Biotracer.org News

Applications Being Accepted for Mobility Programme

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0200

Applications for the third round of the BIOTRACER Mobility Programme are now being accepted until 30 September 2009. There are changes in the 3rd Round, including opportunities for shorter visits and opportunities to visit organisations outside the BIOTRACER Consortium.

The aim of the Mobility Programme is to encourage scientists and students to integrate industry with universities/research centres.

The Mobility Programme is a great opportunity for young scientists and students to gain additional experience by working with another BIOTRACER partner.

Dublin Poster Winners Announced

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +0200

Three posters were chosen as the best during the BIOTRACER 2nd General Meeting held in Dublin, Ireland, 2-4 July 2008. The Poster Session was judged by BIOTRACER's International Advisory Board members: Mansel Griffiths, Aamir Fazil and John Sofos.

The following are the winners of the poster session:

WP 10.3 Phylogenomic analysis of C. Jejuni through the processing chain

Phillipa Strong, Richard Stabler and Brendan Wren
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Domain model for S. aureus hazards in milk

Gary Barker, N. Gomez-Tome -IFR
Moez Sanaa, A. Maffre and E. Rieu-CNIEL

Comparison of immobilised and planktonic growth of Salmonella: towards an understanding of stress response in the pork production chain

Gitte Knudsen, Vittoria Danino, Jay C. D. Hinton, and Tim Brocklehurst
IFR

Pictured above is (from left to right) Aamir Fazil, John Sofos, Natalia Gomez-Tome, Gitte Knudsen, Phillipa Strong and Mansel Griffiths.

New look on Biotracer.org

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0200

We have a new look! Welcome to BIOTRACER's new website.

We have worked to improve the website; how it looks, how it works, how it is organised. We hope you like it. Please let us know what you think by clicking on the Contact Us link.

Synergy is Key!

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0200

Two EU Integrated Projects with common themes will make presentations to participants during BIOTRACER's 2nd General Meeting being held in Dublin, Ireland, 2-4 July 2008. Dr. Geraldine Duffy will present the Prosafebeef IP and Dr. Raffaello Prugger will present the Traceback IP.

Dr. Geraldine Duffy is Head of the Food Safety Department at Ashtown Food Research Centre, Teagasc, Dublin. Her research focuses on understanding the behaviour and virulence of microbial pathogens, in particular verocytotoxigenic E. coli, Salmonella and Campylobacter along the farm to fork chain. This research is exploited to develop food safety management systems including quantitative risk assessment models and novel interventions for control of known and emergent food-borne pathogens. She has published widely in the field of microbial food safety with over 80 peer reviewed publications including books and book chapters. She is currently involved in the coordination of two EU Framework VI projects, Prosafebeef and Pathogenic E. coli Network. She is a member of a number of professional committees including the microbiological sub-committee of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland and serves as a food safety expert for European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), W.H.O / FAO, and I.L.S.I. (International Life Science Institute).

Dr. Raffaello Prugger is the director of TCA and chief of the coordination group of Traceback. He is also responsible for the operability of the project, monitoring and evaluating the execution of the research activities within the time and resources given. Traceback is the acronym for "Integrated system for a reliable traceability of food supply chains", an Integrated project of the European Union Sixth Framework Programme of Scientific and Technological Research , Priority 5 "Food Quality and Safety".

The main objective of the Traceback project is to develop a well functioning generic system for traceability and information handling within food chains. Traceback is a project within the European Commission's Sixth Framework Programme involving 28 partners from 11 countries. The partners range from research institutes and universities, computer and consultancy firms, to representatives from the food industry. The project deals with traceability along entire food chains, and is divided into a number of different work packages covering different aspects of traceability.

BIOTRACER Invited to EC Meeting of Traceability Projects

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0200

BIOTRACER was invited to take part in a meeting of 'traceability' projects by our Scientific Officer Hallgeir Herikstad. Seven traceability projects are being brought together to discuss opportunities for common dissemination events. The meeting will take place 24 September 2008 in Brussels, Belgium.

Coordinators or their respersentatives will present the projects and current dissemination activities. Based on these presentations, proposals for common dissemination activities will be made.

The following traceability projects are expected to participate:

TRACE
E-CHAIN
CHILL-ON
BIOTRACER
TRACEBACK
PATHOGEN COMBAT
PROSAFE BEEF

Newsletter #16 Available

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0200

BIOTRACER Newsletter #16 has been published. The newsletter contains information about applying for the Mobility Programme and important dates for upcoming meetings.

The current issue contains the following stories:

Mobility Programme Looking for Applicants
Reliable Methods to Fight Bioterrorism
USFDA Relaxes Criteria for L. monocytogenes
2nd General Meeting Wrap-up
And more!

Call for Proposals--BIOTRACER Satellite Tasks

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0200

The Steering Committee is pleased to announce the Call for Proposals for BIOTRACER Satellite Tasks with funding support of €500,000 in total. The deadline for 1st Round proposals is 17 October 2008. The Satellite Tasks will be integrated . . .

The Satellite Tasks will be integrated into the chain-based strucutre of BIOTRACER. The Satellite Tasks will begin in Month 31 (July 2009). This is an opportunity to develop a task with 'fresh money'. It is envisioned to fund five new Satellite Rasks with a budget of approximately €100,000 each.

Please read the Call for Proposals for all pertinent information.

Download the 1st Round Proposal form.

Welcome Marie Louise!

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Marie Louise Wittrup Boeck joined us November 1^st as our Project Secretary. Marie Louise will be working with planning, implementing and organising training workshops, mobility programmes and other related activities under the direction of Solveig Bouquin. In addition to her training responsibilities, Marie Louise will also participate in other administrative tasks.

Marie Louise holds a bachelor of science in nutrition and has worked the past years in the sport and health business and also in the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries. Besides that, she has spent the last two years in Hong Kong where she has worked as a cultural attaché and secretary in the Royal Danish General Consulate. Marie Louise is looking forward to working on this project and to meeting all the partners.

Newsletter #17 Available

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 00:00:00 +0100

BIOTRACER Newsletter #17 has been published. The newsletter contains information about a meeting of EU Traceability Projects, Steering Committee Meeting highlights, and how to acknowledge BIOTRACER in your publications.

The current issue (#17) contains the following stories:

EU Traceability Projects Meet
Steering Committee Meeting Highlights
Feed Area Report
Acknowledging BIOTRACER in Publications
And more!

Newsletter #18 Available

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 00:00:00 +0100

BIOTRACER Newsletter #18 has been published. The newsletter contains information about the BIOTRACER Dissemination Conference and 3rd General Meeting, the Meat chain, Dairy chain, and who took part in the Feed meeting in Ghent.

The current issue (#18) contains the following stories:

Disseminatioin Conference and General Meeting
Meat Chain Discusses Issues in Copenhagen
Dairy Chain Yields Results
Feed Meeting in Ghent, Belgium
And more!

PhD Module Open for Registration

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 00:00:00 +0200

The PhD module 'Biotraceability in food and feed chains' is now open for registration. The module is offered during BIOTRACER's Dissemination Conference and General Meeting, June 23--26, 2009.

Eligible PhD students can earn 4 ECTS points upon completion of the course and assignments. More information and a sign-up link is available here.

Registration Is OPEN!

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 00:00:00 +0200

Registration for the BIOTRACER Dissemination Conference and Third General Meeting is now open! The event will take place 23-26 June 2009, in Berlin Germany.

Besides the Third General Meeting, there will be a poster session, 6 workshops, and a stakeholder event. more information

Traceability Projects Hold Press Briefing

Thu, 28 May 2009 00:00:00 +0200

The consortium of Traceability projects held a press briefing during the EC's Research Connection conference in Prague, Czech Republic, on 8 May 2009.

Representatives from the Traceability projects held a press briefing during the EC's Research Connection conference. The aim of the conference was to provide participants information on -and show successful experiences related to- three major EU research and innovation programmes, which included the Seventh Framework Programme for research 2007-2013 (FP7), the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP) and the Structural Funds 2007-2013 (SF).

Even though the Traceability projects are all a part of the Sixth Framework Programme, we were invited to give a press briefing under Food Research to highlight outputs from the projects and the synergy that can be gained when projects work together to disseminate results. The projects represented were TRACEBACK, SIGMA CHAIN, TRACE, PRO SAFE BEEF, BIOTRACER and CHILL-ON.

The press briefing was successful with a good amount of participation from the press pool and with praise from the EC that this group of projects has formed a consortium.

For more information about the conference, you can go to www.ec.europa.eu/research/rtd-2009.

BIOTRACER Gets Top Marks

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0200

BIOTRACER, a major project funded by the European Commission with €11 million, received the highest evaluation possible from the two external reviewers during the March review meeting held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

The annual review meeting, as required by the European Commission, took place 23-24 March 2009. Along with Work Package leaders from BIOTRACER, the EC Scientific Officer, Ciaran Mangan, Dr. Rohtraud Pichner of the Meat Science Institute in Kulmbach, Germany and Prof. Dr. Roger Stephan of the University of Zurich in Zurich, Switzerland, attended review meeting to evaluate the progress made by the EC-funded research project.

The results of the overall assessment state that ‘the project has fully achieved its objectives and technical goals for the period and has even exceeded expectations'. It was rated as a ‘good to excellent project', the highest rating possible.

The reviewers stated, ‘Following the recommendations of the reviewers of the last year, the work on methodological questions was no more the focus of the project and the sampling in the food chains was started to create field data for close[ly] integration of the modellers into the project. This close[ly] cooperation of modellers and microbiologists is welcome and very important for the next period.'

Regarding the future of BIOTRACER, the reviewers stated, ‘the consortium established a virtual traceability institute, which integrates with other EC-funded traceability projects, brings together the training and dissemination activities of BIOTRACER (within and beyond the project), ensures that these activities are integrated and coordinated and creates sustainability of the project beyond the funding period.'

SVA Promotes BIOTRACER Event

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0200

The National Veterinary Institute (SVA) in Uppsala, Sweden, posted a story about its participation at the BIOTRACER Dissemination Conference and 3rd General Meeting held in Berlin, Germany.

To read the article (in Swedish), click here.

INCO Workshop Held

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0200

A feed workshop for BIOTRACER INCO partners was held just before the Dissemination Conference and 3rd General Meeting in Berlin.

Nine participants attended the 4-day event. BIOTRACER partners from South Africa, Brazil and Indonesia attended the event.

The first day of the event included site visits to a feed mill, a premix factory and a pg farm to demonstrate practical knowledge of feed hygiene. The next two days focused on mycotoxins. These days included theoretical aspects and an introduction to analytical procedures. In addition, there was laboratory work at the Institute of Animal Nutrition, including sample cleanup, ELISA, and HPLC work for aflatoxin/ochratoxin.

The final day was lablled as 'Salmonella Day'. This day's events included sampling of feed for Salmonella, validation studies of cultural or PCR methods in feed, and information about the current legislative work. Salmonella Day was conducted at the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR).

Publication and Poster Prizes Awarded in Berlin

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0200

During the BIOTRACER Dissemination Conference and 3rd General Meeting, prizes for the best publication and top three posters were awarded. Mansel Griffiths and John Sofos of the International Advisory Board served as judges.

The publication prize went to Immuno-ultrafiltration as a new strategy in sample cleanup of aflatoxins, by Elisabeth Viktoria Reiter, Margit Cichna-Markl, Duck-Hwa Chung, Jürgen Zentek and Ebrahim Razzazi-Fazeli.

Pictured: Mansel Griffiths and Elisabeth Reiter

Poster prizes were awarded to the following three posters:

Flotation and real-time PCR to extract and quantify Salmonella cells from carcass swab samples, by Charlotta Löfström, Jenny Schelin, Börje Norling, Jeffrey Hoorfar and Peter Rådström

Pictured: Mansel Griffiths, Jenny Schelin and Charlotta Löfström

Towards operational biotracing for S. aureus in the dairy chain, by G. C. Barker, N. Gomez-Tome and M. A. Fernandes

Pictured: John Sofos and Gary Barker

Modeling the effect of acid and osmotic shifts across the growth boundaries on the adaptation and growth of Listeria monocytogenes, by H. Belessi, S. Merkouri, A. Gounadaki, S. Schvartzman, K. Jordan and P. N. Skandamis

Pictured: Mansel Griffiths, John Sofos, Antonia Gounadaki and Panos Skandamis

Listeria Conference in Ireland

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0200

As part of the BIOTRACER dissemination process, a national conference on L. monocytogenes was organised at Moorepark Food Research Centre, Fermoy, Ireland. Approximately 100 attendees from regulatory, research and industrial areas gathered on 21-22 September 2009.

BIOTRACER representatives at the Irish national conference on Listeria: Triona Hunt, Dr. Kieran Jordan (organiser), Professor Martin Wagner, Ed Fox, Martina O'Brien and Sol Schvartzman (presenters).

Listeria monocytogenes is a foodborne pathogen that causes listeriosis and is of considerable public health concern. Organised by Dr. Kieran Jordan at Moorepark Food Research Centre, Ireland, the national conference on L. monocytogenes was a great success. The guest speakers from abroad included Dr. Paul Neaves from the UK and Professor Martin Wagner from Austria and representing BIOTRACER. Dr. Neaves, of Williams and Neaves, The Food Microbiologists, took a very practical approach to controlling L. monocytogenes, and Professor Wagner presented the Austrian experience with listeria. Other speakers highlighted issues of interest from research, regulation and public health. The key message from the conference was that, due to its widespread occurrence in nature, learning to control L. monocytogenes is essential. Understanding the organism is a central part of the process towards controlling it.

The Listeria Conference was also an event that supported collaboration between several EU-funded traceability projects. Research from ProSafeBeef and SigmaChain was presented at the conference by Dr. Geraldine Duffy and Professor Francis Butler, respectively.

Save the Date!

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0200

The BIOTRACER General Meeting and EC Review Meeting will be held 22-24 March 2010, in Copenhagen, Denmark!

BIOTRACER participants are asked to mark their calendars for the BIOTRACER General Meeting and EC Review Meeting. More information will be shared in the near future, but for now, SAVE THE DATE!

Newsletter #19 Available

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100

BIOTRACER Newsletter #19 has been published. The newsletter contains information about dissemination opportunities, Mobility Programme grants, and who was nominated as Entrepreneur of the Year.

The current issue (#19) contains the following stories:

Save-the-date for the General Meeting and EC Review
What does it mean to disseminate?
Mobility Programme grants announced
BIOTRACER Participant is finalist for Entrepreneur of the Year award
And more!

PhDs Earn Credit

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100

PhD students who participated in the BIOTRACER PhD module earned 4 ECTS points. The points were awarded recently upon the students' completion of the written assignment.

Twelve PhD students from eight different universities participated in the course held during the General Meeting in June 2009. After the course work in Berlin was complete, the students were given a written assignment.

From left to right: Jeffrey Hoorfar (course evaluator), Maj-Britt Nielsen, Malgorzata Ligowska, Anton Pieterse, Mulunda Mwanza, Georg Walcher, Sol Schvartzman, Manuel Gonzalez, Ed Fox, Simone Moises (absent: Sidsel Henriksen, Joost Smid, Per Sand Rosshaug)

Come to Copenhagen

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100

BIOTRACER's EC Review Meeting and 4th General Meeting will be held in Copenhagen, Denmark, 22-23 March 2010. Register now! You must reserve your hotel by 21 February to receive the special room rate.

Information about the meeting, the schedule, hotel reservation form and registration is all available here.

THe HIT-(wo)men of BIOTRACER

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100

On 11-12 February 2010, researchers working on modelling the different pathogens-matrix combinations in BIOTRACER gathered together in a Horizontal Integration Task meeting in Amsterdam to discuss modelling methodology for biotracing.

The first day, the developed models in each chain were discussed, whereas the second day focused on discussing commonalities and differences in the various modelling approaches. This resulted in commonly agreed definitions to be used in the various research papers ( e.g. biotraceability is the ability to use downstream information (i.e. to infer) to point to materials, processes or actions within a particular production chain that can be identified as the source of undesirable agents using a model-based approach) as well as a common paper on a "General concept for tracing microbial contamination in food chains" for the upcoming Journal Supplement in the International Journal of Food Microbiology on biotracing.

The HIT-(wo)men from left to right: Gunnar Andersson (SVA), Monika Matt (AGES), Alexandre Maffre (CNIEL), Annemarie Pielaat (RIVM), Gary Barker (IFR), Joost Smid (RIVM), Fanny Tenenhaus-Aziza (CNIEL), and Judith Straver (RIVM.

General Meeting Flyer Available

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100

BIOTRACER's 4th General Meeting flyer is now available.

Attendees can find the meeting flyer here.

The flyer contains the schedule, address of meeting location, maps and other useful information.

Prizes Awarded in Copenhagen

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0200

During the 4th General Meeting of BIOTRACER, held in Copenhagen, Denmark, three poster prizes and three publication prizes were awarded. The International Advisory Board members served as judges: Mansel Griffiths, John Sofos and Aamir Fazil.

The three publication prize winners are the following:

Effect of chicken meat environment on gene expression of Campylobacter jejuni and its relevance to survival in food, by Malgorzata Ligowska, Marianne Thorup Cohn, Richard A. Stabler, Brendan Wren and Lone Brønsted.

Pictured: Aamir Fazil and Malgorzata (Gosia) Ligowska

Use of whole genome sequencing as a high resolution diagnostic typing tool when tracing bio-terror organisms in the food and feed chain, by Bo Segerman, Dario De Medici, Monika Ehling Schulz, Patrick Fach, Lucia Fenicia, Martina Fricker, Peter Wielenga, Bart Van Rotterdam and Rickard Knutsson.

Pictured: Bo Segerman and Aamir Fazil

Culture-independent quantification of Salmonella enterica in carcass gauze swabs by flotation prior to real-time PCR, by Charlotta Löfström, Jenny Schelin, Börje Norling, Håkan Vigre, Jeffrey Hoorfar and Peter Rådström

Pictured: Charlotta Löfström and John Sofos

The three winning posters were the following:

A conceptual model of risk factors for the transmission of Salmonella with feed to pig farms, by C. Binter, J. Straver, J. Zentek, L. Hermansson, P. Häggblom and G. Andersson

Pictured: John Sofos and Claudia Binter

Immobilisation alters the heat shock response of Salmonella typhimurium, by Maj-Britt Nielsen, Gitte Knudsen, Vittoria Danino-Appleton, Jay C. D. Hinton, Tim Brocklehurst, John E. Olsen and Line E. Thomsen

Pictured: Mansel Griffiths and Maj-Britt Nielsen

Monitoring of Ochratoxin A in barley by automatic sampling, by E. Reiter, P. Häggblom, P. Lindqvist and G. Andersson

Pictured: Mansel Griffiths and Elisabeth Reiter

Salmonella_Predictions Available Now!

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0200

Salmonella_Predictions Excel add-in to predict Salmonella concentration throughout the pork chain.

The Salmonella_Predictions add-in has been developed at the Institute of Food Research, Norwich, UK under European funding (BIOTRACER project, Contract 036272). The software is a complementing tool for biotracing in the pork chain by predicting the dependence of Salmonella concentration on the environment. Biotracing models have been developed for Salmonella in the pork chain as part of the BIOTRACER project; their objective is to identify the source of contamination when Salmonella is detected at any step of the pork chain.

The Salmonella_Predictions Excel add-in combines probabilistic and kinetics models to give predictions on the concentration of Salmonella spp. at any stage of the pork chain under fluctuating pH, Aw and/or temperature. Predictions can be obtained between 0-30°C, 2.5 - 7 pH and 0.78-1 for Aw. Data to fit the models were obtained from the ComBase database.
The software is available for free download at the following site:
http://www.ifr.ac.uk/safety/SalmonellaPredictions/

Reference to cite when using the program:
Carmen Pin, Gaspar Avendaño-Perez, Elena Cosciani-Cunico, Natalia Gómez-Tomé, Antonia Gounadaki, George-John Nychas, Panos Skandamis and Gary Barker. 2010. Modelling Salmonella concentration throughout the pork chain by considering growth and survival in fluctuating conditions of temperature, pH and Aw. International Journal of Food Microbiology (in press)

BIOTRACER 1 - Salmonella 0

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +0200

In the February 2010 issue of research*eu magazine, BIOTRACER is featured in an 'In Brief' article regarding the process of quantifying Salmonella in pork.

The article can be found here, and here is a link to the entire magazine.

BIOTRACER's 'Excellent' Review

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +0200

The annual review meeting, as required by the European Commission, took place 22 March 2010, in conjunction with BIOTRACER's 4th General Meeting. Dr. Rohtraud Pichner of the Meat Science Institute in Kulmbach, Germany and Prof. Dr. Roger Stephan of the University of Zurich in Zurich, Switzerland, evaluated the progress made by the EC-funded research project.

Project participants presented accomplishments and challenges from 2009 with regards to their research.

The results of the overall assessment state that ‘For another year a substantial progress was reached in the third period of this project'. It was rated as a ‘good to excellent project', the highest rating possible.

You can read the report from the reviewers here.

Newsletter #20 Available

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0200

BIOTRACER Newsletter #20 has been published. The newsletter contains information about the project extension, the IJFM Journal Supplement, the EC Traceability Showcase Event, and Mobility Programme 4th Round.

The current issue (#20) contains the following stories:

Right Now: the beginning of the end, and the end of the beginning
2011--The Year of the Extension Activity
An Update on the BIOTRACER Journal Supplement
EC Review Meeting and 4th General Meeting Left Everyone Smiling
Traceability Showcase Event Planned for 2011
And more!

BIOTRACER @ FoodMicro 2010

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0200

BIOTRACER had a presence at the 22nd International ICFMH Symposium (FoodMicro 2010) at Bella Center in Copenhagen, Denmark, 31 August- 2 September. BIOTRACER and two other EU research projects (ProSafeBeef and Pathogen Combat) shared a booth on the exhibitor floor to share results from the projects and meet with the attendees.

On Friday, 3 September, the three projects sponsored an EU Seminar at the University of Copenhagen. The seminar presented results from the projects and gave insight into the research conducted.

Check out all the information at the FoodMicro website (http://www.foodmicro.dk/).