(CIDRAP News) Federal food regulators should consider asking Congress for authority to gather information about security measures at food processing plants so they can better assess industry efforts to protect food from deliberate contamination, according to a new report by Congress's General Accounting Office (GAO).
(CIDRAP News) Citing the likelihood of war with Iraq within days, federal officials have raised the terrorism alert level to "high" and launched "Operation Liberty Shield," a set of protective measures that includes increased food security and public health vigilance.
(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization has issued an alert over outbreaks of severe respiratory illness, including atypical pneumonia, that it has been investigating since mid-February in Vietnam, Hong Kong, and mainland China.
(CIDRAP News) The results of a spraying program to control gypsy moths in British Columbia suggest that terrorists could use conventional crop-dusting equipment to spread anthrax spores over a city and potentially infect people, according to a report in a new biodefense journal.
(CIDRAP News) Exotic Newcastle disease (END) has continued to spread through southern California poultry flocks and has spilled over into Nevada and Arizona in recent weeks, prompting emergency declarations in both states.
(CIDRAP News) The World Health Organization (WHO) warns in a new report that nations should take steps to defend themselves against food contamination by terrorists and the devastating human and economic damage that could result.
(CIDRAP News) Starting next December, importers will have to start notifying the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) at least a day in advance of every food shipment coming into the United States.
(CIDRAP News) Ð The Food and DrugAdministration will hold a public meeting, broadcast via satellite link, Jan 29to discuss proposed rules to help prevent deliberate contamination of foodssold in the United States.
(CIDRAP News) Exotic Newcastle disease (END) has struck commercial poultry flocks in Southern California, causing quarantines in six counties and temporary Canadian and Mexican bans on poultry and poultry product imports from the area. Poultry is a $3 billion industry in California, and more than half the state's 12 million egg-producing hens are in the quarantine zone.
(CIDRAP News) Following up on two pieces of antiterrorism legislation, federal agencies have established new rules on the handling of biological agents and toxins that could endanger people, crops, or livestock.