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Research Area
Our research group works on microbial food safety. The overall goal is to understand the role that food and agriculture play in transmitting human infectious diseases. Food and food production environment are important reservoir of human bacterial pathogens. Agriculture practice and food processing may select certain molecular features of foodborne bacteria, which may facilitate bacteria to contaminate and persist in the food chain, develop antimicrobial resistance or other virulence potential, and possibly cause human diseases. Specifically, we are interested in the investigation of contributing factors to microbial occurrence and persistence in the US food supply, molecular epidemiology of major foodborne and nosocomial pathogens, and molecular relatedness between foodborne bacteria and bacteria of human origin. The bacteria models that are currently under study are Listeria, Staphylococcus, and Enterococcus.
Teaching Responsibilities
NFS 2130 Introductory Food Science
NFS 4150 Advanced Food Science
NFS 6030 Microbiological Safety of Foods
Recent Publications
1. da Rocha, L., G. Gunathilaka, and Y. Zhang. Antimicrobial-resistant Listeria species from retail meat in metro Detroit. Journal of Food Protection. 2012, Accepted.
2. Bhargava, K. and Y. Zhang. Multidrug-resistant Coagulase-negative Staphylococci (CoNS) in Food Animals. Journal of Applied Microbiology. 2012, Accepted.
3. Bhargava, K., X. Wang, S. Donabedian, M. Zervos, L. da Rocha, and Y. Zhang. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in Retail Meat, Detroit, Michigan, USA. Emerging Infectious Diseases. 2011, 17: 1135-1137. [PDF]
4. Zhang, Y., X. Wang, J. T. LeJeune, M. Zervos, and K. Bhargava. Comparison of Phenotypic Methods in Predicting Methicillin Resistance in Coagulase-negative Staphylococcus (CoNS) from Animals. Research in Veterinary Science. 2011, 90: 23-25. [PDF]
5. Zhang, Y., S. Agidi, and J. T. LeJeune. Diversity of Staphylococcal Cassette Chromosome in Coagulase-Negative Staphylococci from Animal Sources. Journal of Applied Microbiology. 2009, 107: 1375-1383. [PDF]
6. Lenz, J., D. Jaffe, M. Kauffman, Y. Zhang, and J. T. LeJeune. Perceptions, practices, and consequences associated with foodborne pathogens and the feeding of raw meat to dogs. The Canadian Veterinary Journal. 2009, 50: 637-643. [PDF]
7. Zhang, Y. and J. T. LeJeune. Transduction of blaCMY-2, tet(A), and tet(B) from Salmonella enterica subspecies enterica serovar Heidelberg to S. Typhimurium. Veterinary Microbiology. 2008, 129: 418-425. [PDF]
8. Zhang, Y., E. Yeh, Y. Shen, A. Bhagwat, and J. Meng. Characterization of Listeria monocytogenes isolated from retail foods. International Journal of Food Microbiology. 2007, 113: 47-53. [PDF]
9. Simjee, S., Y. Zhang, P. F. McDermott, S. Donabedian, M. Zervos, and J. Meng. Heterogeneity of vatE carrying plasmids in Enterococcus faecium isolated from human and animal sources. International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents. 2006, 28: 200-205. [PDF]
10. Shen, Y., Y. Liu, Y. Zhang, J. Cripe, W. Conway, J. Meng, G. Hall, and A. Bhagwat. Isolation and Characterization of Listeria monocytogenes Isolates from Ready-To-Eat Foods in Florida. Applied and Environmental Microbiology. 2006, 72: 5073-5076. [PDF]
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