Food-borne zoonotic parasites: WOAH Collaborating Centre at the Saskatoon Laboratory

The Centre for Food-borne and Animal Parasitology at the Saskatoon Laboratory was designated as a World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) Collaborating Centre for food-borne zoonotic parasites in 2002.

Mandate

To improve domestic and global food safety and international market access related to food-borne parasites. This includes:

• Developing and harmonizing reliable detection methods
• Monitoring, surveillance and disease or outbreak investigation
• Information exchange, collaboration and networking
• Capacity building

Latest updates

• The latest WOAH Annual Reports are available online (once on the page, scroll to "Food-Borne Zoonotic Parasites," listed under "Animal production")

Activities and services

• Diagnostic services (including monitoring and surveillance) for food-borne parasites
• Providing reference materials, training and scientific advice related to the detection and control nationally and internationally of food-borne parasites for domestic, import, export and outbreak investigation purposes
• Developing and validating methods for improved direct and indirect detection of Taenia saginata, Trichinella and Toxoplasma in food animals and their products
• Developing and validating methods for improved direct detection of Cryptosporidium, Toxoplasma, Giardia and Cyclospora in fresh fruits and vegetables
• Qualification of external laboratories to test for Trichinella in meat for export and ready-to-eat (RTE) pork products
• Next-generation sequencing (NGS) and molecular characterization of Trichinella, Cyclospora and other food-borne parasites
• Providing national and international proficiency samples for Trichinella digestion assay
• Quality assurance in diagnostic testing for food-borne parasites

Current research interests

• Studying the ecology and biology of a new species of Trichinella (T. chanchalensis) in the North American Arctic
• Use of NGS and bioinformatics to identify and characterize food-borne parasites
  • deep amplicon sequencing of the ITS-1 region for high-resolution detection of all Trichinella spp. comprising mixed infections in muscle tissue samples
  • targeted amplicon sequencing for genotyping Cyclospora
• Transmission patterns of zoonotic and emerging pathogens (including Trichinella) in Canada's North, a Genomic Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Change (GenARCC) project and part of the Genomics Research and Development Initiative
• Developing and validating molecular detection methods for Cryptosporidium spp. and Toxoplasma gondii in leafy greens and berry fruits
• Ongoing participation in food-borne parasites working group (ISO/TC34/SC9/WG6) to develop international standard for the detection of Cyclospora cayetanensis in foods
• Developing a molecular diagnostics approach for simultaneous detection of foodborne protozoa using Oxford Nanopore Minion sequencing

More information

• CFIA reference laboratories and collaborating centres
• Collaborating Centres [woah.org]

Selected publications

• Identification of Trichinella taxa by ITS-1 amplicon next-generation sequencing with an improved resolution for detecting underrepresented genotypes in mixed natural infections
• Toxoplasma gondii and related Sarcocystidae parasites in harvested caribou from Nunavik, Canada
• Performance of indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay using Trichinella spiralis-derived serpin as antigen for the detection of exposure to Trichinella spp. in swine
• Are foxes (Vulpes spp.) good sentinel species for Toxoplasma gondii in northern Canada?
• Verification and use of the US-FDA BAM 19b method for detection of Cyclospora cayetanensis in a survey of fresh produce by CFIA laboratory
• Long-term increases in pathogen seroprevalence in polar bears (Ursus maritimus) influenced by climate change
• Optimization and validation of a loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay for detection of Giardia duodenalis in leafy greens
• Trichinella nativa and Trichinella T6 in arctic foxes (Vulpes lagopus) from northern Canada
• A novel protocol to isolate, detect and differentiate taeniid eggs in leafy greens and berries using real-time PCR with melting curve analysis
• International Commission on Trichinellosis: recommendations on pre-harvest control of Trichinella in food animals
• International Commission on Trichinellosis: recommendations for quality assurance in digestion testing programs for Trichinella
• Trichinella pseudospiralis in a wolverine (Gulo gulo) from the Canadian North
• Detection of natural Trichinella murrelli and Trichinella spiralis infections in horses by routine post-slaughter food safety testing
• Validation of a new commercial serine protease artificial digestion assay for the detection of Trichinella larvae in pork