The European workshop on Lysteria monocytogenes in Teramo

As a European Reference Laboratory for Listeria monocytogenes (EURL-Lm), the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Abruzzo e del Molise “G. Caporale”(IZSAM) hosted on the 10th and 11th of April 2014 the eighth edition of the Workshop of the European Reference Laboratory for Lysteria monocytogenes (EURL-Lm).

The event was held at the International Centre for Veterinary Training and Information “F. Gramenzi” (CIFIV) in Teramo. Representatives of the National Reference Laboratories for Listeria monocytogenes of 27 European countries participated in the event, including France, where the EURL-Lm headquarters are. After the Health Director Giacomo Migliorati welcomed the participants, the workshop was chaired by Bertrand Lombard, responsible of the EURL-Lm. Among the other speakers, there were Dr. Martial Plantady of the DG Sanco, Dr. Valentina Rizzi of the EFSA and Dr. Alfredo Caprioli, responsible of the EURL - E. coli.

The workshop was preceded by the Steering Committee meeting (SCOM), which was held on the 9th of April, for the management of the EURL-Lm Listeria monocytogenes Database. The SCOM was constituted by the representatives of nine member states, including Italy, and was chaired by Dr. Benjamin Felix of the EURL- Lm. One of the participants was Dr. Ivo Van Walle from the ECDC (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control), who described the role of the ECDC in the analysis of the data collected in the EURL-Lm Database and their interpretation with the TESSy (European Surveillance System), which is used for the collection of metadata related to transmissible diseases.