Canadian Food Inspection Agency Science Symposium

CRICHTONA — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 04:41:21 +0000

As a representative of CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences and the CRCNPB, Darren travelled to Ontario to take up an invitation to present at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) Science Symposium entitled Better Models - Better Assessments: The Use of Models in Plant Health and Biotechnology Risk Assessment. This symposium was hosted by the CFIA’s Plant and Biotechnology Risk Assessment Unit, and took place at the Lord Elgin Hotel in Ottawa on 22-23 February 2011.

The two-day meeting presented an excellent opportunity to discuss the work being done by the CRCNPB - Understanding and responding to the risks associated with climate change and plant biosecurity (CRC10071) - with respect to the development, assessment and communication of pest risk models to diverse government and community stakeholders. The paper Darren presented was very well received. Darren was dismayed to note the number of presentations involving the use of inappropriate methods for pest risk assessment. This situation highlights the need for ongoing scientific discourse on the issues, pitfalls and solutions for pest risk assessment.

One standout positive benefit of this meeting was the discussions that Darren had with Town Peterson form Kansas University. Town is an experienced and influential ecological modeller. Darren and Twon found a great deal of common ground understanding the scientific problems with model transferability: in Town's case for exploring climate change impacts on species of conservation concern, and in Darren's for assessing pest risk on different continents, and under future climates. Town invited Darren to visit his lab to collaborate on addressing several vexing issues in ecological niche modelling.

A second benefit of this visit was the opportunity to harness some of the effort that CFIA will expend on writing up this workshop, and using it as a contribution to the Practitioner’s Guide for pest Risk Modelling and Mapping. This is an initiative of the CRCNPB and the International Pest Risk Modelling Workgroup.

Canadian Food Inspection Agency Science Symposium

CRICHTONA — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 23:39:34 +0000

As a representative of CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences and the Cooperative Research Centre for National Plant Biosecurity (CRCPNB) project Communicating Uncertainties in Biosecurity Adaption (CRC10162), David Cook travelled to Ontario to take up an invitation to present at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) Science Symposium entitled Better Models - Better Assessments: The Use of Models in Plant Health and Biotechnology Risk Assessment. This symposium was hosted by the CFIA’s Plant and Biotechnology Risk Assessment Unit, and took place at the Lord Elgin hotel in Ottawa on 22-23 February 2011.

The two-day meeting presented an excellent opportunity to discuss the work being done by the CRCNPB with respect to the assessment and communication of risk to diverse government and community stakeholders. The paper David presented was well received, and during the panel session that followed he was pleasantly surprised by the interest shown in the research ideas he presented. Particular interest in the discussion and subsequent informal conversations surrounded the engagement of industry and government stakeholders in the risk analysis process via group decision-making methods, or structured decision-making.

Although the mixture of other invited presentations was diverse, David found the overall quality of presentations very high. He found the papers by Dr Denys Yemshanov (Natural Resources Canada - Canadian Forest Service), Prof. Mike Wilkinson (University of Aberystwyth) and Dr Scott Ferson (Applied Biomathematics) highly interesting and informative. David has heard Dr Ferson speak on a number of occasions and was delighted to have the opportunity to meet him after the session to discuss opinions of risk analysis involving quantitative methods. David discovered that they are both very interested in the way that uncertainty can invoke changes in the behaviour or preferences of a decision-making group, and undertook to further discussions subsequently with the view of collaborating on future research in this area.

Other presentations of note were presented by Dr Paul De Barro (CSIRO) regarding the dynamics and evolution of research projects from inception to delivery; Dr Phil McDonald (CFIA) who outlined the very effective risk assessment procedures in place in Canada and cooperation of stakeholder industries in maximising the benefits over time of biotechnologies; and Prof. Richard Mack (Washington State University) who outlined a multi-tiered nested sieve approach to weed risk assessment involving pre- and post-border components to reduce uncertainties involved in using traditional weed risk assessment approaches based on expert opinion. David said it was a pleasure to have the opportunity to meet Prof. Mack whose work he has admired and used extensively throughout his career.

CRC for Plant Biosecurity - Canadian Food Inspection Agency

Canadian Food Inspection Agency Science Symposium

Canadian Food Inspection Agency Science Symposium