Apply now to be considered to join the FAO global meeting on WGS in May 2025
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) will organize a global meeting on whole genome sequencing (WGS) for food safety and water surveillance within the One Health framework. The call for applications is now open until 4 November 2024 for those who would like to be considered to participate in the meeting.
WGS identifies the DNA sequences of an organism, significantly contributing to a better understanding of variations within and between species of various foodborne and waterborne pathogens. Because the genomic information of such species significantly varies among different geographical areas, having a global collaboration would lead to a strong contribution to make WGS an effective preventive control and monitoring tool for foodborne and waterborne disease cases, which are sickening estimated 600 million people annually around the world.
The benefits of WGS in global monitoring and trend analysis have been once again strongly realized during the recent pandemic time, and thus WGS is expected to make a significant difference in improving the relevant work in various technical fields such as food safety, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) monitoring and water safety and quality. Given the momentum and familiarity to WGS gained by a wide range of stakeholders from the experience of the global pandemic, as well as the current progress and needs expressed by the countries, FAO will organize a global meeting on WGS, scoping in the topics of food safety and water surveillance within the One Health framework to bring together government officials, public health professionals, researchers, development partners and other stakeholders involved.
As the call describes it in detail, the meeting will welcome speakers and participants with various technical backgrounds from various sectors. However, because of the limited space, selection of participants will be made by FAO, based on the preset criteria listed in the call. Those who are interested should review the call and complete the application form by 4 November 2024.
Call for applications: http://www.fao.org/3/cd1864en/cd1864en.pdf
For more information
FAO Food Safety and Quality – Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) and food safety
FAO. 2016. Applications of WGS for food safety management. Rome. https://www.fao.org/3/i5619e/i5619e.pdf
Apruzzese et al. 2019. Investing in Food Safety for Developing Countries: Opportunities and Challenges in Applying Whole-Genome Sequencing for Food Safety Management. FOODBORNE PATHOGENS AND DISEASE Volume 16, Number 7. DOI: 10.1089/fpd.2018.2599
Acknowledgements: FAO gratefully acknowledges the financial and technical support for this initiative received from governments of Australia, Canada, European Union, Singapore and United States of America.
Photo credit: © FAO/Oded Antman