 Good morning, everyone. So for this presentation, I will be talking about microbial quality of agricultural water. I am the Neofood Safety Specialist and Assistant Professor at Auburn University. And why do we need to focus on water? Why we all talk a lot about water and water quality for fresh produce production. So water is the major contributor to fresh produce, produced contamination. You probably know that previous foodborne outbreaks that were linked to fresh produce, this major source of contamination was water that was used in the field. So we have the example from last year, the huge outbreak that happened last year related to onions and then salmonella contamination. And recently, FDA just released a note saying that irrigation water was most likely the cause of onion salmonella outbreak. And a few years ago, the romaine lettuce outbreak linked to pathogenic E. coli was also tracked back to water sources. So water is a big issue in the farm. So that's why we need to focus on the water and pay attention and monitor the water quality regarding the microbial water quality for these sources that you're using for irrigation, fumigation, frost protection during harvesting and post harvest activities. So what is in the water that makes this unsafe? There are pathogens in the water that can be bacteria such as E. coli, salmonella, Campylobacter, Listeria monosatogenis. It can be viruses, norovirus, hepatitis A, or it can be parasites, should jargill emblia or cyclospora cadence. Cyclospora is an emerging parasite in the US. It has been common in the South and Central America, but it's being found in water bodies in the North America. And contamination happens mostly from human or animal feces. And they can contaminate the water when they come in contact with. So this picture, for example, we can see that is one of the ponds that I was having some issues, higher values of generic E. coli. And if you take a closer look on this, you see there's a family living nearby. So probably this is one of the biggest issue of this irrigation pond. But also you can find animals sometimes in some ponds. You can see this one, these cows, they're bathing in the water and they're very big problem if you're using this water to irrigate produce fields. And water source determines the risk. So you have three different water sources that you can use and they have different risks. So municipal water poses the lower risk. They're treated water. And unless you have some problems at your end, it should be safe. Groundwater is between surface and municipal. They're considerably safe, but sometimes you have problems with your groundwater. You have flooding in the area that contaminate the watershed. You can have problems in a well head. And again, you have to assess the risk and determine when or how to test the water. And surface water is the biggest problem is the higher risk of water source. It's open to the environment and anything can contaminate anything can happen nearby. You have animals that can come in. You have birds, you have human activities, anything can contaminate it. So in a fruit and vegetable field, there are different sources of contamination. You can have manure that can directly contaminate fruits and vegetables. You have soil, you have animals that are walking around. But all of this can directly contaminate the water and then water once applied to the fields, it can contaminate the entire crop. As I mentioned, surface water is one of the biggest problem is the higher risk. And on a farm environment, you can see that is a very complex system. You might have animals around. You have water sources that you have runoff. You have wild animals, domesticated animals. And all of this can contribute to increasing the risks of contaminating the water sources. So the key point here is to monitor for risks and test the water. Testing is the only way that you know that the water quality is adequate for fruits and vegetable production. So if you look at the prevalence of foodborne pathogens in irrigation water sources in the southeast, this is mostly for surface water. Most of the pathogens found in the area was salmonella, campobacter, pathogenic E. coli, and cyclospora. And there are some associated factors that can increase the prevalence of these pathogens, such as environmental factors, weather, temperature, seasonality. Let use livestock and wildlife, water nutrients such as nitrogen and water physical chemical properties such as conductivity, pH. And if you look at this map, you see that most of the research that has been done in the past was concentrated in Georgia and in Florida. But we have very little information on how the situation and how the prevalence of these foodborne pathogens in the in agricultural water in Alabama, mostly for those ones that are used to irrigate and during for production of fruits and vegetables. So there is a much need of investigating and then and then getting to know what is going on in our area. So this is one of the my focus area of research here. And if you look at Alabama current scenario for irrigation and nearly 30% of produce farms are irrigated here. But again, we have different conditions here. We have droughts that you don't normally see in Georgia and neither in Florida. We have the black belt area that we have a complete different soil. We have different water that is managed different sewage. It is a big problem there. We have a lot of growers in the area that produce fresh produce. And we have diversity in commodities. You have diversity in weather conditions and everything. But that's why you need to focus in our area and get to know what is going on here. But also application methods matter. The less water that you have contacting your produce, the better. So in a overall idea, drip irrigation poses the lowest risk because it's not directly contacting the edible portion of the crop. And overhead irrigation poses the higher risk because you're spraying everywhere and all the plants come in contact with the water. But you have to pay attention and assess the risks. For example, let's say if you're drip irrigating onions field. It doesn't matter if you're using applying overhead or drip irrigation here. Water will come directly contact the edible portion of the crop. But let's say that you're using microjets for fruit trees. This is a normal practice and a lot of people don't worry about don't test the water for microbial quality because their fruits are hanging on the tree. The microjets are just on the roots. You don't have water contacting the produce. But accidents happen. You're not always around to see what is going on. And sometimes you have this situation happening. Water splashing everywhere and yeah, contacting the fruits. So again, food safety risk assessments is a key point here. You have to assess the risks and then say water is likely to touch the edible portion of the crop or not. Accidents can happen. Do I see animals around? Do I see any suspicious activity around? And you have to test it if you are concerned or if you're not sure of the quality of the water that you're using. So for water quality requirements, FISMA produce safety rule has some established values and standards that to meet the requirements for safe water use. So for pre-harvest water, the geometric means needs to be equal or below 126 CFU per hundred mil. And the statistical threshold value should be equal or below the 410 CFU per hundred mil. And for harvest and post harvest, the limit is no detectable generic E. coli. So in this case, surface water cannot be used as a source of water that is used for harvesting or post harvesting. And this is for produce safety rule. This is for FDA regulation. But other food safety certifications such as GAP certification, they all follow the regulation. So you kind of ended up looking at these numbers and these standards. So you might ask, where can I get my water tested? So in Alabama, we had some certified labs that you can look at this website here. But normally people can send the water for testing in the Waters Ag Lab in Georgia. And there's also this national list of certified labs. There is a map. If you access this link, there will show pop up a map that you can find in the whole country where you can send and we can find certified labs. So for Alabama, this map is still not updated. We are working on updating this map. But on the first link, you can find some certified labs in our state. And in summary, for water quality, you need to know the source of the water and an intended use. Again, you have to assess the risks and then make sure that you're using the good standard water that is touching or likely touching the edible portion of the crop. So you're minimizing any risks of contamination. Choose wisely application method to minimize risk depending on the crop that you're using and monitor and test the water that contacts the edible portion of the crop. So testing is a key point in here because there's no other way that you know if your water is contaminated or not. For example, if you see some changes in color and smell and taste, it doesn't mean that it's pathogens in the water. It could be, it's likely going to be, but it can be chemicals. It can be algae. It can be anything else other than pathogens. But also if you get a clear cup of water and with no smell, no different in taste, it doesn't mean that it doesn't have pathogens in the water as well. So the only way that it can tell you there is pathogens in the water if the water is contaminated is testing the water. So if you're not sure about the quality of your water, if you're, if you saw something any suspicious activity, if you're afraid of the water quality is not good, just grab a sample and send to the lab that would test for you. And if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me. It can be a point of reference for any food safety concerns that you have on your farm. And I'm here to answer any questions right now. Thank you.