Title: Control of Pathogenic and Spoilage Bacteria on Red Meat

Objectives:

Develop antimicrobial intervention strategies for slaughter, processing, and fabrication, and determine intervention effects on microbial safety, spoilage, and ecology of the resulting products (e.g., carcass, subprimal, trim, ground beef).

Develop representative sampling procedures and sensitive, accurate, and rapid diagnostic methods to detect foodborne pathogens and other microbial contaminants.

Determine the effects of previous environment and/or intervention procedures on the induction of adaptive responses in bacteria that result in increased antimicrobial resistance and/or virulence.

Determine and characterize molecular mechanisms of pathogen resistance and virulence development, and develop procedures to prevent these occurrences.

Title: Develop On-Line Verification and Intervention Procedures for HACCP in Slaughter/Processing Systems

Objectives:

Develop practical antimicrobial intervention strategies for slaughter, processing, and fabrication that maintain product quality.

Develop improved sampling, detection, and identification methods for monitoring and verification of Critical Control Points (CCPs).

Determine and characterize molecular mechanisms and sources of pathogen virulence acquisition, and develop procedures to prevent these occurrences.

Investigate genomic and virulence characteristics of pathogens and apply this information to the elimination of pathogens from the meat supply.

Title: Strategies to optimize carcass yield and meat quality of red meat animals

Objectives:

Evaluate effects of breeds of cattle, swine, and sheep representing diverse biological types on carcass composition and meat quality.

Identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) and genes for carcass composition and meat quality traits in cattle, swine, and sheep and utilize proteomics/functional genomics tools to determine their mode of action.

Use biochemical and genomics tools to test the hypothesis that the calpain proteolytic system regulates muscle growth and development.

Evaluate the efficacy of various non-invasive methods and develop new non-invasive methods to predict meat quality.

Identify the relative contribution of connective tissue, muscle shortening, postmortem proteolysis, and other physiological parameters to tenderness of various muscles and use this information to develop muscle-specific intervention strategies to optimize meat tenderness.