtered. There are significant public health implications to this research. E. coli that cause diseases other than diarrhea may be transferred via food. The use of antibiotics during food animal production (e.g., for growth promotion) may contribute to the development and selection of drug-resistant E. coli in food animals, these drug-resistant E. coli can then be transmitted from retail meat to humans, where they can cause difficult to treat infections.