scope:

This international standard specifies minimum requirements for generating and analyzing whole-genome sequence (WGS) data obtained from foodborne bacteria. These requirements are applicable to any sequencing platform or chemistry. This process may include the following stages: • Handling of bacterial cultures; • Genomic DNA isolation; • Sequencing library preparation, sequencing, and assessment of raw DNA sequence read quality and storage; • Bioinformatic analysis, including methods such as high quality single nucleotide polymorphism (hqSNP) analysis, core genome and whole genome multi-locus genotyping (cgMLST, wgMLST), and bioinformatic pipeline validation; and • Metadata capture and sequence repository deposition.