Evaluation of the microbial safety and quality of Louisiana strawberries after flooding

Abstract

for all the support and encouragement during the challenging times of my graduate studies. I am grateful for my lab mates Dorra Djebbi-Simmons and Mohammed Alhejaili who were there to guide and help me in my research work. I am thankful for Dr. Kathryn Fontenot, Mary Sexton, and Austin Wong for planting the strawberries for this study. I also thank the staff at the LSU AgCenter Botanic Gardens for all their help during fieldwork study. I would especially like to acknowledge my loving friends Kriza Calumba, Bennett Dzandu, and Johana Coronel for their continuous encouragement, motivation, and for their everlasting friendship. I would like to thank all the faculties of the School of Nutrition and Food Sciences at LSU for their support. Gratitude is also given to my parents for coming all the way from Sri Lanka to give me a helping hand in taking good care of my kids and by showering their unconditional love in my absence. They also helped me navigate through late night research experiments and weekend study. A very special thanks to my loving kids Aiza and Adeeb for patiently waiting until I complete graduate school so we can have ample happy family times together. Lastly, my deepest appreciation goes to my best friend who is also my loving husband Zowril Razik for his encouragement, determination, love, care, and patience. My academic achievements belong to him, if not for his faithful support and commitment I will not be able to come this far in accomplishing my graduate studies. This thesis was supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service through grant Agreement 2000241666. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the USDA.

Tracking Fecal Bacterial Dispersion from Municipal Wastewater to Peri-Urban Farms during Monsoon Rains in Hue City, Vietnam

“…Floods directly change the transport of contaminants, can affect existing water and sanitation infrastructure [ 2 , 7 , 15 ] and may extend into agricultural areas [ 54 , 55 ]. The evidence of infection risk following flood events was well documented by Paterson et al [ 16 ].…”

Climate Change and Emerging Food Safety Issues: A Review

“…Floods account for 40% of all extreme weather events that occurred worldwide 20 years ago (14), and climate change has a great bearing on the frequency, intensity, and duration of excessive rainfall and flooding. Flooding particularly affects agricultural lands and livestock farms (74) and increases the likelihood of microbial and chemical contamination of food and water (78). In 1993, a flood in the United States led to an increase in waterborne diseases and runoff of agrochemicals into the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico (71), with a concomitant increase in gastrointestinal illness cases (71).…”

“…The accumulated water in flooded soils can favor the aggregation of minerals around the root, thus injuring the plant and making it more vulnerable to bacterial and fungal contamination (29,47,71). Shiraz et al (74) evaluated the effect of flooding on the microbial safety of strawberries in Louisiana. Three strains of E. coli were spiked in floodwater and used to flood strawberry plants for 4 h. E. coli was detected only in soil within 96 h of flooding, and 1.0 to 2.8 log CFU/g coliforms was detected in both the harvested mature strawberries and soil at 0, 48, 96, and 144 h in all treatments.…”