National Integrated Food Safety Initiative—Laboratory
Readiness Project
Craig Hedberg, Associate Professor, Environmental
Health Sciences
John Shutske, Professor
Jeff Bender, Assistant Professor, Environmental Health Sciences
Bill Krueger, Minnesota Department of Agriculture
Association of Food and Drug Officials (AFDO)
National Environmental Health Association (NEHA)
National Center for Food Protection and Defense
Funding Source
USDA-CSREES
Objective
Design and evaluate a comprehensive response network
to tie together private and public laboratory resources to
effectively respond to an intentional attack on the United
States
food system.
Need or Impact
Laboratory facilities to test for food bioterrorism
agents (bacteria, pathogens, chemicals) are scattered
throughout
the country and
include both public and private sector owned
facilities. In the event of a major event including food or
agricultural terrorism,
no mechanism currently exists to rapidly and
securely share information to ensure a timely and accurate
response. Also,
there is a need to provide rapidly deployed
training on state-of-the art techniques and control measures
within hours of a bioterrorism
event (such as the anthrax event in 2001). This
project involves the design and evaluation of a
computer-based
laboratory information-sharing
network to aid in the response to a bioterrorism
event.
Additional activities include education and
outreach to
laboratory professionals,
food regulators, Extension educators, law enforcement,
and other key first responder groups.
Project Status
A secure, web-based laboratory network and database
has been designed and deployed in conjunction
with the Association
of
Food and Drug Officials (AFDO). The database
is being populated with laboratory data from
throughout the
United States.
Algorithms are being constructed to provide
database
queries to determine
if the information will be useful and accurate
in the event that it is needed in an emergency.
Outreach
and
educational
programs are being developed to support
this activity.
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