Wagner: Ecology of Food-borne pathogens
This PostDoc program should intensify research on the ecology of zoonotic microorganisms that are capable of jeopardizing consumer health by food chain contaminations. Most of the recent research has been directed towards increasing the understanding on how pathogens survive within certain food chain elements. Most species causing food-borne infections, however, share lifecycles that include survival in non-food related niches, such as the gut of mammalians or even environmental niches. Abiotic sources could easily transmit a contamination into animal housings or food processing environments. So it was recently shown that dust is an important carrier of Campylobacter in poultry environments that could be used also for analytical purposes (Olson et al., 2009). Moreover some of the most relevant species such as L. monocytogenes are ubiquitously spread throughout nature so that introduction from eco-environments into food chains is the primary way of transmission.
We would like to study the impact of dust/soil contamination on the transmission of L. monocytogenes from natural and artificial environments, (ii) complete ongoing prevalence studies on pathogens shed by wild rodents with a study investigating the phylo- and virulotypes in the isolated strains and test our hypothesis that biotic carriers play the salient role in pathogen transmission by feeding and shedding experiments in possible animal carriers (mice, cockroaches, flies).
Publication List
- Wagner M, Melzner D, Bago Z, Winter P, Egerbacher M., Schilcher F, Zangana A, Schoder D (2005) Outbreak of clinical listeriosis in sheep. Evaluation from possible contamination routes from feed to raw produce to humans. J Vet Med 52 (6), 278-283.
- Wagner M, Eliskases-Lechner F, Rieck P, Hein I, Allerberger F (2006) Characterization of Listeria monocytogenes isolated from fifty Austrian small cheese making factories. J. Food Prot 96, 1297-1303.
- Scortti M*, Lacharme L*, Wagner M*, Chico-Calero I, Losito P, Vazquez-Boland J (2006) Coexpression of virulence and fosfomycin susceptibility in Listeria: molecular substantiation of the in vivo-in vitro paradox in antimicrobial susceptibility. Nature Medicine, doi:10.1038/nm1396.(*These authors have equally contributed to the work)
- Peles F, Wagner M, Hein I, Gutser K, Kereszturi P, Kardos G, Beri B, Szabo A (2007) Characterization of Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from bovine milk in Hungary. Int J Food Microbiol. 118, 186-193.
- Wagner M, Auer B, Trittremmel C, Hein I, Schoder D (2007) Survey on the Listeria contamination of ready-to-eat food products and household environments in Vienna, Austria. Zoon. Publ. Health. 54, 16-22.
- Pappelbaum K, Grif K, Würzner R, Hein I, Ellerbroek L, Wagner M. (2008) Contamination chains of Listeria monocytogenes in a produce processing plant. J Food Prot. 71, 735-741.
- Gonano M, Zangerl P, Wagner M, Hein I, Rammelmayr A (2009) Phenotypic and molecular characterization of Austrian Staphylococcus aureus strains of veterinary, dairy and human origin: Epid. Inf. 23, 1-12.
- Hein I, Gadzov B, Schoder D, Foissy H, Malorny B, Wagner M (2009). Temporal and spatial distribution of Cronobacter isolates in a milk powder processing plant determined by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. Foodborne Path. Dis. 6, 225-233
- Wadl M, Pölzler T, Flekna G, Thompson L, Slaghuis J, Köfer J, Hein I, Wagner M (2009) Easy to use rapid test for the direct detection of Campylobacter spp. from chicken feces. J Food Prot. In press