A study published in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology (Vol 86, issue 15) by scientists from Department of Food Science and Technology, University of California, Davis, Davis, California studied the effect of adjacent (35 m from the first row of trees) to a poultry operation on the microflora of almond orchards. Swabs of orchard soil surface and air, soil, and almond leaf samples were collected over 2 years. As a control, samples were also collected from two almond orchards that were surrounded by other orchards. Samples were evaluated for aerobic plate count, generic Escherichia coli, other coliforms, the presence of Salmonella. Bacterial community structure (analyzed through sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene). By far, E. coli was isolated more frequently from air samples near the poultry farm (41samples (20%)) than from air samples in control (1 sample (0.48%)). Salmonella was not isolated from any of the 529 samples evaluated. Members of the family Staphylococcaceae—often associated with poultry—were, on average, significantly (P < 0.001) more abundant in the phyllosphere of trees closest to the poultry operation than in trees 120 m into the orchard or from any of the trees in control orchards. The movement of microorganisms, including foodborne pathogens, from animal operations into adjacent plant crop-growing environments, is not well characterized. This study provides evidence that dust and bioaerosols moved from a commercial poultry operation a short distance downwind into an almond orchard and altered the microbiome recovered from the leaves. @ https://aem.asm.org/content/86/15/e00573-20.abstract?etoc @https://aem.asm.org/content/86/15/e00573-20
