PLANT BIOSECURITY
IN THEORY & PRACTICE
Short Course
Plant Health – our lives depend on it!
Why Plant Biosecurity Matters
Global trade and travel have greatly increased the dissemination of newly emerged and recurrent pathogens and pests around the planet, some causing severe and long-term impacts.
Plant Biosecurity in Theory and Practice provides a broad overview of the challenges and consequences to plant health that result from the emergence and spread of invasive plant pathogens and pests with considerations for impacts and preparedness.
Join us to learn about plant biosecurity through case studies, exercises, and biosecurity preparedness planning with an eye towards protecting plant systems to keep people healthy.
Course Dates TBD
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Forensic & Desktop Exercise
Lab Experience
Participants will engage in a desktop exercise to analyze a disease outbreak from a forensic perspective. Teams will be provided a scenario, evidence and an opportunity to determine, whether the outbreak was intentional, accidental, or natural. How good are your investigative skills?
Case Studies
Instructors from several countries will present case studies involving diverse agents and plant systems, the response efforts that either succeeded or failed, while highlighting how events play out in the real world. Case studies include microbes and arthropods that impact natural and agricultural plant systems, providing an eye-opening view of biological invasions in several countries.
Participants will receive expert training in the Biosecurity Research Institute’s (BRI) mock biocontainment training lab; a near-exact replica of an actual containment lab. BRI’s biosafety staff will teach proper use of biocontainment equipment and space, safe and secure handling of high consequence organisms, and essential biosecurity and biosafety practices.
Optional Lab Experience: A limited number of participants can choose an experience in an operational biosafety level 3 containment lab under the supervision of experienced BSL-3 researchers. Participants will conduct a short exercise with a high consequence pathogen.
Biosecurity Plan Development
Assigned to teams, participants will develop biosecurity plans for a nation, a commodity, and an agent. Experienced team leaders will guide the development of the plans, followed by a group discussion to identify the elements of a good biosecurity plan.
INSTRUCTORS
Kansas State University
Course Coordinator, PBTP
University of Hawaii at Manoa
Associate Professor
Kansas State University
Research Assistant Professor
Oklahoma State University
Advocate Ag Biosecurity & International Scientific Diplomacy
Hebrew University, Jerusalem
Head of Laboratory for Pest Management Research, Institute of Agricultural Engineering
Kansas State University
Director, Biosecurity Research Institute
Kansas State University
Assistant Vice President for Research, Biosafety Officer
Tyler Jones
Kansas State University
Biosafety Specialist
Kansas State University
Biosafety Specialist
Murdoch University
Deputy Vice Chancellor Global Engagement
Director, Harry Butler Institute
La Trobe University
Professor in BRC
Kansas State University
Biosafety Specialist
New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited
Principal Scientist & Team Leader
Kansas State University
University Distinguished Professor
National Academy of Sciences
GENERAL AGENDA
“This course is really good. It has been a real learning experience for me in terms of how different countries address biosecurity and what is important. Just the exposure. The case studies have been amazing in terms of how different countries are dealing with things and how they go about investigating. This has been a very worthwhile course for all of us.”– Toni Chapman
Francesco Martoni, Ph.D.
Research Scientist - Entomology
Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action
“I left New Zealand with not many
expectations and came back convinced that such an experience should be mandatory for any student, even those just remotely involved in biosecurity.”
Grant Smith, Ph.D.
Principal Scientist & Team Leader
New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited
“This course has been great. I think it is a great introduction to anyone thinking about coming to plant biosecurity to see the width and the depth of issues that plant biosecurity has. For someone who has been in plant biosecurity for a long time, it is a great refresher to remind us there’s a lot more out there than the little things we tend to get preoccupied and focused on in our own research.”
Jacqueline Fletcher, Ph.D.
Advocate Ag Biosecurity & International Scientific Diplomacy
Oklahoma State University
“The threats are going to continue. This
course is the most thoughtful and
compelling preparation that I know of
for young professionals in Plant Pathology.“