Cornell University scientists have developed a computer program, Environmental Monitoring With an Agent-Based Model of listeria EnABLe, to simulate the most likely locations in processing facilities where the food-borne pathogen listeria monocytogenes might be found. Food-borne listeria infects about 1,600 people in the United States each year with about one in five of those infections ending in death.
“The goal is to build a decision-support tool for control of any pathogen in any complex environment,” said Renata Ivanek, associate professor in the Department of Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences.
Cornell researchers want to eventually apply the program framework to identify contamination from pathogens including E. coli bacteria in fruit and vegetable processing plants.
