About EBSA17 - Course D - Biosafety in plant growth & plant pathogen facilities

Course Instructors

Delphine Beeckman, Bayer CropScience, Ghent/B
Rene Custers, VIB, Zwijnaarde/B
Julian Franklin, Rothamsted Research, Harpenden/UK

This 1.5 day course aims at providing researchers, biosafety professionals and facility managers a practical insight into the assessment of risk, design, operation and management of contained use activities in plant growth and plant pathogen facilities. This includes work with GMOs (plants, (non-)pathogenic micro-organisms, invertebrates) as well as with (quarantine) pests and diseases.

The learning objectives are:

• To be able to identify and understand the biohazards and risks associated with growing plants and plant pathogens.
• To understand the factors that should be considered when designing and/or assessing a facility used to grow plants and plant pathogens.
• To generate a practical view on the operation and management of such facilities, including the management of waste and incidents.
• A visit to two plant growth facilities is included in the course to demonstrate structural and operational measures aimed at maintaining containment and plant health.

Topics that will be addressed during the course include:

• Legislation
• Risk assessment of the organisms and the activities
• Facility design and assessment
• Facility management and operations
• Quality and hygiene management
• Waste management
• Incident / emergency management