Ronald Bond and Melissa Partyka of Dr. Atwill’s Lab along with the Falco K-9 Academy have completed two trials using scent detection dogs to determine the presence of fecal contamination in produce. Several representatives from state and federal agencies contributed to this effort, particularly Jeff Farrar, CDPH, Barbara Cassens, FDA, and Alonza Cruse, FDA. Results from these trials have increased our understanding of a possible use of scent detection dogs in trace-back studies during produce outbreaks.

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Trainer Heath rewards ‘Zero’ after she positively identifies a contaminated sample

October 7-9, 2009
Phoenix, AZ

California dairy producers face the most stringent and complicated environmental protection regulations of any Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) in the country. WIFSS is an important partner in the university, regulatory and industry collaboration called the California Dairy Quality Assurance Program (CDQAP) a program that has as its mission helping producers understand and comply with these complex regulations. At the annual state-federal National CAFO Roundtable held in Phoenix, AZ October 7-9, Dr. Michael Payne described CDQAP’s outreach efforts. Notable achievements over the program’s decade long history include over 9,000 program producer in-person contacts, more then 95 educational documents, template and videos, more than 200 dairy farms third party-certified in environmental stewardship and numerous awards including the California Governor's Environmental and Economic Leadership Award (GEELA) award in 2007 for promoting environmental protection through collaboration.

A similar presentation by Dr. Payne was given to the California State Agricultural Board on October 28, in a meeting whose purpose was to inform board members of the challenging conditions facing California’s dairy producers.

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October 13-16, 2009
Chapel Hill, NC

Dr. Rob Atwill was invited to attend a workshop October 13-16 at Chapel Hill, NC, sponsored by the World Health Organization and US Environmental Protection Agency with the goal to write an international book entitled, "Animal Waste, Water Quality, and Human Health". The overall theme of the book is to review the current scientific knowledge regarding the transmission of infectious diseases from livestock to humans via recreational water contact.

Dr. Atwill, along with Drs. Vic Gannon of Health Canada and Delia Grace of the International Livestock Research Institute are writing 2 of the 12 chapters which will be focused on the occurrence of waterborne zoonotic pathogens in livestock populations and the associated intervention strategies for reducing the occurrence of these microbial hazards in livestock located throughout the world.

Downloadable papers:

Lewis, D.L., E.R. Atwill, M.S. Lennox, M.D.G. Pereira, W.A. Miller, P.A. Conrad, K.W. Tate. 2009. Reducing microbial contamination in storm runoff from high use areas on California coastal dairies. Water Science Technology 60:1731-43 doi:10.2166

Hoar, B., R.R. Paul, J. Siembieda, M. Das Gracas C. Pereira, E.R. Atwill. 2009. Giardia duodenalis in feedlot cattle from the central and western United States. BMC Veterinary Research 5:37 doi:10.1186/1746-6148-5-37.

Mohammed, H.O., E.R. Atwill, L. Dunbar, T. Ward, P. McDonough, R. Gonzalez. 2009. The risk of Listeria monocytogenes infection in beef cattle operations. Journal of Applied Microbiology doi:10.1111/j.1365-2672.2009.04446.x.

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Dr. Atwill (4th from left, back row) and colleagues at the WHO-EPA Workshop

October 3, 2009
Anaheim, CA

Linda Harris spoke at the Produce Marketing Association Annual Meeting in Anaheim, CA. The standing room only session entitled: “Food Safety Innovations and What They Mean to You” featured research sponsored by the UC Davis Center for Produce Safety. Linda Harris, Steve Koike, UC Cooperative Extension, Monterey County, and Astri Wayadande, Oklahoma State University gave short 8 minute presentations entitled: “Survival of attenuated E. coli O157:H7 on field-inoculated lettuce”, “Survival and internalization of E. coli on spinach under field production conditions” and “Fly reservoirs of E. coli O157:H7”, respectively. The session was moderated by Dr. Bob Whitaker, PMA who facilitated a discussion of the research among the panel, researchers and the audience. The panel consisted of Jim Gorny, FDA, Jeff Farrar, California Department of Public Health, Sammy Duda, Duda Farms, and Mike Burness, Fresh Express/Chiquita.

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October 3, 2009
Santa Clara, CA

The Northern California Chapter of the American Society for Microbiology (NCASM) hosted their annual fall meeting in conjunction with the Santa Clara County & Peninsula Veterinary Medical Associations. The meeting embraced the One Health Initiative and was sponsored, in part, by the National American Society for Microbiology to promote interactions between the medical and veterinary microbiology communities.

Speakers included Dr. Barbara Byrne from the UC Davis Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital, Dr. Glenn Songer from the University of Arizona, and Mike Cox from Anaerobe Systems. Dr. Byrne gave the keynote address on “Clostridium perfringens" in Sea Otter Populations: An Impetus for Strengthening Ties in the Medical and Veterinary Microbiology Communities.”

NCASM’s mission is to promote scientific knowledge of microbiology and related subjects through discussions, reports, and publications; improve education in the science of microbiology; stimulate scientific microbiological investigations and their applications; and, foster recruitment of newcomers into the profession of microbiology in Northern California and middle-western Nevada.

WIFSS’ Dr. Michele Jay-Russell currently serves as President of NCASM.

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October 5-8, 2009
South Lake Tahoe, CA

Founded in 1965, the California Emergency Services Association (CESA) is California’s professional organization for local and state emergency managers and planners as well as interested academic and private organizations. The agenda for this year’s annual conference held in South Lake Tahoe, CA October 5-8 included a presentation by Dr. Michael Payne describing the Emergency Animal Disposal Workgroup (EADW). Dr. Payne covered the formation of the EADW as a result of the 2006 heat and humidity event in California’s central valley, various work products of the group, the forms of assistance it has provided and the study findings related to pathogen reduction and environmental impacts associated with the composting of bovine mortalities.

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October 19-22, 2009
Sacramento, CA

Since 1997 the California integrated Waste Management Board (CIWMB), Waste Tire Enforcement and Local Enforcement Agencies (LEA) responsible for solid waste management have held an annual technical conference for interaction and information exchange. The agenda for this year’s conference held October 19-22 included two presentations by partners in WIFSS Emergency Animal Disposal Workgroup (EADW) given to a standing room only crowd.

The EADW is a unique collaboration of academic, industry and regulatory stakeholders addressing the current and long-term needs related to livestock mortality disposal. The first presentation was by Michael Franck, Operations Manager, Fink Road Landfill and was a case history of how the Stanislaus County landfill managed the emergency disposal of thousands of pounds of poultry and cattle carcasses which resulted from the 2006 heat and humidity event. In the second presentation Carol Collar, UC Cooperative Extension Dairy Advisor for Kings County reviewed the initial results of pathogen reduction and environmental impacts associated with the composting of bovine mortalities.

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October 10-25, 2009
Beijing, China

The “Scientific Exchange Program” between China’s Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) and The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) was established about 30 years ago. Each year both MOA and USDA sends short-term (one to four weeks) teams to each other’s country for the purpose of exploring agricultural science and technology and promoting international cooperation in agriculture and forestry. The program has helped create long term collaborative projects.

This year the U.S. Team No. 4 was for “Rapid Detection Technologies for Food Safety, Environmental and Agricultural Applications”. This team was composed of researchers from universities and industries, among which Dr. Xunde Li was one of the invited scientists. During their stay in China between October 10 and October 25, the team traveled to five cities and visited agricultural departments and/or commissions, a municipal center for disease control and prevention, agricultural universities, institutes, and companies.

The team also had a chance to meet the Agricultural Attaches at the Agricultural Affairs Office at the US Embassy in Beijing. Through this trip the team learned a lot and had a better understanding about China’s regulations, major concern and current situations of food safety. Dr. Xunde Li introduced the WIFSS to the Agricultural Affairs Office at the US Embassy in Beijing and gave presentations at universities and institutes about the pre-harvest food safety in California.

Both the team and the Chinese partners expressed interests of academic cooperation on food safety issues. There is also the market potential for rapid testing techniques in China.

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Dr. Xunde Li (left) and colleagues stand in front of the China Ministry of Agriculture

The Western Center for Food Safety has awarded its first subcontract to Dr. Fletcher Arritt, Assistant Professor in the Department of Food Science at NC State. Dr. Arritt will be working to develop validated sanitation procedures for the reduction of Salmonella spp. in peanut butter processing.

Currently, the peanut butter industry often uses an in-line hot oil sanitation procedure for "clean-in-place" stainless steel pipes used to carry finished product. Although this procedure is expected to reduce microbial populations it has not been validated for reduction of Salmonella. Dr. Arritt plans to determine the realistic maximum time and temperatures of hot oil sanitation and define the maximum lethality achievable using this method. In addition, he plans to explore the efficacy of alternative methods that combine a chemical treatment followed by a hot oil rinse. We welcome Dr. Arritt to the WCFS research team.

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Implementing Good Agricultural Practices: A Key to Produce Safety is a 3-week web-based course offered through the National GAPs Program. Most of the cost of the current section of the course is covered by a grant from the United States Department of Agriculture that also was used to develop the course content, so it will only cost $50 to participate. Class size is limited to 25 people.

Course Outline:

• Module One: Welcome to Implementing GAPs: A Key to Produce Safety
• Module Two: Shared Responsibility in Food Safety
• Module Three: Good Agricultural Practices
• Module Four: Implementing Change
• Module Five: Course Conclusion

For more information and registration, click here.

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November 2, 2009

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Joint Institute for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (JIFSAN) have sent a team of seafood specialists to Bangladesh this week to help train local officials on aquaculture safety and quality control techniques.

The goal of the trip is to work with Bangladeshi officials to help the country improve the overall quality and safety of its aquaculture products for both domestic and international markets. 

JIFSAN was established in 1996 through a Memorandum of Understanding between the University of Maryland and the FDA. Since then, more than 800 participants in 18 countries have been trained in Good Agricultural Practices, Good Aquacultural Practices, or Commercially Sterile Packaged Foods.

Read more

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Linda Harris co-instructed two UC Davis Extension Workshops: Basic HACCP – a Food Safety System and Advanced HACCP – Verification, Implementation and Other Challenges. These courses are offered annually by the University Extension and are recognized by the International HACCP Alliance.

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WIFSS’ Agroterrorism Preparedness Curriculum for Frontline Responders has been reauthorized for the FY 2009-2010 by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Training and Exercises Integration (TEI). The continuation of this training program will allow WIFSS to instruct first responders and food industry representatives about the dangers of Agroterrorism with the goal of developing and practicing their own emergency response plans. WIFSS has been a DHS training partner since 2004 when the program was initially funded.

For more information contact David Goldenberg, Preparedness Training Program Coordinator at 530-757-5700.

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