SUMMARY: MICROBIOLOGY ANALYTICAL TRACK 3 (ANIMAL FOOD TESTING) Pet food can become adulterated with a wide range of contaminants that threaten to compromise household safety. The core tenet of this large and multifaceted proposal is to contribute a comprehensive and integrated food protection laboratory hub to the Food Emergency Response Network (FERN) that is capable of analyzing many different foods across a diversity of threat priorities. As such, surveilling animal food for microbiological contamination is an essential component of the MDH Laboratories Administration’s goal of ensuring a safe food supply. This proposal seeks to strengthen testing of diverse animal foods (100 samples) using ISO/IEC 17025:2017-accredited methods, extensive technical capabilities, and the experienced Analysts of the Food Microbiology Laboratory. This planned strategy complements high-volume human food testing activities, and further leverages a strong and close collaboration with our in-house Sequencing Core. Activities within this analytical track will be purposefully focused to achieve the 15 Specific Aims that were outlined in the PAR-20-105 program announcement. The Laboratory will work with local regulatory authorities in the event that violative contaminants are found in pet foods.