DNA-based subtybing methods facilitate identification of foodborne pathogens

Advances in subtyping methods can improve foodborne disease surveillance but present significant challenges for integrating subtyping information with epidemiological data. Subtyping methods are being used to identify foodborne pathogen transmission from farm-to-table including identification and characterization of in-plant contaminations sources and pathogen persistence. Classical and phenotypic methods offer limited discriminatory power, limited standardization and reproducibility, and require standardized reagents. Molecular and DNA-based subtyping methods provide improved discriminatory power over classical phenotypic methods. DNA-based subtyping methods developed for foodborne pathogens are based on the generation of 'banding patterns' from genomic/plasmid DNA or from DNA fragments amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR).