National ag biosecurity institute opens at OSU

STILLWATER, Okla. – Call it, “Crime Scene Investigation with an agricultural focus,” courtesy of the new National Institute for Microbial Forensics and Food and Agricultural Biosecurity, headquartered at Oklahoma State University.

“Events such as Mad Cow disease, E. coli outbreaks and anthrax contamination of federal mail indicate the relevance of being able to quickly and accurately identify the source and, if applicable, the perpetrator(s) of contamination of agricultural products or disease outbreaks,” said Clarence E. Watson, associate director of OSU’s statewide Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station system.

Sarkeys Distinguished Professor Jacqueline Fletcher of OSU’s Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources will serve as director of the institute.

“OSU is in a position to make a real contribution to the nation,” Fletcher said. “The institute will support national and regional biosecurity and law enforcement communities, as well as the U.S. agricultural industry, by identifying, prioritizing and addressing issues of crop and food biosecurity.”

It is a tall order, for there are not many institutions with the expertise to deal with the fusion of the traditional plant pathology discipline with forensic science, including areas such as microbiology and epidemiology – the branch of science dealing with the detection of the source and cause of epidemics.

The United States has been keenly aware of establishing preparedness for bioterrorism since the anthrax attacks of 2001, said Robert Allen, chairman of the OSU Center for Health Sciences’ department of forensic science.

“In the last couple of years we have become more aware of the vulnerability of our systems to produce, process and deliver food, not only to our own population but to the populations of the world that we feed,” Allen said.

When plant pathologists do their jobs on an everyday basis, they generally work under the assumption that Mother Nature is responsible for an incident.

“Now, the first question we have to answer is whether or not a crime has been committed,” Fletcher said.

OSU officials and faculty envision the institute as having three components that are state and federally mandated functions of a land-grant university: teaching, research and extension.

“Initially, we’re going to focus primarily on research,” Fletcher said. “That could mean the development of new technologies or the application of technologies developed in other disciplines which are then used in plant pathogen forensics.”

Fletcher said the teaching element would include training for first responders, Cooperative Extension personnel or law enforcement agents. Outreach would be through a state’s Cooperative Extension Service, reaching out through county organizations to the population of farm communities.

“I have two graduate students, both of whom are working in a very traditional discipline of forensic science, namely the use of DNA testing to identify and attribute the source of biological material from crime scenes,” Allen said.

The students have changed their focus slightly from trying to identify and characterize human DNA. One student is applying similar technology to identifying bacterial DNA that affects plants in Oklahoma, while the other is working on a virus that attacks wheat.

“They’re developing laboratory methods that presumably and hopefully will be applicable to any kind of pathogenic agent, whether it is a virus or bacterium,” Allen said.

The vanguard of current students likely will become trainers for the next generation of forensic scientists as the field of microbial forensics and agricultural biosecurity expands into traditional crime lab settings.

“Food contamination outbreaks have long-lasting serious consequences, even when they occur naturally,” Allen said. “I don’t know how many farmers were driven out of business by spinach being contaminated by E. coli last year, but even large producers went through some serious, adverse financial times because spinach was removed from grocery store shelves.”

At this moment, the institute at OSU is the only center of its type in the nation.

“We’re linked with the FBI scientific working group on microbial forensics, as well as other law enforcement agencies at the national level,” Fletcher said. “Within the state, we have a number of excellent resources with whom we’ll partner, including OSU faculty, the University of Oklahoma’s Advanced Center for Genome Technology, the Oklahoma Mesonet weather-monitoring system, the Forensic Science Institute at the University of Central Oklahoma and the National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism in Oklahoma City.”

Although the institute has only recently been created, Fletcher and Allen have been working in the area of microbial forensics and agricultural biosecurity for some time.

Following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Fletcher was asked by the president of the American Phytopathological Society to take the lead in determining the society’s response to the U.S. government’s security needs. In that role, she spent significant time in Washington D.C. working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Department of Homeland Security, Congress and various commodity groups. It did not take her long to begin collaborating with Allen, given their OSU connection.

“One of the major events we’ve already completed was a national-level workshop in Oklahoma City this past January, which brought together representatives from law enforcement agencies and scientific organizations to help shape the priorities and projects needed to enhance the nation’s capabilities in plant pathogen forensics,” Fletcher said.

Watson said the Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station has already provided more than $300,000 for salaries and start-up activities related to the institute.

“This is a great opportunity to strengthen our cooperative working relationship with the Center for Health Sciences at OSU-Tulsa,” Watson said. “We’ve got some of our best faculty at both campuses involved. This is certainly a program that has national relevance.”

source:www.cushingdaily.com