EpiReady Collection of Stool Specimens Summary Table. A brief table summarizing the basics of stool collection and storage.

CDC Guidelines for Specimen Collection Website. This links to the CDC’s guidelines for specimen collection, including a detailed table with instructions for collecting stool specimens for bacteria, parasites, viruses, and chemicals.

Foodborne Illnesses and Clinical Symptoms Table (MS Word file). A list of common causative agents with incubation and duration periods, organized into groups by symptoms (neurological, upper GI, lower GI, and stomach flu) (from Boulder County Health Department).

FDA Foodborne Illness Chart. A quick reference table with common pathogens, incubation periods, signs and symptoms, duration, and food sources. (From FDA)

Outbreak Field Supply List (MS Word file). A list of specimen collection kit supplies for use in the field. (from FDA Outbreak Training)

Specimen Collection Checklist. A checklist for the general steps in specimen collection.

EpiReady. The Epi-Ready course is a team-based training for public health professionals involved in foodborne disease outbreak investigations. Coordinated by the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA) and funded by CDC, it is a two day, face-to-face training. Epi-Ready focuses on how to efficiently and effectively respond to a foodborne disease outbreak through a “team-based” approach, bringing together the disciplines involved in the investigation of these outbreaks.

CDC-EHS. This e-Learning course module provides training on how to use a systems approach in foodborne outbreak environmental assessments. Participants acquire in-depth skills and knowledge to investigate foodborne illness outbreaks as a member of a larger outbreak response team, identify an outbreak’s environmental causes, and recommend appropriate control measures.

Tennessee Integrated Food Safety Center of Excellence. The Tennessee Integrated Food Safety Center of Excellence has an Outbreak Essential Series training which provides basic understanding of the steps in an outbreak investigation, study designs, and writing outbreak reports.

Incubation Period
The period between exposure to an infection and the appearance of the first symptoms.

Molecular subtyping
Subtyping is the identification of strains or groupings of microorganisms below the species level. Methods of subtyping are based on phenotypic and genetic characteristics that tend to differ between different strains of the same species but are the same among isolates that arise from the same parent (that is those that have a common ancestry).

Vector
An animate intermediary in the indirect transmission of an agent that carries the agent from a reservoir to a susceptible host.

Vehicle
An inanimate intermediary in the indirect transmission of an agent that carries the agent from a reservoir to a susceptible host.