P.M. N.

The course addresses the following topics:

- Introduction on environmental risk assessment (ERA) under the various EU legislation. The course will explain the basics of how to conduct ERA. In particular:

• looking at the different aspects of the environment and environmental compartments;
• exercises in problem formulation to better identify the aspects of the environment that need to be protected from harm, according to environmental protection goals as set by EU legislation;
• how to conduct the selection of non-target organisms for risk assessment evaluation studies, and how to gather relevant evidence. It will include the application and use of statistics to the measurable endpoint results with appropriate interpretation of the biological relevance of statistically significant results;
• environmental exposure assessment. For each of the environmental compartments, scenario models can be selected to generate data and to link environmental exposure assessment to environmental effects;
• life-stage analysis. The developmental stages of wildlife are linked with their temporal and spatial distribution Life stage analysis becomes most relevant when exposure patterns are known, and one can investigate whether exposure is likely to have a detrimental effect at a specifically sensitive life stage, with subsequent population level effects, using appropriate modelling tools.
• Short introduction to Risk Communication.

The course addresses the following topics:

• Food intoxication versus food infection
• Serious risk perception vs Qualified Presumption of Safety
• Genome sequencing
• Pathogen-product pathway
• The disease triangle (pathogen virulence-host susceptibility-food matrix)
• Sources of dose-response data (human volunteer feeding studies, epidemiological data, animal studies, in vitro studies)
• Modelling dose-response relationship (types of models, selection of dose-response model)
• Microbial processes (such as growth and inactivation of microorganisms) and food handling processes (such as cross-contamination), statistical inference
• Qualitative and qualitative (deterministic vs. stochastic) models, simple vs. structured models
• Uncertainty and variability in exposure assessment
• Sensitivity analysis and “what if” scenariosRisk management aspects specifically related to microbiological risk assessment and other related issues (e.g. antimicrobial resistance, BSE and other TSE prions)
• Risk communication