In Spring 2010, i will be teaching Microbial Risk Assessment and Management (BIO 750). We will also start our new laboratory at the Department of Biological Sciences of Alabama State University (ASU), Motgomery, AL, where i am currently an Associate Professor in the PhD in microbiology program.
In December, I finished a Fulbright Scholarship program at the Universidad Asutral, in Valdivia, Chile. To read a little report (in Spanish!) about my intereaction wiht this isntitution, please click here
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There, we worked at the Institute of Clinical Microbiology, Universidad Austral de Chile, collecting some Campylobacter strains from retail broilere meat. We are planning to identify and subtype these strains using DNA-based techniques. I also taught a class on molecular techniques used to type bacterial strains. |
Our research at ASU focuses on improving the methodology for isolation and identification of Campylobacter, and the characterization of C. jejuni and C. coli strains using DNA techniques, such as pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and multilocus sequence typing.
We also do some reserch on the control of Campylobacter in poultry products. Recent information released by the Food Safety and Inspection Service of the U. S. Department of Agriculture (FSIS USDA) suggests that a high prevalence of Campylobacter, even after several years of HACCP implementation, is found in processed broiler carcasses, and that enrichment of the samples is now necessary to detect the presence of these bacteria in broiler carcass rinses (read about the new 
baseline study for the years 2007-2008 released by USDA. The methdology used for this study can be found at the USDA's web. The lack of standard methodology for Campylobacter isolation has always been discussed when attempting to understand the meaning of the baseline data. To date no performance standard for Campylobacter has been established by FSIS USDA.
In May 2007 we taught the First Worshop on how to isolate and identify Campylobacter spp. from food products. We had our Second workshop the week of May 19, 2008 and the Third Workshop the week of May 11, 2009. We are planning to have the Fourht Workshop in May 2010, at ASU. Please send me an e-mail if you would like to receive more information abou the upcoming workshop.
You can find more about our reserach under Publications.Thank you for visiting our web page and we hope you find it useful.
Omar A. Oyarzabal
Department of Biological Sciences
Alabama State University
1627 Hall Street
Montgomery, AL 36104
334-229-8449
334-229-6709 (fax)
e-mail