Biography

Dr. Stacey Duvenage, a food safety expert with a passion for fresh produce safety within the formal and informal agroecosystems and supply chains, aspects of research include pathogen and antimicrobial-resistant organism occurrence and organism characteristic resolution, including traditional and next-generation technologies. Additionally, quality indicators within the water and fresh produce is a big focus area with metadata analysis throughout South Africa. She is very passionate about next-generation technology and has been instrumental in attaining the funding for two high impact, next-generation and cutting edge technology platforms within the Plant Health and Safety laboratories, including a Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Time-of-Flight as well as a digital droplet PCR. She is currently a Senior Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Pretoria. Research areas include food safety of fresh produce in the formal and informal sector, food genomics, and antibiotic resistance in the agroecosystem.

Discipline/s

Microbiology, Biotechnology, Food Safety

Research description

Next-generation risk analysis, including the whole genome sequencing of foodborne pathogens, is essential to understanding the complexity of the food safety conundrum within any country and internationally. Moreover, an integrated method of biological hazards assessment, including social and environmental factors, is needed in the form of a One Health approach, especially when considering emerging and re-emerging biological pathogens. An important aspect of emerging risk is the hazards associated with antibiotic-resistant species present in animal and non-animal food products and the environment. Innovation within the risk assessment includes the addition of novel and new next-generation technologies to resolve risk better. Antibiotic resistance is one of the greatest challenges to public health globally. The emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and multi-drug resistant bacteria add further complexity to the antibiotic conundrum. The international One Health theme allows us to address resistance in human, animal, and environmental arenas. Monitoring antibacterial resistance in the agroecosystem and how environmental sources contribute to the system's risk are essential in mitigating dissemination. The determination of antibacterial resistance prevalence is essential in developing a full risk assessment required to determine the level of risk to human health. This hazard identification and characterization is an essential starting point. New research currently underway under my Co-Supervision involves antibiotic surveillance of Enterobacteriaceae in fresh produce agricultural systems. Future research includes the quantitative assessment of human exposure to antibiotic resistance following the understanding of the potential spread of antibiotic resistance genes from isolated organisms.

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