Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) is one of the laboratory tools that identifies the DNA sequences of an organism. The precision, flexibility, efficacy and simplicity of WGS have been providing advantages over the multiple traditional methodologies combined. The effectiveness of WGS in global monitoring and trend analysis has been strongly realized during the pandemic time, and thus WGS is expected to make a significant difference in improving the relevant work in various technical fields such as food safety, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) monitoring and water surveillance.

FAO Global Meeting on WGS in 2025: FAO has several ongoing initiatives on application of WGS for food safety management. Several technical documents have been developed for provision of scientific advice, and some activities are ongoing for capacity development for countries, particularly for low- and middle-income countries. Given the momentum and familiarity to WGS gained by a wide range of stakeholders from the experience of the global pandemic, as well as the current progress and needs expressed by the countries, FAO will organize a global meeting on WGS, scoping in the topics of food safety and water safety within the One Health framework to bring together government officials, public health professionals, researchers, development partners and other stakeholders involved. The call for applications is now open (due 4 November 2024) for those who are interested in participating in the meeting. Please note that the selection process will follow as the number of seats is limited.

Country case study (Malaysia): FAO collaborates with the University of Putra Malaysia (UPM) to develop a case study on WGS analysis of the Streptococcus Agalactiae, also referred to as Group B Streptococcus (GBS) in food (see FAO Risk Profile). The foodborne GBS, particularly of the Strain Type (ST) 283, was a news in 2015 for various food safety authorities, when an outbreak was first reported in Singapore, a very close neighbor country to Malaysia (see Factsheet). Because only this specific strain (ST283) causes the severe foodborne diseases, it is important for the authorities to be equipped with WGS technical capacity and resources to detect and analyze the samples to investigate relevant cases and outbreaks. The project is being conducted in 2023 - 2024 and the final publication is planned in 2025.

Food safety and water surveillance: In collaboration with FAO's Land and Water Division and under the project entitled "Water quality, irrigation and on-farm controls for achieving global food safety and nutrition security", FAO contributes to strengthening the WGS capacity for food safety management in several low- and middle-income countries. Several meetings and workshops are planned in various countries in the world.

FAO technical workshop on the use of WGS for food safety management: FAO organized a technical workshop on the use of Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) for food safety management at the FAO Headquarters, Rome, Italy from 18 to 20 April 2023. The report of the workshop will be published in the first half of 2024, and various follow-up activities are being planned for this initiative in 2024 and 2025.

It is FAO's role to keep all Members informed on the latest scientific developments in the food and agriculture sectors, and provide technical assistance to those who need it. FAO in collaboration with the World Health Organizations (WHO) has published several technical papers and convened meetings and international conferences on WGS, on the applications and the impact of WGS on food safety management. It also supports non-profit technical initiatives working on WGS and food safety, such as Global Microbial Identifier and PulseNet International and facilitate an informal network of developing countries to share information, knowledge and experience in using WGS for food safety management. Other FAO activities on WGS and food safety are documented below.