BIOTRACER Scientific and Steering Committee Meetings

1-4 July 2007
Rust, Austria

At the Seehotel in Rust, Austria, members of the Steering and Scientific Committees met for a two and a half day meeting. The Steering Committee held a 'sandwich' meeting, meaning the met once before the Scientific meeting and a second time after the Scientific meeting closed.

The first day of the meeting, all attendees participated in a Management Training workshop. The workshop was facilitated by Ute Thumm of Thumm and Partner. This workshop provided an opportunity for the participants to equalise management skills.

The workshop began with the participants introducing themselves and giving a personal characteristic. During the morning breakout session, small groups discussed a positive team experience and described what qualities those teams had. With the whole group together, these ‘good team' qualities were described by the participants. What was discovered was that most of the factors that led to a positive team experience were human interaction issues.

The afternoon session began with a team exercise that incorporated issues of leadership, communication, team spirit and achieving a target. This was followed by a short discussion on types of teams and the different positions or roles members may take on in a team. A discussion on the development of a team and the life of a team concluded the workshop.

The time spent in Rust was not all work though. After the Management Training workshop, attendees participated in the BIOTRACER Challenge. This included a t-shirt painting competition, a peddle-boat race, and a BIOTRACER quiz.

The Scientific Committee meeting began in earnest on Tuesday, 3 July. Each Work Package leader presented their latest findings and achievements, and reported on the status of deliverables. Most presenters also put forth ideas for the next 18-month period. The presentation of the 17 Work Packages was completed over two sessions.

Mansel Griffiths, International Advisory Board Chair, gave feedback on the presentations and the progress made thus far in BIOTRACER.

In between the two sessions, a Modelling for Microbiologists workshop was conducted by Annemarie Pielaat of the National Institute for Public Health and Environment (RIVM, Netherlands) and Gary Barker of the Institute of Food Research (IFR, United Kingdom).

After a brief introduction, the workshop began with building a ‘chain flow-diagram', using Salmonella in pork as an example. The key issue of a sampling plan was then addressed. Issues were discussed such as where, which samples, when samples are taken and how many samples are taken. The issues of sample number accuracy and confidence limits were demonstrated by use of examples on an Excel file.

Sample analysis and the value of the data from different analysis methods (plate count, MPN, PCR) were dealt with.

Again, an Excel file was used to demonstrate Quantitative Risk Assessment.

This was followed by a presentation from Gary Barker on ‘Decision Support Modelling'. Using software developed by Hugin (a participant in BIOTRACER), the basis of decision support modelling was explained simply. For demonstration purposes, Hugin has made this software available to BIOTRACER participants and set up a discussion forum on their webpage for any questions/suggestions.

After the second session of the Scientific Committee, the Steering Committee met for a second time to wrap-up any unfinished business. During their two meetings, the Steering Committee discussed issues such as training and the Virtual Traceability Institute, development of a Journal of Food Traceability, international collaboration, progress in the Work Packages, the e-management tool used for BIOTRACER, the future schedule of meetings, and the communication strategy.

BIOTRACER participants can download Work Package presentations and meeting notes on the e-management tool site (https://biotracer.bal-pm.eu) under Events/Steering and Scientific Committee meetings.