CFIA and ANSES reinforce collaboration
Dr Primal Silva, acting VP at CFIA, and Roger Genet, director general of Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire de l'alimentation, de l'environnement et du travail (ANSES) said the purpose is to share scientific information and enhance cooperation on risk assessment, research and analytical reference activities.
ANSES and the CFIA have previously worked together in food safety as well as animal and plant health.
CFIA is known as l’Agence canadienne d’inspection des aliments (ACIA) in French.
ANSES’s Laboratory for Food Safety, via the national "Identypath" technology platform for identification and typing of pathogens, has research projects with the CFIA.
The agreement will formalize scientific cooperation on research at the CFIA network of 13 reference and research laboratories and 11 ANSES labs throughout France.
Dr Silva said the agreement allows scientists and labs to better work together on science and best practices that protect people, the environment and the economy.
“In a globalized world where Canada trades internationally, threats such as foreign animal diseases, invasive species and anti-microbial resistance are global issues that know no borders.”
Joint work will develop research on genomics (the study of DNA sequences) and proteomics (the study of proteins) to better understand food and animal diseases and how they are detected.
Scientific techniques, such as DNA Barcoding and whole genome sequencing, are already used by the CFIA to detect and study foodborne illness, invasive species, plant and animal diseases.
Partnerships have also been set up with the animal health laboratory at Maisons-Alfort, as an OIE Collaborating Centre for research on parasitic zoonoses of food origin and the lab at Fougères, which is responsible for detection of veterinary drug residues and colouring agents.
NIEHS’s National Toxicology Program (NTP) also formalized a partnership with ANSES.
Interest is around the NTP model of conducting toxicological research for public health science and the systematic review process to ensure the use of sound science for NTP decision-making.
