members only

membership directory

audiovisual library

committee and professional development groups

affiliates

students

career services

coming events

food safety icons

food allergen icons

guidelines for ethical conduct

Viral and Parasitic Foodborne Disease Professional Development Group

Mission Statement
To promote awareness of non-bacterial causes of foodborne disease by encouraging Food Safety Professionals and others to seek education and training that will enable them to contribute to preventing non-bacterial foodborne infections and outbreaks.

Committee Members
Doris D’Souza, Chairperson 2009
Univ of Tennessee-Knoxville
Phone: 865.974.2753
E-mail: ddsouza@utk.edu

Kalmia E. Kniel, Vice Chairperson 2009
University of Delaware
Phone: 302.831.6513
E-mail: kniel@udel.edu

Lee-Ann Jaykus, North Carolina State Univ., Board Liaison
Donna A. Bahun, Staff Liaison

Members:
Charles A. Bartleson, Bartleson Food Safety Consultants, Inc.
Peter K. Ben Embarek, World Health Organization
Sabah P. Bidawid, Health Canada
Philip Blagoyevich, The HACCP Institute
Julie Brassard, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Byron F. Brehm-Stecher, Iowa State University
Frank R. Burns, DuPont Qualicon
Jennifer L. Cascarino, University of Delaware
Changsun Choi, Chung-Ang University
Dean O. Cliver, Univ. of California-Davis
Nigel Cook, Central Science Laboratory
O. D. (Pete) Cook, Food & Drug Administration
Mark A. Cullison, Merck and Company, Inc.
Carl S. Custer, Retired-USDA FSIS OPHS MD MIB
Doris D’Souza, University of Tennessee-Knoxville
Ligia V. Da Silva, University of Maryland - Eastern Shore
Timothy R. Dambaugh, DuPont Qualicon
Alexandra Derevianko, University of Delaware
Peter S. Evans, USDA/FSIS
Viviana R. Fino, University of Delaware
Charles P. Gerba, University of Arizona
Gail E. Greening, ESR Ltd, Kenepuru Science Centre
Judy D. Greig, Public Health Agency of Canada
Stephen F. Grove, National Center for Food Safety and Technology
Jack J. Guzewich, Food & Drug Administration
James R. Hartman, Columbus Health Dept.
Kirsten A. Hirneisen, University of Delaware
Alain Houde, Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada
Julie Jean, Universite Laval
Tineke H. Jones, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Vijay K. Juneja, USDA-ARS-ERRC
Kalmia E. Kniel, University of Delaware
Melvin N. Kramer, EHA Consulting Group, Inc.
Lourdes M. Labrador, LMLabrador Foodservice Consultancy
Monique Lacroix, INRS
John B. Luchansky, USDA/ARS/ERRC
Howard Malberg, Amtrak
Kirsten A. Mattison, Health Canada
Lorraine F. McIntyre, BC Centre for Disease Control
Christine L. Moe, Emory University, Rollins School of Public Health
Parthiban Muthukumarasamy, Canadian Food Inspection Agency
Franco J. Pagotto, Health Canada
Efstathia Papafragkou , North Carolina State University
J. Douglas Park, US FDA
Adrian Parton, MATRIX MicroScience Ltd.
Suresh D. Pillai, Texas A&M University
Gary P. Richards, USDA/ARS
David Rodriguez-Lazaro, Instituto Technologico Agrario de
Castilla y Leon
Michael S. Ryan, ELISA SYSTEMS Pty. Ltd.
Yvonne M. Salfinger, Florida Dept. of Agriculture
Mansour Samadpour, IEH Laboratories and Consulting Group
Maria Sanchez, New York State Dept. of Agriculture and Markets
Thomas L. Schwarz, International Flight Services Assn.
Michael Scott, MATRIX MicroScience Ltd.
Huw Smith, Scottish Parasite Diagnostic Laboratory
O. Peter Snyder, Hospitality Inst. of Tech. & Mgmt.
Dayna L. Swiatek, University of Melbourne
Sudsai Trevanich, Kasetsart University
Martin Wiedmann, Cornell University
Vivian Chi-Hua Wu, University of Maine

How to Join
Involvement in committees and professional development groups (PDGs) offers Members the opportunity to share a wealth of knowledge and expertise. Members of committees and PDGs are the architects of the Association structure. They plan, develop and institute many of the Association's projects, including workshops, publications and educational sessions. Technical challenges facing the food safety industry are discussed, examined and debated. Members may volunteer to serve on any number of committees or PDGs that plan and implement activities to meet the Association's mission.

Membership on a PDG is voluntary (not by appointment) nd may vary from year to year. Requests for membership on a PDG should be directed to the chairperson.

Upcoming Meetings

August 3, 2008
Hyatt Regency Columbus
Columbus, Ohio

In conjunction with IAFP 2008

Minutes

Members Present: Doris D’Souza (Chairperson), Sabah Bidawid, Nigel Cook, Jack Guzewich, Julie Jean, Tineke Jones, Kalmia Kniel, Melvin Kramer, Lorraine McIntyre, Franco Pagotto, Adrian Parton and Suresh illai.

New Members Present: Dayna Swiatek, Stephen Grove, Maria Sanchez, Viviana Fino, Kirsten Hirneisen, Jennifer Cascarino, Alexandra Derevianko and Charles Gerba.

Visitors Present: Janet Beauvais, Vincent Atrache and Antoine Vimont.

Board and Staff Members Present: Lee-Ann Jaykus and Donna Bahun.

Meeting Called to Order: 9:10 a.m.

Recording Secretary of Minutes: Lorraine McIntyre.

Old Business: Lee-Ann Jaykus (Board Liaison) addressed the issue that the PDG did not have any symposium this year and encouraged the PDG to submit symposia topics with new and creative ideas of scientific merit, and that were timely with a mix of international speakers and topics. She also discussed that IAFP would help facilitate conference calls, Webinars, booklets and fliers as necessary for use by the PDG in encouraging and maintaining membership.

New Business: Sabah Bidawid updated the group on the FEVN (official mark in 2005 as a platform to bring scientists together from North America) that has now been accepted as part of the ENVIRONET. The Web site for FEVN is under construction and membership to FEVN is currently free. He also discussed a project developing between Canada, Spain, the Netherlands, New Zealand and France on the validation of microarrays for noroviruses. Nigel Cook gave a brief review on ENVIRONET (European Virology Network) and looks forward to the involvement with the US (Jan Vinje, CDC) and New Zealand (Gail Greening). More information is available at their Web site: www.cost929-environet. org. They also aim at proactive systems to reduce viral contamination. One roundtable symposium topic was suggested and discussed entitled “Issues involving retail food management in restaurants and vessels.” There were discussions regarding dealing with the vomiting issue in food establishments and service areas, issues about employee sick leave policy in food establishments during illness, epidemiology and the food safety issues, which could make good roundtable discussion topics. These could be linked to the retail food safety PDG and/or the control of foodborne illness group regarding cosponsoring this roundtable discussion. Melvin Kramer could organize this roundtable symposium. Doris D’Souza submitted this roundtable discussion topic on behalf of the PDG to the Committee on Control of Foodborne Illness (Ewen Todd) for co-sponsorship. Full symposia topics were also discussed. Many ideas were suggested such as human epidemiology and transmission of noroviruses for e.g. in prepackaged meats (Lee-Ann Jaykus); detection methods involving the cell culture systems for human noroviruses (Suresh Pillai/Gerba); norovirus surrogates (comparing mouse norovirus and feline calicivirus) (Sabah Bidawid), the virulent strains of human noroviruses, and the role of irrigation waters in the transmission of human noroviruses and rotaviruses with emphasis on foodborne aspects (Charles Gerba and Nigel Cook). Suresh Pillai, Charles Gerba and Doris D’Souza will work on submitting the proposal interlinking some of these ideas entitled “Occurrence and control of emerging foodborne viruses and parasites in produce and meats” for a full symposium. Nominations were sought for the Vice Chair of the PDG. Kalmia Kniel was nominated by Suresh Pillai. She was selected unopposed by the committee as the incoming Vice Chairperson for the PDG.

Recommendations to Executive Board:

1. The nomination of Kalmia Kniel as Vice Chair of the Viral and Parasitic Foodborne Disease PDG by the committee members is recommended to the Board for approval.

Next Meeting Date: August 3, 2008.

Meeting Adjourned: 10:15 a.m.

Chairperson: Doris D’Souza.

Board Response to Recommendations

1. The nomination of Kalmia Kniel as Vice Chairperson of the Viral and Parasitic Foodborne Disease PDG by the Committee members is recommended to the Board for approval.

Board response: Agree.

Other Information

Committee Web Sites

Complete Committee Listing

Letter to all IAFP Members