SFAM conference - day two

Name: Samantha Price

Location: Clontarf Castle, Dublin, Ireland

Date: 5^thJuly 2011

Event: SfAM Summer Conference 2011 (Food microbiology)

The first session on ‘Pathogen Updates' began with Chris Low (Scottish Agricultural college) who talked about verotoxigenic Escherichia coli and how there are higher rates of E. coli O157 in Scotland compared to the rest of the UK. This talk was particularly relevant considering the recent E. coli outbreak.

Simon Park (University of Surrey) continued with an organism that rarely hits the headlines; Campylobacter. It was intriguing to know that Campylobacter's haemoglobin (Cgb) actually protects it against Nitric oxide which is produced by the stomach.

Before morning tea and coffee Marion Koopmans (RIVM) brought foodborne viruses to our attention. Having never considered these as a potential cause of foodborne disease it was fascinating to know that viruses are the highest cause of foodborne disease, even though bacteria cause more hospital admissions.

John Threlfall (HPA) talked about the different serotypes of Salmonella and was then followed by Mike Peck (Institute of Food Research) who gave us some shocking statistics about Clostridium botulinum (such as 3g of botulism neurotoxin could kill all of the UK!).

During the lunchbreak delegates were able to view the trade show before the final two talks of the ‘pathogen updates' session. Seamus Fanning (University College Dublin) told us about a species of Cronobacter with Niall Logan (Glasgow Caledonian University) talking about Bacillus and their importance in food.

The second session on ‘Epidemiology of foodborne disease' included talks from the World Health Organization's Hilde Kruse on the challenges faced by food safety. Marion Wooldridge (AHVLA) talked about the importance of climate change and how it may impact diseases. Vector borne viruses are just one example of how great an impact climate change can have, leading them to a change in host (e.g. from the yellow fever mosquito [Ae. Aegypti] to the Asian tiger mosquito). The final talk was by Alec Kyriakides (Sainsbury's) who gave us an insight to the ‘retailer's perspective and also re-emphasised the importance of the role of social media.

The final talks were from the Student session entitled ‘Enhance your employability'. This was a brilliant session and all students thoroughly enjoyed it. SfAM's Clare Doggett talked about interview skills which linked with SfAM's Lucy Harper's interactive talk on communication. Mark Fielder (Kingston University) provided a humorous talk on how to do a good and bad presentation with Sorcha Mulcahy (University College Dublin) finishing with a talk about getting the most from your CV. This session was very useful and made me aware of what is ‘key' when you want to stand out in the job market.

After Dinner a Quiz night was held in the evening, which was a fun opportunity to get to know members and have fun answering a general knowledge quiz - that proved harder than anyone first anticipated!