International activity of SSCIBSM
1. From January 16 to 20, 2023, within the framework of the International Technical Assistance Project “Countering the Threats of Particularly Dangerous Pathogens in Ukraine”, a SSCIBSM employee (Pinchuk N.G.) together with specialists from the State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety and Consumer Protection (SSUFSCP) took part in the training of the Instructor Training Program (trainers). The purpose of the event is to train national trainers in biosafety and biosecurity, epidemiology, laboratory diagnostics and writing scientific papers based on international experience.
During the training, the participants improved their knowledge and skills in using the feedback methodology in teaching biosafety and biosecurity topics, and had the opportunity to conduct their own mini-training and receive feedback from international experts on the technical part of lectures and teaching.
Given the situation in Ukraine, gaining knowledge on biorisk management and teaching methods of its transmission to the relevant categories of employees is important not only in terms of developing and supporting Ukrainian specialists today, but also enables effective development of our country in the future.
2. On 24 January 2023, experts of the Risk Assessment Sector of the SSUFSCP, with the support of the EU4SaferFood Project and the Swiss-Ukrainian QFTP Programme, held an online seminar for scientists from research institutes of the SSUFSCP and relevant scientific organisations within the framework of the signed Memorandums of Cooperation on Risk Assessment. The event was attended by about 70 participants, including an employee of the SSCIBSM (Pinchuk N.G.).
In order to achieve the objectives of this event, the seminar covered the following topics:
- the need and status of implementation of science-based risk assessment activities in the SSUFSCP;
- the main requirements of the Standard Operating Procedure of the State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety and Consumer Protection on the general approach to risk assessment in the field of veterinary medicine, food and feed safety (hereinafter – Risk Assessment SOP);
- define the role of scientific expert risk assessment groups (hereinafter referred to as SERAGs), the procedure for selecting candidates and establishing SERAGs;
- the creation of an expert database (hereinafter referred to as the EDB) and a scientific organisations network (hereinafter referred to as the SON) for the purposes of conducting a science-based risk assessment and the procedure for forming the EDB and SON were discussed.
At the end of the workshop, the next steps for the establishment of the SERAGs, the EDB and the SON and the deadlines for submitting the necessary documents to the SSUFSCP were highlighted.
The workshop participants noted the relevance of developing risk assessment activities in Ukraine and expressed interest in further cooperation.
Additionally. The main task of the Risk Assessment Sector of the SSUFSCP is to coordinate risk assessment in the field of veterinary medicine, food and feed safety and to provide science-based advice to the management of the service to take appropriate measures and decisions to manage identified risks. In recent years, the SSUFSCP, with comprehensive technical support from QFTP and EU4SaferFood experts, has made significant progress in developing its food safety risk assessment activities, which has been recognised by representatives of the European Commission, EFSA and other international organisations.
1. 1. On 4 and 11 January 2022, the staff of the SSCIBSM (Z. Krestova, M. Babkin, N. Pinchuk, O. Deryabin, O. Napnenko, O. Romanenko, O. Vatlitsova), with the participation of a representative of the SSUFSCP (S. Skliarenko), participated in online meetings with American partners (Leidos STEP team – Keith Herndon, Moe Long, Jason Farlow, Edan Tulman, Greg Glass, Mario Straka, Scott. E. Yoder, Steven Geary) on project planning – SSCIBSM, Leidos STEP team, project planning call (Ukraine, Kyiv – SSCIBSM).
2. On 22 April 2022, the Deputy Director of the SSCIBSM for Scientific Work (Professor Z.S. Krestova) attended the conference “Chance for Science”, organised by the University of Leipzig, with a report: “Rapid detection of pathogens in water by surface plasmon resonance” (Germany, Leipzig).
3. Despite the hostilities and the difficult situation in Ukraine, the Head of the Department of Bacteriological Research and Quality Control of Veterinary Immunobiological Products (VIP) of the State Scientific and Control Institute of Biotechnology and Microbial Strains (SSCIBSM) of the State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety and Consumer Protection (SSUFSCP), Candidate of Veterinary Sciences, Senior Researcher Nataliia Pinchuk, as part of the delegation of Ukraine, was able to participate (poster session) from 23 to 29 of April 2022, and adequately represent the country at the 10th International Conference on Bacillus anthracis, B. cereus and B. thuringiensis – BACT 2022 (France, Paris). DTRA supported the preparation of this research presentation and the participation of representatives from Ukraine in the conference.
4. From 3 to 6 May 2022, the Deputy Director of the SSCIBSM for Scientific Work (Professor Z. Krestova), with the support of the Threat Reduction Unit, within the framework of the project “Against the Dangers of Particularly Dangerous Pathogens in Ukraine” and with the support of CH2M Hill, Inc. participated in the “2nd ABSA International Biosafety Symposium” (USA, Minneapolis).
5. From 10 to 11 May 2022, the Deputy Director of the SSCIBSM for Scientific Work (Professor Z. Krestova) participated in the “1st International Congress of Modern Science” with a report: “New biological systems for the detection of pathogens of animal viral infections” (Uzbekistan, Tashkent). Also, on 10 May 2022, Professor Z. Krestova held Section 1 (Hall 2) as the head of the Section at the mentioned Congress.
6. From 19 to 20 May 2022, the Deputy Director of the SSCIBSM for Scientific Work (Professor Z. Krestova), within the framework of the project “Against the Dangers of Particularly Dangerous Pathogens in Ukraine” and with the support of CH2M Hill, Inc. as part of the Ukrainian delegation, as a member of the EBSA, took part in the “23rd Annual Conference of the European Biosafety Association” (Belgium, Ghent).
7. Within the framework of the International Technical Assistance Project “Countering the Threats of Particularly Dangerous Pathogens in Ukraine” (Project Registration Card No. 4560 of 3 November, 2020), the Programme for the Training of Instructors (Trainers) has been launched.
From 10 to 21 October 2022, the staff of the SSCIBSM (N. Pinchuk, O. Napnenko, O. Romanenko), under the organisation of CH2M HILL, Inc. (CH2M) / Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. (Jacobs), which is a Biological Threat Reduction Programme (BTRP) implementing partner in cooperation with the University of Washington / International Center for Health Education and Training (I-TECH), USA, participated in the first online Module “Adult Learning Methods and Facilitation of Training Events” (Ukraine, Kyiv- SSCIBSM).
8. From 24 to 27 October 2022, the staff of the SSCIBSM (N. Pinchuk, O. Romanenko), under the organisation of the Ch2M HILL, Inc. Company, which is the integrating contractor for the implementation of the Biological Threat Reduction Programme (BTRP) of the U.S. Department of Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) in Ukraine, took part online in the International Biological Threat Reduction Symposium (IBTRS 2022) (Ukraine, Kyiv – SSCIBSM).
