Ph.D., Food Hygiene and Veterinary Public Health, University of Veterinary Sciences, Budapest, Hungary

M.P.H., Occupational and Environmental Health, University of Tennessee at Knoxville

M.VSc., Food Hygiene and Veterinary Public Health, Bombay Veterinary College, Mumbai, India

B.VSc., Veterinary Medicine, Bombay Veterinary College

Preharvest food safety and public health

The safety of the food supply remains a high priority. Establishment of “on-farm pathogen reduction programs” has received increased attention by regulatory agencies, as evidenced by introduction of the 1994 Pathogen Reduction Act. The need to meet consumer and regulatory expectations regarding on-farm food safety will require new approaches to managing animal production units. It will soon be necessary for food animal producers, veterinarians, farm consultants, and others associated with the food industry to adopt improved standards that will facilitate identification of “critical control points” on animal farms for both animal-disease-causing organisms and food-borne pathogens of concern to public health. The research conducted in our laboratory is focused primarily on understanding the molecular epidemiology of foodborne pathogens such as verotoxigenic E. coli, Salmonella, and Campylobacter jejuni. Our laboratory is also extensively involved in understanding the epidemiology of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis, which has been suspected to be one of the etiological agents of Crohn’s disease in humans. It is anticipated that the findings of our investigations will allow us to identify “critical control points” on food-animal-producing farms and help refine existing farm management practices to not only prevent animal diseases but also reduce the number and type of foodborne pathogens of human health significance in food animals and their products.

Jayarao, B. M., S.R. Pillai, D. R. Wolfgang, D. R. Griswold, and L. J. Hutchinson. 2001. Herd level information and bulk tank milk analysis: tools for improving milk quality and udder health. Bovine Practitioner. 35:23-37.

Pillai, S. R., B. M. Jayarao, J. D. Gummo, E. C. Hue, Jr., D. Tiwari, J. R. Stabel, R. H. Whitlock. 2001. Identification and subtyping of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis, and Mycobacterium avium subsp. avium by Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA. Vet. Microbiol.79:275-284.

Pillai, S. R., E. Kunze, L. M. Sordillo, and B. M. Jayarao. 2001. Differential Inflammatory cell count for udder health. J. Dairy Sci. 84:1413-1420.

Wang, L., and B. M. Jayarao. 2001. Genotypic and phenotypic characterization of Pseudomonas fluorescens isolated from bulk tank milk. J Dairy Sci.84:1421-1429.

Jayarao, B. M., and D. R. Henning. 2001. Prevalence of foodborne pathogens in bulk tank milk. J. Dairy Sci. IN PRESS

Pillai, S. R., and B. M. Jayarao. 2001. Application of IS900 PCR for detection of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis directly from raw milk. J. Dairy Sci. IN PRESS

Jayarao, B. M., and T. Kim. 2001. Induction-based data mining for classifying bulk tank milk quality. J. Appl. Eng. and Agric. SUBMITTED.

Jayarao, B. M, S. R. Pillai, D. R. Griswold, D. R. Wolfgang, L. J. Hutchinson, C. M. Burns, and C. A. Rossiter 2001. IS900-PCR assay for Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis from quarter milk and bulk tank milk samples allows detection of herds with Johne’s disease. JAVMA. IN PREPARATION.

Sawant, A. A., S. R. Pillai, and B. M. Jayarao. 2001. Evaluation of five selective media for isolation of catalase negative gram positive cocci from raw milk. J. Food Protect. SUBMITTED

Jayarao, B. M., M. L. Cook, S. R. Pillai, and A. A. Sawant. 2001. Molecular epidemiology of Salmonella from dairy herds with a history of salmonellosis. JAVMA. IN PREPARATION.

Chunlei. Su., I. Kanevsky, B. M. Jayarao and L. M. Sordillo. 2000. Phylogenetic analysis of coagulase gene polymorphism of Staphylococcus aureus from bovine mastitis. Vet. Microbiol. 71:52-58.

Jayarao B. M., and S. R. Pillai. 1999. A Meta-Analytic study on the detection of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis from patients with Crohn’s disease. [Online] http:/www.medjournal.com/ archives/ 19990726-chrons.htm July 26, 1999.

Jayarao B. M. , and E. K. Cassel. 1999. A study on mastitis prevention and milk hygiene practices adopted by dairy producers. Large Animal Practice. 20:8-13.

Jayarao B. M., and L. Wang.1999. A study on the prevalence of coliforms and non-coliforms in bulk tank milk. J. Dairy Sci. 82:2620-2624

Jayarao B. M., B.E. Gillespie, M. J. Lewis, H. H. Dowlen, and S. P. Oliver. 1999. Epidemiology of Streptococcus uberis intramammary infections in a dairy herd. J. Vet. Med [B} 46: 433-442.

Gilliespie, B. E., B. M. Jayarao, H. H. Dowlen, and S. P. Oliver. 1999. Analysis and frequencies of Bola-DRB3.2 alleles from Jersey cows by PCR-RFLP. J. Dairy Sci.82:2049-2053.

Oliver, S. P., B. E. Gillespie, and B. M. Jayarao. 1998. Detection of new and persistent Streptococcus uberis and Streptococcus dysgalactiae intramammary infections by polymerase chain reaction-based DNA fingerprinting. FEMS Microbiol. 160:69-73.

Gillespie B. E., B. M. Jayarao, J. W. Pankey, and S. P. Oliver. 1998. Subtyping of Streptococcus dysgalactiae and Streptococcus uberis isolated from bovine mammary secretions by DNA fingerprinting. J. Vet Med. B 45:585-593.

Gillespie, B. E., B. M. Jayarao, and S. P. Oliver. 1997. Identification of Streptococcus species by randomly amplified polymorphic deoxyribonucleic acid fingerprinting. J. Dairy Sci. 80:471-476.

Oliver, S. P., and B. M. Jayarao. 1997. Coagulase-negative staphylococcal intramammary infections in cows and heifers during the nonlactating and periparturient periods. Zentralbl. Veterinarmed [B] 44:355-363.

Jayarao, B. M., B. E. Gillespie, and S. P. Oliver. 1996. Application of randomly amplified polymorphic DNA fingerprinting for species identification of bacteria isolated from bovine mammary secretions. J. Food Prot. 59:615-620.

Keane, K. A., B. M. Jayarao, B. E. Gillespie, and S. P. Oliver. 1995. Subtyping of Enterococcus faecium isolated from an outbreak of mastitis using PCR-based DNA fingerprinting technique. Prev. Vet. Med. 23:87-94.

Jayarao, B. M., and S. P. Oliver. 1994. Polymerase chain reaction-based DNA fingerprinting for identification of Streptococcus and Enterococcus species isolated from bovine milk. J. Food Prot. 57:240-245.

Matthews, K. R., S. P. Oliver, B. M. Jayarao, A. J. Guidry, E. F. Erbe and W. P. Wergin. 1994. Encapsulation of Streptococcus uberis: influence of storage and cultural conditions. Vet. Microbiol. 39: 361-367.

Jayarao, B. M., E. E. Schilling and S. P. Oliver. 1993. Genomic DNA restriction fragment length polymorphism of Streptococcus uberis: evidence of clonal diversity. J. Dairy Sci. 76:468-474.

Matthews, K. R., B. M. Jayarao and S. P. Oliver. 1992. Plasmid pattern analysis of Staphylococcus species isolated from bovine mammary secretions. J. Dairy Sci. 75:3318-3323.

Matthews, K. R., B. M. Jayarao and S. P. Oliver. 1992. Restriction endonuclease fingerprinting of genomic DNA of Staphylococcus species of bovine origin. Epidemiology and Infection. 109:59-68.

Paturkar, A. M., A. A. Sherikar, and B. M. Jayarao. 1992. Prevalence of Salmonella in meat and sea foods of Bombay City. J. Fd. Sci. Technol. 29:243-245.

Jayarao, B. M., J. J. E. Doré, Jr. and S. P. Oliver. 1992. Restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of 16S ribosomal DNA of Streptococcus and Enterococcus species of bovine origin. J. Clin. Microbiol. 30:2235-2240.

Jayarao, B. M., B. J. Bassam, G. Caetano-Anolles, P. M. Gresshoff and S. P. Oliver. 1992. Subtyping of Streptococcus uberis by DNA amplification fingerprinting. J. Clin. Microbiol. 30:1347-1350.

Matthews, K. R., S. P. Oliver and B. M. Jayarao. 1992. Susceptibility of staphylococci and streptococci isolated from bovine milk to antibiotics. Agri-Practice. 13:18-24.

Jayarao, B. M. and S. P. Oliver. 1992. Aminoglycoside-resistant Streptococcus and Enterococcus species isolated from bovine mammary secretions. J. Dairy Sci. 75:991-997.

Jayarao, B. M., J.J.E. Doré, Jr., G. A. Baumbach, K. R. Matthews and S. P. Oliver. 1991. Differentiation of Streptococcus uberis from Streptococcus parauberis by polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of 16S ribosomal DNA. J. Clin. Microbiol. 29:2775-2779.

Jayarao, B. M., S. P. Oliver, J. R. Tagg and K. R. Matthews. 1991. Genotypic and phenotypic analysis of Streptococcus uberis isolated from bovine mammary secretions. Epidemiol. and Infect. 107:543-555.

Jayarao, B. M., S. P. Oliver, K. R. Matthews and S. H. King. 1991. Comparative evaluation of Vitek Gram-Positive Identification System and API Rapid Strep System for identification of Streptococcus species of bovine origin. Vet. Microbiol. 26:301-308.

Jayarao, B. M., V. Laszlo, M. Hedda, G. Biro, and S. Kovacs. 1990. Epidemiology of Salmonella derby strains from swine, pork, and pork products. Acta. Vet. Hung. 38:25-32.

Biro, G., B. M. Jayarao, and S. Kovacs. 1989. A longitudinal study on the occurrence of asymptomatic Salmonella in swine herds. Magy. Allat. Lap. (In Hungarian). 44:479-484.

Jayarao, B. M., G. Biro, S. Kovacs, H. Domjan, and A. Fabian. 1989. Prevalence of Salmonella serotypes in pigs and evaluation of a rapid presumptive test for detection of salmonella in pig feces. Acta. Vet. Hung. 37:39-44.

Sherikar, A. T., J. B. Khot, B. M. Jayarao, and S. R. Pillai. 1988. Application of polyacrylamide-gel isoelectric focusing for identification of species of origin of raw and heated meats. Indian J. Anim. Sci. 58:470-486.

Sherikar, A. T., J. B. Khot, B. M. Jayarao, S. R. Pillai. 1988. Use of Species-specific antisera to adrenal heat stable antigens for the identification of raw and cooked meats by agar gel diffusion and counter immunoelectrophoretic techniques. J. Sci. Food Agric. 44:63-73.

Pillai, S. R., A. T. Sherikar, J. B. Khot, and B. M. Jayarao. 1988. Carcass traits in aged buffaloes. Indian J. Anim. Sci. 58:516-521.

Sherikar, A. T. , J. B. Khot, B. M. Jayarao, and S. R. Pillai. 1988. Differentiation of organs of meat animals and identification of their flesh in chicken products using anti-adrenal BE sera. Indian J. Anim. Sci. 58:565-573.

Sherikar, A. T., J. B. Khot, B. M. Jayarao, and S. R. Pillai. 1987. Species differentiation in raw and heat treated meats using serological methods. J. Fd. Sci. Tech. 21:293-299.

Sherikar, A. T., J. B. Khot, B. M. Jayarao, and S. R. Pillai. 1987. Identification of origin of meats using commercially available antisera. Indian Vet. Med. J. 11:1-7.

Kulkarni, V. V., A. T. Sherikar, J. B. Khot, and B. M. Jayarao. 1986. Extraction of Neats Foot oil from Buffalo hooves. Res. Ind. 31:97-100.

Das, A. M., and B. M. Jayarao. 1986. Tuberculosis in a lioness (Panthera leopersica). Indian J. Comp. Microbiol. Immunol. Infect. Dis. 7:241.

Jayarao, B. M., G. H. Tilve, J. B. Khot, A. T. Sherikar, and V. V. Kulkarni. 1985. A study on the incidence of rabies in man and animals recorded in King Edward Memorial Hospital and Bai Sakarbai Dinshaw Petit Hospital for animals, Bombay. Indian Vet. Med. J. 9:141-146.

Das, A. M., B. M. Jayarao. 1983. Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolated from a Kangaroo (Megalria rufia). Indian J. Comp. Microbiol. Immunol. Inf. Dis. 4:258.