Characterization of miRNAs & their targets in food animal pathogen infection models for potential use as markers for improvement of food safety

Zoonoses are infectious diseases transmissible from animals to humans. Foodborne diseases derived from zoonotically-infected food products pose a threat to human health, resulting in billions of dollars in health care costs as well as product recalls by the food industry. Many studies have shown that pathogens originating from farm animals can cause disease in humans.

Date of Submission:	July 14, 2010
Total Budget:	$499,401
Total Amount Requested from Genome Alberta/ALMA (less than $500k):
Project Duration:	3 years

Project Leader(s)	Dr. Leluo Guan Assistant Professor 310D Agriculture/Forestry Centre, University of Alberta Edmonton, Alberta, T6G2P5	Dr. Paul Stothard Assistant Professor 1400 College Plaza 8215 – 112 Street Edmonton, Alberta T6G2C8
Co-Applicant(s)	Name	Affiliation
	Dr. Chris Tuggle	Iowa State University
	Dr. Graham Plastow	Livestock Gentec, University of Alberta
	Dr. Tim McAllister	Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
	Dr. Kim Stanford	Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development

Project Summary
Zoonoses are infectious diseases transmissible from animals to humans. Foodborne diseases derived from zoonotically-infected food products pose a threat to human health, resulting in billions of dollars in health care costs as well as product recalls by the food industry. Many studies have shown that pathogens originating from farm animals can cause disease in humans.
 
The main transmission pathways are from infected animals shedding to the environment as well as contact with farm workers. This can lead to pathogen-contaminated meat and milk products, adulterating the downstream food chain. In addition, animal waste can lead to the contamination of non-animal food products: recent adulteration of peanut butter and peppers in the US have been traced to contamination with animal waste. Therefore, it is necessary to build a sustainable system to raise animals for “healthier” production management.
To achieve such a system, one approach is to select and raise the animals with reduced pathogen shedding; however, the requisite molecular understanding to develop tools to perform such selection is lacking.
The long-term goal of this project is to develop tools that can lead to a reduction in the amount of zoonotic organisms entering the food chain, thereby improving the effectiveness of upstream (post-farm and lairage) controls. In this project, we seek to investigate the potential role of newly identified genetic elements (microRNAs) in the control of major zoonotic infections in pigs (Salmonella) by making use of existing animal resources and samples. Investigation of  the expression patterns of these elements in porcine blood samples will supply both basic and applied information.

1. First, a fundamental understanding of their roles in regulating the host capability to reduce pathogen shedding in livestock species may lead to discovery of the conserved and/or different mechanisms.
2. Second, these expression patterns will be correlated to cell function changes under pathogen challenge, to identify potential markers for superior
   response to these two pathogens.
3.  Third, these data, along with sequence similarity data between microRNA and transcripts, will be used to develop an improved software tool for predicting important microRNAs and their targets in the blood samples.