eNewsletter, May 2011

Conferences and Meetings

The American Society for Microbiology

May 20-24, 2011
New Orleans, Louisiana

Xunde Li attended the 111th General Meeting of The American Society for Microbiology (ASM) in New Orleans.  Xunde presented a poster entitled "Occurrence of Giardia intestinalis in Wild Rodents Populations in a Major Produce Production Region in California".

Advanced Topics in Microbial Safety of Fresh Produce Workshop

April 27-29, 2011
Wimauma, Florida

About 25 people participated in the Florida offering of the USDA Specialty Crops Research Initiative grant supported workshop “Advanced Topics in Microbial Safety of Fresh Produce”.  The workshop was held at the Balm Campus, Gulf Research & Education Center.  Topics included an introduction to Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment, science basis for GAP and GHP standards and metrics, and considerations in pathogen testing.  The breakout sessions allowed for interaction and in-depth discussion of issues related to metrics associated with good agricultural practices.  Extensive resources were provided to participants. Instructors included Trevor Suslow and Linda Harris from UC Davis and Michelle Danyluk and Keith Schneider from the University of Florida.

Microbial Challenge Study for Foods Workshop

April 7-8, 2011
Rosemont, Illinois

Linda Harris (WIFSS, University of California, Davis), Kathy Glass (University of Wisconsin-Madison) and Don Schaffner (Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey) presented a two-day course on developing and evaluating challenge study protocols, sponsored by the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP).  This course previously was presented prior to the 2010 meeting of the IAFP and to the California Food Emergency Response Team.  The workshop presents the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods (NACMCF) report and instructors guide the students though use of the material in the report to develop actual challenge study protocols based on NACMCF recommendations.