News

Dr. Alda Pires along with two Ph.D. students, Sejin and Kefang had the distinct honor of being invited to the IAFP 2023 (International Association for Food Protection) conference in Toronto, Canada from July 16 - 19th. 

Dr. Alda Pires won the most-cited peer-review publication award in the Food Protection Trend journal in 2023. The publication was about the current practices in organic farming in the United States the use of soil amendments and its food safety risk. 

Kefang Nie, Ph.D. student in epidemiology presented the oral presentation "Factors Associated with Generic E. coli Contamination of Fresh Produce Grown in Manure Amended Soils in Organic Farms”. These findings were from her master’s thesis in preventive veterinary medicine. 

Sejin Cheong presented the results from the multi-state crop-livestock integration farming project in her poster "Risk Factors Associated with the Presence of Generic E.coli in Fresh Produce Fields with Crop-Livestock Integration in California and Minnesota".

Dr. Alda Pires presented an oral presentation "Genomic sequencing of STEC isolates from feral pigs and outdoor-raised pigs in high-risk contact areas in California" at the 2023 SAFEPORK Conference held in New Orleans, Louisiana on May 15-17, 2023. This work was part of Laura Patterson’s (a former PhD student in Pires Lab) PhD thesis.

Dr. Alda Pires did a presentation on “Biosecurity 101” providing an introduction to biosecurity and Dr. Juliette Di Francesco presented on “Best Practice for Visitor Interactions with Animals” explaining the best practices for visitor interactions with animals to mitigate at the Healthy Animals & Healthy People in Agritourism, coordinated by UC ARN SAREP Agritourism Program. The webinar was held on May 9, 2023. The Recording of Webinar and FARM PPE resources can be found here.

Dr. Alda Pires moderated the discussion panel on Soil Amendments Supply at the 18^th Annual The Western Food Safety Conference, May 3-4, 2023 Hartnell College, Salinas.

Dr. Alda Pires presented in the UC ANR Statewide Conference, April 24-27, 2023. She shared with colleagues and participants two of on-going projects: Crop-Livestock Integration and Food Safety Risks and Improving Biosecurity of Small-scale and Backyard farmers, FARM PPE project.

Pires lab (Alda, Sejin Cheong and Teresa Miranda) participated on 2nd Annual Regenerative Almond Field Day, Burroughs Family Farms , February 21-22, 2023

Dr. Alda Pires presented a talk on "Biosecurity and Disease Prevention" at the 2023 World Ag Expo, as part of the seminar Focus on Management Practices and Tools for Antimicrobial Stewardship’, February 14-15, 2023, Tulare, CA. Link

Dr. Alda Pires presented a poster on ‘Improving biosecurity of small-scale and backyard farmers in the US’ at the 2023 CRWAD conference. This work is part of the project FARM PPE, please check here for more information and resources on biosecurity for small to medium size farms. January 21-24, 2023, Chicago, IL.

Dr. Alda Pires presented the oral presentation “Identification of High-risk Contact Areas Between Feral Pigs and Outdoor-raised Pig Operations in California:  Implications for Disease Transmission in the Wildlife-Livestock Interface” at the 16th International Symposium of Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics in Halifax, Canada. These  findings are from the recent published work conducted by Laura Patterson (a former PhD student in Pires Lab).

Juliette Di Francesco presented the results from the FARM PPE Biosecurity Webinar Series in her poster "Extending knowledge to improve biosecurity practices in small-scale and backyard farms in the US" at the 16th International Symposium of Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics in Halifax, Canada. All webinar recordings are available on the FARM PPE website, so don't hesitate to check them out!

Sejin Cheong, a second-year PhD student in our lab, presented her project poster “Presence and Persistence of generic E.coli, STEC, and Listeria monocytogenes in Organic Crop Livestock Spinach Field in California and Minnesota” at the IAFP conference held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on July 31 – August 3. The poster summarized the first-year results of food borne pathogens and generic E.coli detected in the soil, feces, and spinach in organic crop-livestock integration farming (ICLF) systems where small ruminants graze cover-crops before replanting produce to sell in California (CA) and Minnesota (MN).

No foodborne pathogens (E. coli O157:H7, non-O157 STEC, L. monocytogenes) in soil and spinach were observed both in CA and MN throughout the experiment period, even though a few non-O157 STEC were detected in post-graze fecal samples in CA and MN. Mean generic E.coli were highest at day 30 post grazing only in the grazed area, but those in winter cover crop tilled without grazing and fallow areas remained constantly low. Data from this study indicate that ICLF shows minimal risk of transferring food borne pathogens to produce after 120-days post-grazing, showing no difference from non-grazed area. 

Kyuyoung Lee, Ph.D., a previous Ph.D. candidate working with the lab, gave a presentation to the Conference of Research Workers in Animal Health 2021 last December. 

"Backyard farms have grown rapidly in California and also prompted concerns about their disease management. Our study evaluated knowledge and behavior of backyard farmers in California regarding animal health management and antimicrobial use. 

Our study characterized the backyard farms in California using a survey of 253 backyard farmers. They generally raised chicken or small ruminants with small herd size, for personal use. Backyard farmers mainly used antibiotics for individual treatment with the guidance of veterinarians and rarely used antibiotics as preventive measures. Current two legislation, VFD and SB27 positively led backyard farmers in terms of antibiotic use. But still, many backyard farmers had the lack of access to veterinary services. Better access to veterinary services for backyard farmers could help to minimize the risk of AMR in California."

Laura Patterson completed her PhD in epidemiology on September 9, 2021. Her research with our group focused on zoonotic diseases in the wildlife-livestock interface and food safety on small-scale diversified farms.  

As a former diversified farmer, her applied research emphasized science that benefits farmers. The topics of her PhD included assessing pre-harvest food safety risks on diversified small-scale farms (DSSF) using generalized linear mixed models, and identifying high-risk areas of potential contact between feral pigs and outdoor-raised domestic swine in California using QGIS and a species distribution modeling method called Maximum Entropy.  

She has also published two book chapters on Q-fever with co-authors Dr. Alda Pires and Dr. Gabriele Maier, and a paper that studied the persistence of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) in the soil of fresh produce fields grazed by sheep before planting on a working farm. 

As part of the Undergraduate Public Health Scholars program, Kimberly Aguirre, an undergraduate researcher in our lab, presented her project poster on the comparison of fecal microbiomes in grazing and non-grazing sheep on August 25th 2021.  This project expands on past and ongoing projects our lab is conducting. Her research for the project is ongoing.

Sejin Cheong is a first-year Ph.D. student in Graduate Group in Epidemiology (GGE) and a Graduate Student Researcher in Dr. Alda Pires’ lab (Urban Agriculture and Food Safety Laboratory) at the University of California, Davis. Sejin received a 2020 Association for Veterinary Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine (AVEPM) student award at the Conference of Research Workers in Animal Disease (CRWAD) (https://crwad2020.preseria.com/home), which was held virtually on December 4-8, 2020. Sejin presented “Survey of management and animal health practices on organic dairy herds in California,” a study on the husbandry practices and animal health care status of organic dairy farms in California with survey results ranging from November 2018 to July 2019. California is one of the biggest organic dairy producers in the US. Since recent guidelines for organic certification of dairy livestock (USDA) prohibit the use of synthetic substances in cattle feed as well as drug use in the absence of illness, the guidelines highlight the importance of preventive management. The survey results show that preventive methods such as vaccinations and use of supplements (Iodine products, Selenium, Vitamin A, D, and E) were being used in most of the participating farms. However, mastitis, respiratory and digestive diseases were still frequent, with some disease frequencies being correlated to age, even in vaccinated cows. The questionnaire also included pasture and housing management practices, and education level of workers on the farms. The results of this survey provide direction on where we should place efforts for effective preventive management of organic dairy herds in California.

18 Nov 2020

Often, organic farmers use manure to fertilize their crops. How much pathogens transfer onto produce? Dr. Alda Pires shares her research about the prevalence of bacteria such as E. coli and Salmonella on farmer market produce. Click here to find out.

6 Nov 2020

Do you ever wonder if the produce and meat you buy at a farmers market is safe to consume? A study conducted by Dr. Alda Pires has shown a low risk of contamination from foodborne pathogens. Click the link to read more.

View the article here!