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Scientific Programme and call for abstracts
INTRODUCTION
The conference programme covers epidemiology, risk assessment, toxin monitoring, analytical methods for use in microbiology, physico-chemistry and biochemistry, consumer health protection, farming area management, post-harvest treatment, and macro-economic analysis of the repercussions of shellfishfarming crises. Round-tables will be organised to discuss “hot topics”.
Conference Topics
Chemical contaminants
This topic will cover various aspects of the presence of chemical contaminants in shellfish as well as their potential risks for consumers. Such contaminants can originate from the environment (land runoffs, estuaries) or be produced by post-harvest treatments. Among the numerous questions to be addressed, this topic will include: the identification of hazardous compounds, contribution of shellfish to human exposure and oxidative reactions following purification process. Special attention will be paid to international regulations and directives, like the REACH programme, European regulation of biocide products and European Water Framework directive.
Keywords: Contaminants exposure, chemical risk assessment, environmental contaminants, bioaccumulation, trace metals, PCBs, dioxins, PAHs, pesticides, disinfection by-products, FWD, REACH.
Microbiological issues
The emergence of pathogens including viral, bacterial and protozoan agents of gastro-enteritis and the consequent incidence of both water- and food-borne diseases is expected to increase as a result of global climate change. Rising temperatures, changing in precipitation patterns, and extreme weather events will affect the ecology and dynamics of living micro-organisms (adaptation and selection of pathogens). In this topic, special attention will be paid to the detection and characterisation of emerging pathogens. This topic will also focus on the determination of contamination origin (human or animal) and microbial source tracking.
Keywords: Environment and health; global climate and environmental changes; emerging pathogens and diseases; enteric bacteria, viruses and parasites, pathogenic marine micro-organisms; real-time detection and molecular typing methods; contamination origin; microbial source tracking.
Marine biotoxins
The Marine biotoxins topic will cover the recent international scientific efforts on toxin identification (existing and emerging), detection methods, their toxicity and risks for consumers. Modes of action of marine toxins have become the basis of both toxicology studies and detection methods. Toxic effects on consumers following the ingestion of shellfish containing multiple toxin groups (additive, synergistic or antagonistic effects) is another area that warrants further research. This topic will also focus on the recent advances in marine toxin reference materials and analytical methods, European legislation on marine biotoxins and future developments.
Keywords: Marine toxins, shellfish toxicity, emerging toxins, multitoxins detection methods, new alternative tests, toxin reference materials.
Pathogenicity, epidemiology and toxicology
The consumption of shellfish is a substantial source of foodborne poisoning (epidemic or sporadic) mostly linked to fecal contamination of the marine environment (Norovirus, Hepatitis A virus, Salmonella, etc.). Shellfish also contain naturally occurring halophilic Vibrio that may cause severe infections particularly among immunocompromised consumers. Shellfish contaminated by dinoflagellate toxins can cause outbreaks of paralytic, amnesic or diarrheic shellfish poisoning. Chemical compounds (heavy metals, organic toxins) dumped in the environment may also contaminate shellfish.
However the acute or chronic effects of chemical contamination have not been clearly documented. Information available to the public about the health hazards associated with shellfish consumption is a key aspect of reinforced shellfish-borne disease prevention. The global increase in consumption of shellfish since the early 1970s and new shellfish consumption habits have increased the potential impact of this public health hazard.
Keywords: Shellfish food-borne poisoning; Shellfish-borne diseases; epidemiology, outbreaks, prevention, public health, pathogenicity, toxicology.
Early warning systems and monitoring
The risks related to pathogen emergence in countries with intensive shellfish-farming activity have increased in recent years. As a result there is a need to collect more quantitative information on pathogen concentrations in coastal areas and to improve health risk assessment so as to set up real
time warning systems. Phycotoxin monitoring networks have been developed worldwide, but, unlike
microbiology networks, they suffer from a lack of reliable toxicity indicators. There is also a need for rapid quantitative detection methods for toxin contents of phytoplankton assemblages.
Keywords: Sanitary control, pathogen monitoring, phycotoxin monitoring, optical detection systems, remote sensing, real time sensors, predictive models, source species identification, contamination indicators, real-time stream flow.
Risk Assessment
Food risk assessment in relation to shellfish consumption obviously needs further data to allow : i) identification of the agents implicated in food-born diseases (pathogens, toxins and pollutants), ii) qualitative and/or quantitative assessment of adverse health effects (dose-response relationship), iii) realistic exposure scenarios and iv) probability of occurrence and severity of adverse health effects in a given population. Consideration will be made of emerging risks related to the extension of aquaculture areas and climate change.
Keywords: Hazard identification of toxins and contaminants, dose-response assessment, epidemiological studies, outbreak inventory, exposure assessment, risk characterization, emerging risk.
Post-harvest treatment
Depuration methods are known to reduce faecal contamination indicators but are not suitable for Vibrio or Norovirus contaminations. More research work is therefore expected in this field. With regards to phycotoxin detoxification, few systems have been tested so far at semi-industrial scale and none are currently available for producers. Safe storage systems also need further technical improvements. Technico-economical aspects like the analysis of crisis repercussions, should also be considered.
Keywords: Depuration, relaying, high pressure processing, heat treatment, radiation treatment, cryogenic freezing techniques, ozone treatment, seawater cleansing treatment.
Management and regulation
Management decisions follow a structured approach, of science-based risk assessment taking into account other legitimate factors relevant to the protection of consumers health and the promotion of fair practices in the food trade. Management must consider relevant production, storage and handling practices used throughout the food chain including traditional practices, methods of analysis, sampling and inspection and the prevalence of specific adverse health effects. Management decisions can be taken by covering and or associating preventive measures, implementation of regulations, or guidelines for good production and manufacturing practices, control and monitoring plans etc. Sharing information on the efficiency of management decisions or options is a useful way to improve consumer protection and facilitate food trade.
Keywords: Preventive measures, regulations, good production and manufacturing practices, control and monitoring plans, HACCP.
These conference topics will be allotted to the time slots in the session plan as abstracts are accepted and the meeting organisation finalised.
Organising Committees
Local Organising Committee (Ifremer)
Patrick Lassus
Sophie Pilven
Jean Michel Devaux
Henri Loreal
Emmanuel Thouard
Jessica Maillot
Joëlle Guillard
Sébastien Lafargue
Scientific Committee (French Administration, Research Institutes and Organisations)
Patrick Lassus
Jean Marc Frémy / Nathalie Arnich
Ronel Biré
Véronique Vaillant / Bruno Hubert
Philippe Glize
Anthony Massé
Sébastien Chantereau
Dominique Hervio-Heath / Monique Pommepuy
Zouher Amzil
Alain Abarnou
Myriam Carpentier
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IFREMER
AFSSA
AFSSA
InVS
SMIDAP
Université de Nantes
CNC
IFREMER
IFREMER
IFREMER
DPMA et DGAL
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International Advisory Committee
Douglas MacLeod (United Kingdom)
Dorothy Leonard (USA)
Tore Aune (Norway)
Patrick Lassus (France)
David Lees (United Kingdom)
Mitsuaki Nishibuchi (Japan) |
Gary Richards (USA)
Joe Silke (Ireland)
Lahsen Ababouch (Maroc)
Phil Busby (New Zealand)
Dinora Medina (Uruguay)
Rowena Linehan (Canada)
Helene Smale (New Zealand) |
Call for presentations and abstract submission
guidelines
General information on presentations
The call is now open for oral or poster presentations. Presentations are welcome on all the conference topics covered by the ICMSS09. Each oral presentation will be allotted 20 min (15 min presentation +5 min questions), including discussion and changeover to the next speaker. Keynote presentations (invited speakers) will be allotted 30 min.
A permanent poster exhibition will be displayed on the Mezzanine floor of the conference centre. Posters should be designed with a format of 95 (width) x 150 cm (height) so as to be compatible with the panels of the poster stands. Authors are asked to first submit an abstract of their presentation for review and selection: preference will be given to innovative results, new methods, original material and promising approaches.
The scientific committee reserves the right to ask that an oral presentation be changed to a poster or vice versa, to help ensure the organisation of balanced thematic sessions.
Abstracts will only be considered if at least one of the authors has paid the full registration fee.
All the abstracts correctly presented in the abstract form, according to the instructions (i.e not exceeding 300 words) and accepted by the reviewing committee will be included in the Book of Abstracts to be distributed to at the beginning of the conference. Each first author will receive an acknowledgement of receipt as soon as the abstract is sent out to the Conference organisers for review.
Deadline
Abstracts should be submitted online to the conference secretary before December 15th, 2008. Authors will be notified of whether their abstracts have been accepted within six weeks from this date.
Submission and editorial instructions
Abstracts should preferably be submitted by completing the abstract online form. This form will automatically format your abstract and generate a .pdf that you can save on your computer.
We prefer abstract submission to be made using the online abstract form.
If the online submission does not function correctly, electronic versions of the abstract can be sent directly to the conference secretary (icmss09@ifremer.fr). For this last option, the type and version number of the software (e.g. Word office 2000) and format (PC or MAC) should be given. For all submissions please carefully follow the instructions for abstract preparation given below, so as to respect the standardized format :
Editorial instructions :
 Please use a single font, preferably Arial; paragraphs should not be indented
TITLE :
Arial, bold, size 12, lower case except for the first letter with initial letters of each word as capitals, scientific names in italics. Put a double space between title and authors list
AUTHORS :
Arial, bold, size 10, full names in bold upper and lower case. The presenting author should be identified with an asterisk. Leave a double space between the author list and the affiliations.
AFFILIATIONS :
Arial, bold, size 10, lower case (except for the first letter), should follow the authors list and use the following order: Institution (division, branch, and postal address details should be omitted), Zip / Postal code, City, State, Country. Leave a double space between the affiliations and the body of the abstract
ABSTRACT TEXT :
Arial, normal, size 10. Put a double space between paragraphs. Do not put any figures or tables in the abstract.
Abstract text should not exceeding 300 words. Put a double space between the body of the abstract and the keywords.
KEYWORDS :
Arial, normal, size 10
No more than 8 keywords should be used. Please choose preferentially from the lists given under conference topics.
Abstract submission form
Conference audio-visual facilities
Delegates giving Power Point presentations should bring their presentations on USB keys or CDROMs (preferably two different supports to avoid any incompatibilities). The presentation should be loaded onto the hard drive of the dedicated PC connected to the video-projector well before the beginning of the session, i.e prior to the previous session. Presentations prepared with an earlier version of Power Point than Microsoft Office XP should preferably be opened and saved on the hard drive of the dedicated PC.
Conference proceedings
The conference proceedings will include accepted papers based on either oral presentation or posters. These will be published as a book and made available to participants after the conference but as part of the registration fee. Full manuscripts will be reviewed and edited by a panel of experts.
Instructions for the preparation of full manuscripts are the same as for the journal ‘Aquatic Living Resources’, and can be consulted on the web site: www.alr-journal.org. There will be no page charges for publication of manuscripts in the conference proceedings. Papers should be submitted to the conference secretary no later than August 1st, 2009.
Invited Speakers
LAHSEN ABABOUCH IAC, Keynote Speaker, session chairman
 Talk Title : International initiatives to promote shellfish safety
Doctor Lahsen Ababouch is the Chief of the Fish Utilization and Marketing Service at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome, Italy. Before joining FAO in June 2000, he was Professor at the King Hassan II Institute of Agronomy and Veterinary Medicine, in Rabat, Morocco, where in addition to teaching and research, he held advisory positions for research, industry outreach, bilateral trade agreements and agribusiness. He has written some 75 scientific publications, including books and book chapters, and some 118 scientific and technical communications in seafood technology, safety and quality. In 1996, he was awarded the King Baudouin Award for Excellence in Research by the International Foundation for Science (IFS, Stockholm, Sweden) and in 2004, the Distinguished Leadership Award for Internationals by the University of Minnesota (USA). He has wide experience in training, research and capacity building in fish and seafood technology, safety and trade, in over 60 developing countries mainly in Africa, Arab countries, Asia and the Pacific.
TORE AUNE IAC, Keynote Speaker , session chairman
 Talk Title : Oral toxicity of mixtures of lipophilic marine algal toxins in mice
Tore Aune has been involved in research on marine algal toxins in seafood as a toxicologist since late 1980ties. He has acted as head of the Norwegian Reference Laboratory for marine algal toxins and Professor in Food Toxicology at Norwegian School of Veterinary Science until September 2008, when he was Professor emeritus. In addition, he has participated in several international expert groups dealing with toxicology and risk assessment associated with these toxins. He has also been leader of several research projects within this field and he participates in collaborative work together with many experts world wide.
PHIL BUSBY IAC, Speaker, session chairman
 Talk Title : Management of Norovirus contaminated shellfish production areas : where are we now and where are we going ?
Phil has been responsible for all public health aspects of the New Zealand Shellfish Quality Assurance Programme since 1989. Prior to that he was a Public Health Inspector in the NZ Department of Health.
In 1992, after extensive discussion with the shellfish industry, Phil wrote the first New Zealand Shellfish Standard and in 2006 drafted and put in place the Bivalve Molluscan Shellfish Regulated Control Scheme (commonly known as the BMSRCS) comprising new shellfish safety regulations and specifications. These contain specific management requirements for virus contaminated production areas. Phil has been involved in the management, including international recall, of norovirus contaminated production areas under both the 1992 and 2006 standards. Phil has participated in a number of international conferences on shellfish growing area classification and management, including the United States Interstate Shellfish Sanitation Conferences, the EC Coastal-ERA Net Workshop in Tarragona, the WHO-USEPA Safe Management of Shellfish Harvest Waters Workshop in Kuala Lumpur and the recent EU-USFDA shellfish Growing Area Classification Workshop in Weymouth. He has been a member of the International Advisory Committee for the International Conference on Molluscan Shellfish Safety for many years.
PATRICK LASSUS IAC, ICMSS09 chair
French marine biologist with 32 years experience in the fields of marine ecotoxicology, marine toxins / phycotoxins and phytoplankton. Research interests in toxic phytoplankton diagnosis, phycotoxin uptake and elimination by edible mollusc bivalves and detoxification processes. Currently Research Projects supervisor at IFREMER Nantes, France.
DR DAVID LEES IAC, session chairman
 David has more than 25 years experience in human health microbiology including disease diagnosis and monitoring, virological research, algal biotoxin monitoring, statutory related programmes and Reference laboratory activities. David leads the Food Safety group at Cefas Weymouth laboratory, UK. The Food Safety group focuses on molluscan shellfish safety and is funded mainly by the UK Food Standards Agency and Food Standards Agency Scotland, the European Commission and by the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. The group has about 50 staff including students and covers activities associated with; European Food Regulations - monitoring shellfisheries for algal biotoxins, sanitary surveys, classification of shellfish harvesting areas, approval of purification plants and reference laboratory activities; advice on sewage discharges; and research on marine vibrio's and viruses. David advises UK Government and the European Commission on issues related to shellfish hygiene. CEFAS Weymouth is the designated UK National and European Community Reference Laboratory (CRL) for bacterial and viral contamination of bivalve molluscs. David is Director of the CRL.
DOROTHY L. LEONARD IAC, session chairwoman
 Ms. Leonard is a graduate of Syracuse University, Maxwell School of Political Science. Following 20 years with NOAA Fisheries and Ocean Service she now provides consulting services in risk communication, shellfish restoration, aquaculture development, natural resource management and land use planning services. She Co-Chaired six U.S. conferences of the International Conference on Shellfish Restoration, serves on the International Advisory Committee of the International Conference on Molluscan Shellfish Safety and chaired the 2004 International Workshop on Molluscan Shellfish Safety. For the ISSC, Ms. Leonard chairs Restoration and Resolutions committees and serves as facilitator s to develop Vibrio vulnificus (Vv) Risk Management Plans
ROWENA LINEHAN IAC, session chairman
DOUG MCLEOD IAC, Round-table speaker, session chairman
 Talk Title : An industry perspective on the monitoring of marine biotoxins. Don Quixote revisited
Doug McLeod has a background in resource economics, an expertise which has been applied in both his original professional career in the international oil industry and now in his second ‘incarnation’ in the aquaculture sector. As well as establishing a small scale oyster cultivation operation in northwest Scotland and operating as a freelance consultant, he has acted as Chairman of both the national representative trade association, the ‘Association of Scottish Shellfish Growers’ (ASSG), a role he has carried out for 20 years, and the national, trans-sectoral ‘Scottish Aquaculture Training Association’. On the European scene, he is a Past President of the ‘European Mollusc Producers’ Association’, the multi-national ‘association of associations’ representing the European industry, an ‘Invited Expert’ on the Board of the European Aquaculture Society, and, until recently, a Board member of ‘AquaTT’, the pan-European vocational training organisation for the aquaculture industry. Internationally, he is a member of the Advisory Committee for the ‘International Conference on Molluscan Shellfish Safety’ (ICMSS), an ‘Invited Expert’ on the Board of the ‘European Aquaculture Society’, and a voting industry member on the ‘Presidential Task Force on biotoxins’ of the AOAC. In addition, reflecting established collaboration with shellfish interests in the significant shellfish market of China, he has formed a specialist consultancy to foster international cooperation, ‘Asia~Scotland Technology & Training Ltd’, including advice on market access issues. For the past two decades he has spent most of his time representing the interests of the shellfish cultivation industry in what he perceives to have been a on going series of discussions with government officials, politicians, scientists and regulators across Scotland, London and Brussels, as well as organising the high profile ‘Annual International Conference’ each autumn for the ASSG. He has now relocated to Adelaide, SA, where his wife, Catherine, has a position as Senior Research Scientist (Shellfish Food Safety) with SARDI, and as a result he expects to expand the amount of time dedicated to activities as an aquaculture consultant. In his spare time Doug has participated in numerous shellfish related projects, including the delivery of vocational training courses in China, ‘MARINVEST’ (an EU-funded technical consultancy to environmental and food hygiene Competent Authorities in China) and ‘KEYZONES’ (modelling of carrying capacity for shellfish cultivation), as well as participating in a broad spectrum of Conferences related to shellfish issues (ICMSS, Seafood Plus, WAS, FAO, etc).
DINORAH MEDINA IAC, session chairwoman
Veterinary doctor, with 30 years of experience and in charge of the Biotoxin monitoring programme of Uruguay.
In the past Dinorah leaded the Analysis and Certification Laboratory and actually is the responsible of the Certification Unit of Shellfish and Fishery Products, of the National Direction of Aquatic Resources.
Also shares the responsibility of the Latin American Molluscus Inoc net.
MITSUAKI NISHIBUCHI IAC, Keynote Speaker, session chairman
Talk Title : Recent trend in infections by Vibrio parahaemolyticus and distribution of this bacterium in shellfish in Asia
Affiliation: Professor of Center for Southeast Asian Studies and Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Japan. Educational and Professional carrier: Ph. D. in Microbiology at Oregon State Univ., USA; postdoctoral research associate in Bacterial Genetics Section, Center for Vaccine Development, Univ. of Maryland School of Medicine, USA; Assistant, Division of Bacteriology and Immunology, Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Osaka Univ., Japan; Assistant Professor and Associate Professor, Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Kyoto Univ., Japan.
GARY RICHARDS IAC, Keynote Speaker, session chairman
 Talk Title : “Pursuit of Methods to Propagate Norovirus: Decades of Research”
Gary Richards is the Lead Scientist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service in Dover, Delaware (USA). He received his doctorate in Molecular and Cellular Biology and Pathobiology from the Medical University of South Carolina and has over 30 years of experience as a Research Microbiologist. In 1998, he established the USDA’s Microbial Safety of Aquaculture Products Center of Excellence in Dover, where he is responsible for the design, conduct, and coordination of a diverse basic and applied research program in aquaculture and seafood safety. His research focuses on: developing enteric virus and vibrio assay methods for shellfish, identifying and characterizing virulence enzymes in vibrios, and establishing processing interventions to inactivate noroviruses and vibrios in shellfish. The program is nationally and internationally recognized for its research and technology transfer activities. Gary is an active participant of numerous scientific societies.
JOE SILKE IAC, Keynote Speaker, session chairman
Talk Title : Long term data sets and shellfish toxins in Ireland
Joe Silke is a section manager within the Marine Environment and Food Safety Services of the Irish Marine Institute. This unit of the MI is responsible for shellfish food safety and carries out the National Shellfish and Phytoplankton Monitoring Programmes. With a background in the aquaculture industry and research interests in phytoplankton and oceanography, he has special interest in the monitoring and management of Harmful Algal Bloom events and is the current chair of the ICES working group on Harmful Algal Bloom Dynamics. The multidisciplinary team in the Marine Institute includes chemists and phytoplankton biologists involved in the analysis of shellfish from around the coast. The programme is carried out in co-operation with the Irish Food Safety Authority and the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, and has links with several other national and international agencies.
HELEN SMALE IAC, Round-table Speaker, session chairwoman
Talk Title : Case study of the Aquaculture Industry (to be précised)
Helen joined the aquaculture industry in 1996 from a background in health science and dairy industry quality assurance.
Helen manages the Marlborough Shellfish Quality Programme (MSQP). MSQP is the organisation that manages the water quality programmes on behalf of industry in collaboration with the regulatory authorities. MSQP covers the largest of the aquaculture growing areas in New Zealand, positioned in the top of the South Island and incorporates between 80 and 90% of the quarter billion dollar industry’s growing waters. Helen’s work predominately involves management of the sampling and testing programmes, liaising with science providers and regulatory authorities, representing industry on quality issues and providing leadership of the programme and its ongoing development. Increasingly MSQP is taking a proactive role in ensuring water quality standards are maintained. She was instrumental, working with the Cawthron Institute, in the development and adoption of the LCMS biotoxin methodology.
Helen has also been a member of and managed the Industry Biotoxin Committee, which provides a national forum for the water quality programmes, and has represented the NZ aquaculture industry on the National Technical Committee and the NZ Seafood Standards Council. In 2007 Helen was co-Chairman of the ICMSS.
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