Further to the event organised by the EURL E. coli with the EURL working group on NGS : Modern technologies to enable response to crises: Next Generation Sequencing to tackle food-borne diseases in the EU, we would like to inform you that the slides presented at the conference published on the EURL for E. coli website (link bellow).   The online magazine food safety news wrote an article on our conference. This magazine is sponsored by Marler Clark, a Food safety law firm in the USA.  

The Entomology and Invasive Plants Unit of the ANSES Plant Health Laboratory, in collaboration with CIRAD, INRAe, French Ministery of Agriculture and the Royal Museum of Central Africa (Belgium) organised the 4th TEAM meeting (Tephritid workers of Europe, Africa and Middle-East) from 5 to 9 October at the Palais des Congrès in La Grande-Motte (France). Fruit flies (Tephritidae) are the pests with the biggest economic impact on the world production and trade of fruit and vegetables. For this 4th meeting, the Scientific Committee decided to include in the programme the invasive species Drosophila suzukii (Drosophilidae) which share same biological characteristics with Tephritidae. Despite the sanitary context, this event was maintained in this International Year of Plant Health thanks to the combination of face-to-face meetings for about twenty participants and a free webinar for participants unable to travel to France. Participation in this webinar exceeded all expectations with over 500 registered participants from more than 70 countries and sessions with more than 300 connections! The TEAM meeting allowed scientists from all continents to attend high-level presentations and to exchange, despite the distance, their questions and considerations. Those present on site enjoyed a technical and cultural visit to the French Institute of Vine and Wine and the Aigues-Mortes saltworks. The organisers were assisted by the company Alphavisa, which made it possible to carry out this planetary direct in optimal conditions. Within the organising committee, special thanks go to Valérie Balmès and Raphaëlle Mouttet (ANSES Plant Health Laboratory - EURL for Insects and Mites) for their enormous commitment and energy put in the organisation of the event!   Among the topics covered, the speakers talked about microbiome and its potential effects on species behaviour and invasive potential; phylogeography and space-time distribution dynamics in orchards; cases of invasion, interspecific competition and ecological niche shift; Integrated Pest Management methods, including monitoring methods through drones and electronic traps, and control through sterile male technique, parasitoids, the use of dead-end plant hosts; innovative studies on semiochemistry and olfactory preferences. The Book of abstracts of the meeting is available at the bottom of this page.   To underline the importance of fruit flies at an international level, space was dedicated to the presentation of the FF-IPM project, financed by Horizon 2020, aimed at introducing "in silico" supported prevention, detection and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approaches for both new and emerging fruit flies, based on spatial modelling across a wide range of spatial levels, novel decision support systems, and new knowledge regarding biological traits of the target species, fruit trading and socioeconomics. More information about the project can be found on the FF-IPM webpage   More information about the event can be found on the official 4th TEAM meeting webpage. 

In collaboration with the EURL for Coagulase Positive Staphylococci (CPS), we organised a training session on the implementation of colony-count technique according to the Standard EN ISO 7218 for the enumeration of Listeria monocytogenes (Lm) and CPS dedicated to laboratory technicians from NRLs. 11 trainees participated to this session online on 22 September 2020 from 13:30 to 16:30 (CEST).

The Kick-off Meeting took place on February 26-27 2020 in Billund-Denmark. Each partner presented his team and the preparation of each activity was discussed.  It was also the opportunity to discuss with European Commission and start to work all together in a friendly environment.    

In October 2019, the European Commission has designated a second Reference Centre dedicated to the welfare of poultry and other small farmed animals (Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1685). The European Union Reference Centre for Animal Welfare for Poultry and other small farmed animals (EURCAW-Poultry-SFA) aims at improving the enforcement of the EU legislation applicable to those animals, such as laying hens, chickens for meat production, and other small farmed animals, including their transport and killing operations.

We are glad to announce the publication of this article: Comparison of the ISO method and three modifications of it for the enumeration of low concentrations of Listeria monocytogenes in naturally contaminated foods. This project conducted in the frame of the EURL Lm mandate in collaboration with different NRLs in particular from Cyprus, Czech Republic and Norway.

The First Meeting between the European Reference Centre for Animal Welfare for Poultry and other small farmed animals and the competent authorities was organized on September 16th-19th 2020 in Mandelieu (France). This meeting was the occasion to present the Centre’s objectives, activities and work program and retrieve from every participant their main topic of interest, concerns, needs and questioning regarding the implementation of the legislation regarding the welfare of poultry and small farmed animals and about the functioning of the Centre. The work of the Centre is fully dedicated to fulfilling the need of the competent authorities in the field of implementation of animal welfare legislation.  

The European Reference Centre for Animal Welfare for Poultry and other small farmed animals (EURCAW-Poultry-SFA) has been launched on February 1st 2020. This Centre is composed of Anses (France, coordinator), IRTA (Spain, deputy), IZSLER (Italy) and Aarhus University (Denmark). EURCAW-Poultry-SFA was designated by the European Union on October 4 2019  through Regulation (EU) 2019/1685, in accordance with Articles 95 and 96 of Regulation (EU) 2017/625,  to support the European Commission and member states in the applications of legislation regarding poultry and other small farmed animals welfare. The Centre covers farming, transport and slaughter of poultry, rabbits, and other small farmed animals. The Centre will: 1) offer technical and scientific assistance to competent authorities (and their supporting bodies) of all members states, regarding all aspects of welfare legislation implementation; 2) work on establishment and validation of welfare indicators for official controls; 3) perform some specific scientific studies; 4) provide specific training for inspection services; 5) disseminate innovation and knowledge. ​For more details, read work programme 2020.

EFSA published the scientific opinion on "The public health risk posed by Listeria monocytogenes in frozen fruit and vegetables including herbs, blanched during processing". We may note that this opinion refers to the EURL Lm guides, as well as to the Standard EN ISO 18593. Hereafter the links to access the EFSA news and opinion.

Message from  the organizing committee: Hope this message finds you all well in this particular moment, when the world is facing an unprecedented health emergency.  While the countries are struggling with the pandemic and many of us are involved in confronting the crisis in the front line, I believe it is also time to start thinking about our lives once the situation will revert to normality. At some point COVID-19 will be past history and we will all want to get back to the interaction and collaboration with colleagues. As a matter of fact, this is the way science is fed with passion and boosted with new ideas. As you all may be informed, we have moved our “Science meets Policy” conference: Modern technologies to enable response to crises: Next Generation Sequencing to tackle food-borne diseases in the EU to Sept 25, 2020, which seems a reasonable lapse of time for the backlashes of this crisis to be over and now we have re-opened the link for the online registration. We are aware that the actual necessity of keeping people apart led to cancellation of many events and that this will cause the second half of the year 2020 to be packed with conferences and physical meetings here and there, but at the same time we think that if we have learnt something from the pandemic is that the only winning strategy is preparedness and that this can only be achieved in peace times rather than being forced to make decisions under the pressure of an ongoing crisis. In this frame, I believe it is important that we get back to where we left when Italy was first blasted by the COVID-19 cases and we took the decision to postpone the conference. Indeed, I think we really need to discuss altogether the importance to have a proper technical and political framework for the Authorities to make decisions on the basis of NGS data.  This is certainly true for food-borne infections but definitely applies to any infectious disease. I take the occasion to wish you all the best and I really hope to see you all in the wonderful city of Rome next  September 25 But stay safe at home for the moment Stefano Morabito Director, European Reference Laboratory for E. coli