Objective
Viral gastroenteritis is increasing in incidence; the advent of cook-chill foods and worldwide trade in fruit/vegetables opens up the possibility for large-scale virus outbreaks and necessitates the development of adequate screening measures. The project will train a researcher in the development and large-scale application of virus screening to food. It will involve developing robust processing scenarios for shellfish, but also extend these to a variety of different food matrices (salad crops, vegetables and fruit) since these may be contained with virus from polluted irrigation waters, sprays or washes. We consider that risk fro m these sources has not been fully evaluated and this position will address this task. Virus concentration measures will be derived from environmental procedure s and adapted to plant extracts, detection procedures will be developed and adapted from polymerase chain reaction methods used for shellfish and in diagnostic medicine.
Funding Scheme
BUR - Bursaries, grants, fellowshipsCoordinator
KT22 7RY Leatherhead
United Kingdom
