Position Title
Associate Professor
Meat Scientist
Education
- B.S., Colorado State University, 2010 (Animal Science)
- M.S., Colorado State University, 2012 (Animal Science/Meat Science)
- Ph.D., Colorado State University, 2015 (Animal Science/Meat Science)
Research Interests
Meat safety; meat quality; shelf-life of meat and meat products; post-harvest foodborne pathogen control; characterizing pathogen and whole microbial community profiles present in meat production chain; effect of feeding system on degree of antimicrobial resistance and pathogen prevalence in livestock and poultry.
My research interests include the evaluation and validation of new antimicrobial chemicals and interventions against foodborne pathogens, as well as the investigations of the influence meat safety strategies have on the quality and shelf-life of meat products. In addition to applied investigations of meat safety, I also plan to continue my research characterizing degree of antimicrobial resistance, pathogen and whole microbial community profiles present in different meat and poultry production chains in order to gain a more comprehensive understanding of how pathogens and bacteria interact with different food matrices using novel technologies, such as next generation sequencing. Overall, the goal of our research is to continue to assist in industry efforts to deliver highly safety, affordable meat that are high in quality and nutritional values to national and global consumers.
Graduate Groups
Selected Publications
Yang X, Noyes NR, Doster E, Martin JN, Linke LM, Magnuson RJ, Yang H, Geornaras I, Woerner DR, Jones KL, Ruiz J, Boucher C, Morley PS and Belk KE. Use of metagenomic shotgun sequencing technology to detect foodborne pathogens within the microbiome of the beef production chain. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 2016. 82(8):2433-43
N. R. Noyes, X. Yang, L. M. Linke, R. J. Magnuson, A. T. Dettenwanger, C. A. Boucher, I. Geornaras, H. Yang, D. R. Woerner, P. S. Morley, and K. E. Belk. Resistome diversity in cattle and the environment decreases during beef production. eLife. 2016;5:e13195
Scott, B., Yang, X., Geornaras, I., Delmore, Woerner, D. R., Adler, J., and Keith Belk. Antimicrobial efficacy of a lactic acid and citric acid blend against Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli, Salmonella and nonpathogenic Escherichia coli biotype I on inoculated warm beef carcass surface tissue. J. Food Prot. 2015; 78(12):2136-2142
Yang X, Woerner DR, McCullough KR, Hasty JD, Geornaras I, Smith GC, Sofos JN, Belk KE. 2016. An evaluation of the effectiveness of FreshCase technology to extend the storage life of whole-muscle pork and ground pork sausage. J Anim Sci. 94(11):4921 – 4929