Food Protection Trends - November/December 2021 - 638

New Business: In the Annual Meeting, 4 sessions (2 RT and 2 symposia)
are being sponsored or co-sponsored by PDG. This year's 3MT competition
will be hosted virtually as a webinar at the beginning of August;
deadline for submission is June 25, 2021 Friday. There are networking
opportunities during the Annual Meeting-student luncheon (July 18,
Sunday); student mixer (Tues, July 20) and 5 coffee hours (virtual). Also,
best photo expressing summary of IAFP 2022 experience will be awarded
to in-person meeting attendee. Student monitoring opportunities for the
Annual Meeting were discussed.
Mentor-mentee program will be merged with IAFP's new mentor
match program; registration is open, and the mentorship period begins
June 2021 until May 30, 2022. Register in IAFP Connect to get connected
with your mentor. Students were encouraged to fill out student liaison
surveys and be a liaison to PDGs and committees. There will also be fall
and spring social hours. Meet your fav food scientist 2021-2022 series
will be continued. Groups consisting of 10 students and 1 amazing food
scientist over 30 min - 1 hr zoom meeting during months of October, Nov,
or Dec.
New activity for the year will be student presentations and discussion
series, including short presentations of your research ideas, findings, or
progress. Good opportunity to refine presentation skills and connect with
other students.
Students were put into several breakout rooms to brainstorm possible
proposals for IAFP 2022. All the ideas will be collected, drafted as a
proposal, and sent out collectively as a PDG.
Recommendations to the Executive Board:
1. Recommend approval of Claire Marik Murphy for Vice Chair of the
Student PDG.
2. We have appreciated the space that the IAFP Staff and Board have
provided students so far with the Student Booth in the Exhibition
hall. We would like to recommend the expansion of the Student
Booth by providing additional sitting spaces to create a place for
students to network with peers, professionals and mentors. Alternatively,
we recognize that there are constraints with Exhibition Hall
set-up and believe that a set of tables and chairs in the conference
venue sectioned off for students could provide a similar result.
3. Recommend the ability to live stream future Student PDG Business
Meetings to allow for the inclusion of students unable to attend the
in person meeting.
Next Meeting Date: July 31-August 3, 2022, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Meeting Adjourned: 5:02 p.m. Eastern Time.
Chairperson: Erika Estrada.
Viral and Parasitic Foodborne Disease PDG
Attendees: Julie Jean (Chair), Kristen Gibson (Vice Chair), Adrienne
Shearer, Alex da Silva, Alvin Lee, Angela Nguyen, Christine Yu, David
Kingsley, Doug Marshall, Jackie Woods, Jim Hartman, Kali Kniel, Laura
Ewing, Mauricio Durigan, Naim Montazeri, Patrice Bonny, Pushpinder Litt,
Sarah Jones, and Sarita Raengpradub.
Board/ Staff Present: Michelle Danyluk and Dina Siedenburg.
Number of Attendees: 19.
Meeting Called to Order: 10 a.m. Eastern Time, Wednesday, June 30,
2021.
Minutes Recording Secretary: Kristen Gibson.
The meeting was called to order by Julie Jean (Chair). Julie introduced
herself and welcomed everyone. All attendees were invited to introduce
themselves. Then, Julie gave an overview of the agenda.
Old Business: The minutes from IAFP 2021 PDG meeting were
approved with no modifications. Julie reviewed accepted sponsored or
co-sponsored proposals including symposia and roundtables. There was
also a note about numerous posters and technical sessions that will be
presented and are relevant to the Viral and Parasitic Foodborne Diseases
PDG.
New Business: Two main topics were on the agenda: Update on viral
foodborne diseases:It was discussed that most of the virus updates in
the past year centered around whether or not SARS-CoV-2 is transmitted
by food with the consensus being not likely. David Kingsley mentioned
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638 Food Protection Trends November/December
that there were updates on the prevalence of foodborne viruses in
berries (FDA surveillance). Kristen Gibson also noted a few publications
addressing prevention and control of foodborne viruses in berries and
low-moisture foods. The impact of the COVID pandemic on the reporting
of norovirus outbreaks was also noted and possibly further substantiates
the role of food handlers/food service settings in norovirus outbreaks
Update on foodborne parasitic diseases: (Alex Da Silva...no comments)
Alex Da Silva mentioned that there were not many updates on
foodborne parasites. There is an ongoing recall of blueberries that tested
positive for Cyclospora based on analysis by CFIA. However, there is
nothing posted on the CDC website or any indication that people have
become sick because of the blueberries. The group also discussed that
most often there is a focus on Cyclospora at IAFP, though this is not the
only foodborne parasite of concern especially when taking an international
perspective.
Alex Da Silva also discussed a few relevant symposia offered at
IAFP 2021. He said that the FDA Core will cover all the outbreaks of
Cyclospora that have occurred in recent times. There will also be good
info about epidemiological work/investigations that have been conducted
for those outbreaks discussed. Detection of protozoan parasite in the environment
is also the topic of two symposia with most of the emphasis on
Cyclospora and some on Cryptosporidium. The main reason for the focus
on environmental detection is related to traceback work during Cyclospora
outbreak investigations which has triggered a lot of discussion about
how to utilize genetic matching and create a system to link environmental
findings with clinical samples. This is not easy to do with a 44mb genome
combined with an organism that cannot be propagated in the lab.
In preparation for IAFP 2022 in Pittsburgh, PA, July 31 to August 3,
2022, roundtable and symposia topics were suggested and discussed:
Issues related to detection of RNA versus infectious virus particles
was suggested by Kali Kniel. This was specifically in reference to
SARS-COV-2 and detection of RNA on food packaging and the impact on
international trade. There seems to be different messaging (depending
on the country) about the importance of RNA findings. To expand the
topic, the symposium may consider diagnostic testing and look across
the supply chain. Doug Marshall indicated that the Seafood PDG held
a webinar about SARS-CoV-2 in the supply chain that was very good.
This is an interesting issue regarding the inclusion of SARS-CoV-2 in
IAFP programming as it is not foodborne, but there needs to be a more
international perspective to this and consider importance of SARS-CoV-2
in food-related topics, not just direct contamination of food. Jackie and
Alvin mentioned that they would like to be involved in the development of
this proposal.
Alex Da Silva added that FDA is supporting surveillance of SARSCoV-2
in wastewater/sewage. One of the motivations behind that is to try
and create a strategy to monitor emergence of a new coronavirus strain
or strains that have been identified outside the U.S., and that are not yet
circulating in the country.
David Kingsley noted that there is a roundtable at IAFP 2021 on
frozen produce and norovirus and that he would be interested submitting
something again for viruses and berries. Jackie added that the frozen
berry assignment at the FDA has been temporarily put on hold due to
the pandemic, so perhaps a symposium on the difficulty in characterizing
prevalence of viruses in berry supply chain would be good.
Kristen Gibson suggested a proposal related to updates on virus culture
models (zebrafish, human enteroids with gene edits, etc.) and how to
apply to the food/water/environment research area. David Kingsley and
Julie Jean offered to assist.
There was lots of discussion surrounding detection of both parasites
and viruses on surfaces. What rapid methods are available? Consideration
of the limit of detection is important since viruses are not often
present in high numbers on surfaces unless sampled right after contamination
with bodily fluid from an infectious person. Is there a way to enrich
the target? There is a lot of technology that has come from SARS-CoV-2
research that will be relevant for enteric virus research as well as protozoan
parasites. Alex, Mauricio, and Jackie offered to pursue this proposal if of
interest to the PDG.
Alex Da Silva asked if there was any interest on the impact of the
COVID pandemic on outbreaks of viruses and parasites? FDA and CDC
are published an article in MMWR together about the reduction of foodborne
illnesses during the pandemic period. The data seems to show that
we had a 27% overall reduction. Very unusual year for parasitic and viral
foodborne disease outbreaks.
Food Protection Trends - November/December 2021

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