A major five-year study on California’s Central Coast led by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Western Center for Food Safety at the University of California, Davis, is helping scientists better understand how harmful bacteria can move through the environment.

Often called the nation’s “salad bowl,” growing more than 400 crops, including a large portion of the country’s leafy greens, the Central Coast has been linked to several foodborne illness outbreaks. In 2020, the FDA asked the Western Center for Food Safety at UC Davis to play a central role in a large-scale environmental study to better understand where disease-causing bacteria come from and how they spread.

The study was built on close collaboration. Researchers worked in partnership with the FDA, the California Department of Food and Agriculture, ranchers, landowners and growers.

“This was a five-year collaborative effort to test the environment within and surrounding produce fields, such as soil, surface water, sediment and air,” said Rob Atwill, a principal investigator for the Western Center for Food Safety and epidemiologist with the UC Davis Weill School of Veterinary Medicine.

Researchers also collected feces from livestock and wildlife at numerous ranches and vineyards to better understand the occurrence of bacteria at those locations.

“We could not have done this without our partnership with the California livestock and produce industries,” Atwill said.

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