Risk assessment of food safety aspects of new animal disease - practical application

Summary

​Zoonotic diseases, including those that can be transmitted via meat are well known. Many newly recognised human diseases are of animal origin - zoonotic. Some of these newly recognised zoonoses can be transmitted through food.
Stage 1
MLA initially conducted a project through the University of Sydney in conjunction with its scientific risk management panel, to develop a risk assessment algorithm for food safety risks from new animal diseases.
A scientific manuscript from stage 1 of this project is available to download.
Stage 2
Stage 2 of the project involved SAFEMEAT selecting relevant stakeholders to form a working group.
The main objective of the project was to review the risk assessment framework so that it could usefully be used in the Australian context to rapidly assess the potential for a new or emerging disease of livestock to infect humans via meat consumption or handling.
The working group developed a refined risk assessment apoproach, the ‘Risk assessment of food safety aspects of new animal disease'.
The risk assessment framework is a useful tool to guide scientific discussions when considering the potential for a new or emerging disease of livestock to infect humans via consumption of meat or handling.  These discussions can then be used to inform the SAFEMEAT Incident Control Plan.
The risk assessment framework diagram is available to download.