On 1 February, the first Information Days organised by the ERFAN WG “Food Hygiene” ended.

The online sessiontitled “Detection of Listeria spp. and Listeria monocytogenes, in food matrices, food-producing environments and animals, according to ISO 11920-1:2017″ had the purpose of deepening topics related to these pathogenic microorganisms and of sharing technical-scientific updates on analytical methods used in the laboratory for testing, serological typing and molecular typing, including genomic data.

The course was realised thanks to the scientific support of the OIE Collaborating Centre for Food Hygiene and the Italian Reference Laboratory for Listeria monocytogenes at IZSAM, under the scientific supervision of Dr Francesco Pomilio, head of the department, Dr Gabriella Centorotola and Dr Daniela D’ Angelantonio.

The course was well attended by partners from both North Africa and the SADC region. Participants came from National Veterinary Laboratories and Veterinary schools of SADC Region as Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Angola Tanzania and National Veterinary Laboratories and Veterinary Schools from Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Senegal, Mauritania, Libya. 

As part of the ERFAN information days a training course on specific topic “Salmonella” is planned for the coming months.