The CDC and the US Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) have also joined the initiative.
The genomic sequencing will be done at a new facility at UC Davis that will coordinate the overall effort. As the gene sequences are completed, they will be stored in the National Institutes of Health's National Center for Biotechnology Information's public database.
FDA scientists will guide the project and provide technical assistance, while Agilent will supply expertise, instrumentation and funding.
USDA Under Secretary for Food Safety Elisabeth Hagen said that this initiative seeks to improve the ability to identify and track down potential sources of foodborne outbreaks.
"FSIS intends to submit important bacterial strains from our regulatory testing program for sequencing at UC Davis, and we look forward to the benefits this public database could provide federal, state and local public health agencies," Hagen added.
According to the FDA, the new database containing the genetic codes of food pathogens will enable scientists to develop tests that can identify the bacteria present in a sample rapidly, and help investigators discover the likely source of an outbreak.
In addition, it can greatly increase the pool of researchers in order to develop software for the diagnosis and analysis of potential hazards, which could lead to new methods of preventing and controlling outbreaks.
