Register your interest in PATH-SAFE surveillance project meetings
A new cross-government project to track foodborne pathogens brings together the Food Standards Agency (FSA), Food Standards Scotland (FSS), the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), Public Health England (PHE) and the Environment Agency to test the application of genomic technologies in the surveillance of foodborne pathogens and antimicrobial resistant (AMR) microbes in all four nations of the UK.
£19.2 million funding will support a three-year project to develop a pilot national surveillance network, using the latest DNA-sequencing technology and environmental sampling to improve the detection and tracking of foodborne and antimicrobial resistant pathogens through the whole agri-food system from farm to fork. The heart of this ‘virtual’ network will be a new database that will permit the analysis, storage and sharing of pathogen sequence and source data, collected from multiple locations across the UK by both government and public organisations.
The Microbiology Society will be hosting a series of online meetings between Monday 4 October and Thursday 7 October 2021, bringing together stakeholders from the foodborne pathogens and AMR in the environment and food-chain sectors, to brainstorm and get the science underway. The meetings will reflect a ‘One Health’ approach, recognising that health, food and environment are all linked and that AMR in the environment can have profound implications for other sectors. There will also be an opportunity to find out more about the project from the different stakeholders involved.
Details of the surveillance project meetings will be announced shortly. If you have any questions or would like to request more information please contact [email protected]. In the meantime, please register your interest in attending via the online form below:
*By completing and submitting this form, you understand, and hereby consent that the personal data provided by you in this form will be collected, processed and used by the Microbiology Society to send you any communication relating to the meetings. You understand and hereby consent that the personal data provided by you in this form will be collected, processed and used by the Microbiology Society for the following additional purposes, but only if you tick the relevant box above. The Microbiology Society is the data controller for the purpose of Data Protection Legislation. The Microbiology Society is a charity registered in England and Wales (Charity Number 264017), a charity registered in Scotland (Charity Number SC039250) and a company limited by guarantee, registered in England (Company Number 1039582).
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