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Skills Enhancement for PSA Grower Trainers Workshop | May 30-31, 2018, Davis, CA
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Trevor Suslow, Director of the UC Postharvest Center, hosted a 2-day workshop for Produce Safety Alliance (PSA) trainers and public agency staff involved in FSMA Produce Safety inspector training and related regulatory activities. On Day 1, Michele Jay-Russell presented FSMA-focused research on pathogen persistence in manures and compost as part of an interactive session on practical soil management and soil amendments. On Day 2, Linda Harris (bottom right) and Jay-Russell presented Training How-To's: Assessing risk in relation to farming practices (Harris) and Assessing risk and management options for wildlife intrusion (Jay-Russell). Harris also gave a demonstration session on understanding water quality parameters using the Auto-calculator, a Surface Water MWQP Excel Tool developed at WCFS.
Over 50 trainers and inspectors from 20 states participated in the workshop. Other speakers included Connie Landis Fisk and Gretchen Wall from PSA, Barbara Hanson from the Alaska Office of the State Veterinarian, and Stelios Viazis from the FDA CFSAN Produce Safety Network, Western Region. The Produce Safety Network Directory for the four regions shown on the map (top right) can be found here.
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UC Davis World Food Center Food for Thought Showcase | May 7, 2018, Davis, CA
Michele Jay-Russell gave a pitch for WIFSS at the first of two Food for Thought Showcases held in the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center. The event, organized by the World Food Center, featured a series of elevator pitches from UC Davis programs, institutes, and centers that work in all aspects of the food system. A networking reception and showcase followed the pitch session.
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Lunch Time Challenge Video Conference | April 24, 2018
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WIFSS staff participated in a video conference call with undergraduate students from Nanjing Agricultural University as the students reported on the Lunch Time Challenge. The April 24 conference call allowed the 27 students to spotlight their presentations on the work they’d completed over a period of 16 lunchtimes, amounting to more than 24 hours, in which they developed well-planned strategies for collecting relevant information through surveys, seeking solutions to identified problems, and defining a means of informing the public of the issues. Students from the teams FELPAB, Return of the King, Shield, and Davis Warriors competed in the Lunch Time Challenge upon their return from the NAU-UC Davis Education Conference on One Health for Food Safety and Security, held at UC Davis, January through February 9, 2018. During the 3-week conference four teams identified problems they wanted to address which they feel are impacting people, animals, and the environment.
FEL PAB, which stands for food, ecology, life science, plant, animal, and biology, identified pesticide residues on fruit peel; Shield focused on medical care service and medical waste on campus. Return of the King held a “war on plastics” and raised public attention to plastic waste and formulated a strategy which encourages a habit of garbage classification and recycling. The Davis Warriors conducted a series of experiments to test words from the internet that is about food safety. Their theme was “Food safety worth concerning.”
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Swedish Delegation | April 20, 2018, Davis, CA
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WIFSS hosted a meeting for U.S. and Swedish representatives from academia, government agencies, and industry to develop educational materials for training the agricultural sector on food and water safety, and to discuss means for upgrading civil defense systems. The visit included a discussion on dairy farm security and a field trip to a cattle ranch. The Swedish representatives have been working with WIFSS to develop strategies to enhance and harden the target of their food and agricultural systems.
Heather Johnson, David Goldenberg, Mike Payne, and Bennie Osburn, from WIFSS greeted participants from institutions including: the FBI, California Office of Emergency Services, National Veterinary Institute, Uppsala, Sweden, the Swedish Board of Agriculture, the Swedish Defense Research Agency, and the FBI’s InfraGard.
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University of Washington One Health Course | April 19, 2018, Seattle, WA
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RPDC West Virginia Class | April 17, 2018, Sutton, WV
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The Rural Domestic Preparedness Consortium (RDPC) Management 448 class was delivered to an audience that included representatives from all levels of local, state and federal government agencies, with an emphasis on roles & responsibilities of the West Virginia Rapid Response Team. The course was taught by Tracey Stevens, an Instructor and Trainer with WIFSS
The West Virginia Department of Agriculture, Deputy Commissioner, Joe Hatton actively participated in the training with positive regards to the future of West Virginia Agriculture and the statewide stakeholders. A planning meeting was held at the State Department of Agriculture in Guthrie, WV, the following day with LPOC (Local Point of Contact) Judith Ashcraft, Deputy Commissioner Roy Mc Callister, Hatton and Instructor Tracey Stevens. A request for a Regional Training Conference for the states of West Virginia, D.C., Kentucky, Virginia, and New Jersey, has been planned for October of 2018, in which both the RDPC AWR 328 and MGT 448 courses will be delivered.
The management level course MGT 448 provides emergency planners, community leaders, veterinarians, animal control personnel, government and non-government agencies and public health agencies with the background information needed to participate in the development of disaster response plans that could be included within the existing operational area.
MGT 448 is sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), RDPC, and WIFSS. DHS gives certificates to those completing the course which can be used as proof of training to become part of a disaster team responding to disasters.
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USDA Grant Award to Support Food Safety and Honey Bee Health
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WIFSS, UC Cooperative Extension office in the Department of Entomology and Nematology, and UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, are partnering with Oregon State University in a USDA funded multi-state Specialty Crop project to develop CE training for veterinarians on bee health and antibiotic use—a practice that is now regulated under the veterinary feed directive (VFD). The project will offer a comprehensive bee biology online course and train-the-trainer practical training for veterinarians and apiculture educators. The ultimate goals are to protect the specialty crop, honey, from becoming contaminated with antibiotic residues; to protect the health and safety of bees, which are essential to California agriculture; and, finally, to support veterinary oversight in the use of antibiotics, which will lead to an overall reduction of antibiotic resistant bacteria in the environment.
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Honey bees play a dual role in the production of specialty crops. They produce honey, and they are managed as a primary pollinator for a majority of high value specialty crops grown in the contiguous states of California and Oregon, such as nuts, stone fruits, vegetables, and berries. The $483,278 award will address the unique needs of the beekeeping industry that have been experiencing high colony losses since 2006. It will also focus new rules established by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration on the use of antibiotics which are used to control certain diseases affecting bee colonies.
Read about it Here.
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COMING EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS
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Produce Safety Alliance Soil Summit Resources
Powerpoints from the Southeastern (see our January 2018 newsletter) and South Central Soil Summits are now available and can be found here.
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Visit Us at the Annual IAFP Meeting | July 8-11, 2018, Salt Lake City, UT
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Several of our faculty and staff will be participating at the upcoming 2018 International Association of Food Protection (IAFP) Annual Meeting. Stop by to see presentations of these collaborative research and outreach programs. Check out the Annual Meeting App or IAFP website for the complete program.
Click on the Titles below to preview a few of the sessions and abstracts:
Round Tables and Symposia
Food Safety Recalls in the Age of Online Grocery Stores (Monday, July 09, 2018: 01:30 PM - 03:00 PM)
Pathogens in Soil: a Focus on Salmonella and STEC Survival in Biological Soil Amendments of Animal Origin (Tuesday, July 10, 2018; 08:30 AM - 10:00 AM)
Shiga Toxin Producing Escherichia coli and Leafy Greens: Is it Déjà vu All Over Again? (Wednesday, July 11, 2018; 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM)
Oral Presentations and Posters
Monday, July 9
Tuesday, July 10
Wednesday, July 11
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