(CIDRAP News) The University of Minnesota and Texas A&M University will receive a total of $33 million to set up centers to research food contamination threats and foreign animal diseases, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced today.
(CIDRAP News) The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) yesterday announced the opening of a new high-security food safety laboratory in Athens, Ga.
The $1.65 million lab is designated as biosafety level 3 (BSL-3), the second highest of four biological security ratings, the USDA said in a news release. It will be operated by the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS).
(CIDRAP News) Canadian officials said today that 19 million poultry in southwestern British Columbia's Fraser Valley would be destroyed in a vastly expanded campaign to stop highly pathogenic avian influenza.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization reported today on cases of H7 influenza in two poultry workers who had contact with infected birds in the outbreak area. The two patients both had conjunctivitis and have recovered, the WHO said.
(CIDRAP News) The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is delaying the implementation of food security rules that would require most food businesses to keep detailed records on their handling of food products and would allow the FDA to hold potentially contaminated food.
(CIDRAP News) A new government-wide effort to sustain the cutting-edge life sciences research for which the United States is known but to also guard against misuse of the knowledge and technologies growing from this research was announced today by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy Thompson.
(CIDRAP News) Animal disease outbreaks and concerns, including avian influenza and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), are currently reducing global meat and animal exports by about one third, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said today.
(CIDRAP News) Dr. Garry L. McKee is leaving his post as administrator of the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) to take a position at the FSIS Technical Service Center in Omaha, Neb., USDA officials announced yesterday.
(CIDRAP News) The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is seeking a $65 million increase in food security funds in fiscal year 2005, with more than half of the money to be used to improve capabilities for testing food for biological, chemical, and radiological contaminants.
(CIDRAP News) New federal rules intended to prevent the use of food as a bioterrorism weapon take effect today, but it will be 8 months before the rules are fully enforced, according to the Food and Drug Admnistration (FDA).
(CIDRAP News) Systems for rapidly detecting contaminants in drinking water should be a high priority for federal funding to make the nation's water systems more secure, according to a group of experts consulted by Congress's General Accounting Office (GAO).
