WIREDGOV

Campylobacter continues to be the most commonly reported bacterial cause of infectious intestinal disease in the UK and the leading cause of bacterial food poisoning. The majority of infection is caused by Campylobacter jejuni while the remainder is caused by Campylobacter coli and other minor species. There are many risk factors for campylobacter, but research suggests that 60 to 80% of clinical infections may be attributed to food poisoning caused by the handing or consumption of raw/undercooked chicken.

The Agency is committed to develop and implement a risk management programme to reduce campylobacter in chicken as part of our foodborne strategy. Sequencing the whole genome for the unique and valuable collection of campylobacter isolates archived from the IID1 and IID2 studies, will provide key information for isolates representative of the UK population. It will also provide important reference points for ongoing work in the UK, in campylobacter infections and changes in these organisms.

Researchers will be expected to characterise these human isolates in detail by next generation sequencing, using an appropriate platform. The resulting sequence data must be analysed to derive multi locus sequence types and identification of other genes, which may be relevant to characterising the genomic diversity of campylobacter in the UK population. The resulting data will be placed in the public domain for use by other researchers.

Applications should be submitted online, using our electronic procurement system, by noon on Thursday 8 August 2013.

To find out more about this call for tender, you will need to register as a supplier on the FSA’s electronic tendering system, ePPS, via the link below.