Dear subscribers,
we would like to apologise for a technical problem with the links in newsletter seven. The problem now has been solved and we ask for your understanding that the newsletter now be sent a second time.
With best regards,
your Co-Extra team
- Research Live (1): "Sampling is critical": Dr Marina Miraglia on GMO traceability and the need for the simplification and harmonisation of sampling
- Research Live (2): The gene hunters – First Global Conference on GMO Analysis. Approximately six hundred participants from over seventy countries attended the "First Global Conference on GMO Analysis" at Villa Erba in Como, Italy
- Online available: Public Deliverables of the Co-Extra Project
- Recent news on co-existance and traceability
- New publication: Highlights of GMO traceability programmes
- Web tip of the month: Book abstracts of GMCC07 now are available online
- Upcoming events
>> Research Live:
"Sampling is critical": Dr Marina Miraglia on GMO traceability and the need for the simplification and harmonisation of sampling
The integrity of GMO labelling in the EU is dependent on reliable controls. These, in turn, require effective sampling of the products in question, since GMOs very often are distributed unevenly in lots and products.
Co-Extra interviewed Dr Marina Miraglia of the Italian Institute for Health and of the Co-Extra Work Package 4 on the challenges, new ideas and novel approaches that are to be found today in the field of sampling for GMO testing.
Read the whole interview at www.coextra.eu
>> Research Live:
The gene hunters – First Global Conference on GMO Analysis
Approximately six hundred participants from over seventy countries attended the "First Global Conference on GMO Analysis". Held at Villa Erba in Como, Italy from 24 through 27 June 2008, the conference was organised by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission. Growing global deployment of GM crops in agricultural production and trade has led to increasing complexity. Within this context, this conference addressed the science and technology that underpins GMO control and analysis. The gathering provided a stage for experts to share knowledge and to participate in the promotion of international scientific dialogue. Drawn from diverse yet interdependent areas, conference topics included sampling for GMO analysis, analytical tools, consistency of tests results, result interpretation and harmonisation of test standards.
For more information click here.
>> Online available: Public Deliverables of the Co-Extra project
Co-Extra partners have written numerous deliverables on fundamental issues of co-existence and traceability with regard to GM and non-GM supply chains.
These deliverables address, for example, gene flow mitigation, GMO detection and sampling techniques, and the legal and social implications of coexistence and traceability.
Some of these documents are confidential to project participants and the European Commission. However, a selection of the public deliverables to date is listed and accessible through the link below. Further public deliverables will be made accessible on this site shortly.
Any member of the public may register to download these deliverables.
For more information click here.
>> Recent news on co-existence and traceability:
First Global Conference on GMO Analysis held in ComoSlovenia: Initiative for ban on GM maize
Development of new GMO detection methods: Call for tenders in frame of the SAFEFOODERA project
Still no GM cultivation in Austria
Netherlands: Hardly any mixing between GM and conventional maize
>> New publication: Highlights of GMO traceability programmes
The European Commission has financed several research and development projects on the detection and traceability of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Highlights of these programmes are presented in a book chapter written by John Davison (INRA) and Yves Bertheau (INRA, coordinator of the project Co-Extra).
For more information click here.
>> Web tip of the month:
GMCC07: Book abstracts now are available online
>> Upcoming events:
The ABIC2008 Conference: "Agricultural Biotechnology for a competitive and sustainable future"
24 – 27 August 2008, University College, Cork, Ireland
Click here for more information.
10th International Symposium on the Biosafety of Genetically Modified Organisms
16 – 21 November 2008, Wellington, New Zealand.
Click here for more information.