Orientador: Luiz Carlos de Souza / Resumo: O objetivo do presente trabalho foi o de avaliar os níveis de biossegurança, nos anos de 2001 à 2003, na totalidade das 10 (dez) granjas de reprodutores suínos (GRSC) do Estado de São Paulo certificadas pelo Ministério da Agricultura (MAPA) de acordo com os critérios de pontuação e resultados de provas e testes diagnósticos legalmente estabelecidos. Para o estudo da biossegurança, foram conferidos pontos (variando de 0 a 2) para cada critério (distancia em relação a outras unidades de criação, densidade de rebanhos num raio de 3,5 km, granjas fornecedoras de matrizes para reposição do plantel, distância entre a rodovia que transporta suínos, isolamento da granja (cerca e cinturão verde, controle de visitas, existência de quarentenário, origem da ração, transporte da ração). Foram realizadas 6.297 provas sorológicas para Peste Suína Clássica (2.023), Doença de Aujeszky (2.001), Brucelose (2.085), Leptospirose (188) e 1.001 testes de reação alérgica para tuberculose. Relativamente à biossegurança, 4 (quatro) granjas foram qualificadas com nível A, 5 (cinco) granjas como nível B e 1 (uma) granja com nível C. Relativamente aos resultados de provas e testes de diagnóstico, apenas 1 granja do nível A apresentou testes positivos para leptospirose no primeiro ano de certificação e a partir desta data passou a vacinar seus animais contra leptospirose à semelhança das demais 9 granjas devida à endemicidade da doença. Dentre as de nível B, uma granja apresentou animais infectados com M. avium e em uma granja de nível C foram detectados animais positivos para M. avium e brucelose no quarentenário. Estes resultados indicam necessidade de aprimoramento das medidas de biossegurança no tocante à prevenção e/ou controle de roedores sinantrópicos, de aves de vida livre e aquisição de animais de granjas também GRSC, porém, de nível igual ou superior. / Abstract: The aim of this research is the evaluation of biosafety levels during the period from 2001 to 2003, in a total of 10 swine breeder farmers located in São Paulo state - Brazil and certificated by the Ministry of Agriculture according to scores and diagnostic tests legally established. For this purpose, each variable scored in 0 to 2 were: distance from other swine farms; herds density in 3,5Km ray area; breeder supplier farms; distance from road for swine transportation; farm isolation; control of visitors; installation for animal quarantine; ration origin and transportation. There were performed 6,297 diagnostic tests for Classical Swine Fever (2.023) - Aujeszky disease (2.001), Brucellosis (2.085), Leptospirosis (188) and 1.001 alergic tests for tuberculosis. As a result of biosafety, 4, 5 and 1 farms were scored respectively as A, B and C levels. For diagnostic tests, only one farm of level A had positive animals for Leptospirosis in the first year of certification and since then all the animals were vaccinated against leptospirosis, as the others 9 did due to the endemicity of this disease. In one farm among those of level B, it was diagnosed the presence of M. avium and in one farm of C level it was detected M. avium and in the quarantine station was diagnosed brucellosis. These results points up the need for improving the biosafety measures related to rodents and free life avian prevention and/or control and selection of GRSC breeder supplier farms with equal or higher biosafety level. / Mestre

Macroalgae such as Ulva are living hosts that are known to perform essential roles in marine ecosystems, and are extensively utilised for several aquaculture operations, including in the integrated production of high value goods such as abalone. Intensive aquaculture operations along the coastline release effluent water into the surrounding coastal waters, which has adverse impact on the environment. As a means to bioremediate abalone effluent, several commercial abalone farms in South Africa use Ulva as a biofilter, after which the Ulva may serve as a feed source for the abalone. Advancements in gene sequencing technology has enabled the assessment of large scale 16S rRNA gene libraries of near full-length sequences. However, studies concerning the epiphytic bacterial communities present on macroalgae grown in effluent systems are scarce, and as a result several commercial farmers have become sceptical about utilising effluent grown Ulva as feed. This study addresses the biosecurity implications associated with the use of Ulva as a biofilter and feed within an integrated multitrophic aquaculture (IMTA) system along with the abalone Haliotis midae by assessing the bacterial communities associated with Ulva and its environment. Water and Ulva samples were collected from an integrated abalone farm along the Western Cape of South Africa and assessed via a culture and a non-culture-based approach. Samples were collected from both fertilised seawater tanks and abalone effluent wastewater raceways. The water samples were collected at the inlets and outlets of each tank/raceway and the Ulva was collected from within each system. The culture-based approach utilised three selective media for the isolation and quantification of culturable bacteria, namely Tryptic Soy Agar (TSA, a general growth media), thiosulfate-citrate-bile-sucrose (TCBS) agar (vibrio selective growth media), and Ulvan agar plates, where the primary carbohydrate of Ulva was utilized as the main carbohydrate source. Post isolation, selected bacteria underwent 16S rDNA gene analysis for identification. The non-culture-based approach utilised the next generation Illumina 16S Metagenomic Sequencing platform (MiSeq). Moreover, the Ulva was sequenced using the rbcL gene to identify the species grown in the aquaculture system. Phylogenetic analysis of Ulva suggests that it falls within the U. rigida clade. The sequenced Ulva cultivated at I&J abalone farm shared close similarity with Ulva rigida (KP233772) and Ulva scandinavica (EU484416) on the GenBank database, and hence was referred to with the name of its corresponding molecular synonym, i.e. U. rigida. The culture-based results indicate that bacterial numbers were significantly higher in the raceways receiving abalone effluent water when compared with the Ulva tanks receiving seawater that were fertilized. Bacterial abundance on all three selective media types was higher on the Ulva cultured in the abalone effluent raceways than on the Ulva cultured in the fertilized seawater tanks. Moreover, it was observed that the Ulva has the potential to significantly reduce the bacterial load of abalone effluent water raceways. Rarefaction results from the non-culture-based approach indicate that the Ulva in both the fertilised seawater and abalone effluent raceways had significantly lower bacterial alpha diversity than the water columns themselves. Principal co-ordinate analysis (PCoA) at phylum level showed that bacterial communities on the Ulva and in the water, columns shared similar phyla diversity. Alternatively, PCoA at genus level demonstrated that microbial communities residing on the Ulva (both effluent and fertilised seawater grown Ulva) had significant differences compared with the water samples obtained from both the inlets and outlets of the effluent and fertilised seawater systems. When assessing the differential abundant bacteria on the Ulva, general marine bacteria appear in high abundance and potentially pathogenic bacteria such as Vibrio appear in low abundance. Moreover, the presence of the Ulva within the wastewater seemed to decrease the bacterial abundance of Vibrio within the fertilised seawater tanks as well as the abalone effluent raceways. Despite the presence of potentially pathogenic bacteria within the abalone effluent raceways, the Ulva does not seem to act as a sink for potentially pathogenic bacteria indicating that feeding effluent grown Ulva to abalone is not of significant biosecurity concern. Even though several commercial abalone farmers consider recirculation within aquaculture feed systems high-risk technology, no papers have reported disease outbreaks due to the use of effluent grown Ulva as abalone feed. These results provide a general basis for the dynamic changes in the bacterial community profiles in a commercial abalone farm associated with utilising effluent grown Ulva as a feed additive for abalone. This effort to profile the bacteria associated with Ulva and its environment under fertilised and effluent conditions provides deeper insight on understanding the biosecurity implications of incorporating effluent grown Ulva into abalone feed.

It is widely acknowledged that international trade is a major pathway for the spread of invasive species. International agreements and domestic legislation aim to reach a balance between facilitating trade and providing nations with the right to protect their environmental, public and economic health. This is achieved through the development of standards that prescribe procedures that must be followed before a commodity is imported. Under Section 22 of the Biosecurity Act (1993) Biosecurity New Zealand of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) develops import health standards for the importation of commodities and sea containers and for the approval and management of transitional facilities. Under current regulations, before being allowed to enter New Zealand, a sea container must first be accompanied by appropriate documentation for the sea container itself and any contents (this includes cargo manifests, any required treatment certificates for the cargo and cleaning certificates for the sea container itself). Upon arriving in New Zealand the sea container is transported to a transitional facility for inspection and unloaded once biosecurity clearance has been obtained. There are approximately 7,000 transitional facilities (both on and off wharf) throughout New Zealand and inspections are conducted by persons that have obtained accreditation from MAF for inspections (MAF accredited persons). Based on current importation procedures and other information made available, mathematical models were developed for three sea importation pathways (sea containers, woodpackaging and used vehicles) that involved the inspection of imported units by MAF accredited persons. These models were designed to predict the effectiveness of the current border inspection policies and procedures. Inspection accuracy was found to have the most influential impact on slippage (the rate at which contamination passes through border procedures undetected) along the measured pathways. Under current conditions, an estimated 5.75% of all sea containers, 4.12% of all sea containers containing woodpackaging and 1.63% of all used vehicles that enter New Zealand annually are contaminated in some manner despite having biosecurity clearance. A 3% increase in inspection efficiency reduced slippage to 0.5% of sea containers, 2.16% of woodpackaging and 0.001% of used vehicles entering New Zealand annually. Given that the accuracy of the inspection was the most influential aspect of the border management procedures, mathematical models were develop to predict the cost of compliance recovered by MAF if all inspections were conducted by MAF inspectors as apposed to MAF accredited persons. Under current regulations the cost of compliance (if MAF inspector conducted inspections of all imported units) was estimated to be $117.36 million for sea containers, $35.16 million for woodpackaging and $5.44 million for used vehicles. Increasing the inspection accuracy to the ideal 100% increased the cost of compliance by 75.36%, 61.96% and 61.92% for sea containers, woodpackaging and used vehicles respectively. These findings indicate that Government investment in the training of inspectors throughout New Zealand would improve current border detection rates. Under current regulations, the cost incurred by MAF inspectors inspecting all imported units is recoverable. Currently the cost of compliance is approximately 1% of the value of annual imports. These costs are seen by the import sector as part of their daily business and understand that these measures are in place for the long term sustainability of their businesses (Anon. 2005).

Master of Science / Department of Computing and Information Sciences / Daniel A. Andresen / "BRIC" is a web survey application that can provide feedback to the feedyard managers regarding the different types of risk involved in their feedyards. By answering a set of basic questions in the survey, the application generates three categories of reports for the managers which provide them with measures to improve the existing condition of their feedyard. These dynamically generated reports can help to decrease the risk of introduction of some disease or its impact once it is introduced in a feedyard. The survey can be beneficial to collect data from various feedyards through the internet. This collected data can be used to make some interesting analysis and beneficial conclusions in this field of research.

No description available.

Emerging infectious disease has become a paradigmatic way of thinking about disease in recent years. In response to the widely-held view that an emerging pandemic is an imminent, albeit uncertain, event linked to global interconnectedness, pandemic preparedness has been the target of considerable political concern and economic investment. To date, there has been relatively little critical research questioning the broader social and political implications of this seemingly natural undertaking. My research addresses this knowledge gap by exploring pandemic influenza planning as a global approach to the regulation of emerging infectious disease. I investigate how pandemic is framed and the ways in which these framings link to broader political and economic contexts. I undertake a Foucauldian-informed, critical discourse analysis of four key pandemic planning documents produced by the World Health Organization between 1999 and 2009. I ask how infectious disease is constructed in particular ways, and how these constructions can be interpreted in relation to broader global contexts. My findings, which describe a range of discursive strategies in governing pandemic, are four-fold. First, I examine the characterizations of the influenza virus, and their effect of rendering normal and pandemic circumstances as indistinct. I describe how these constructions are implicated in the framing of preparedness as a continuous engagement with the process of emergence. Next, I explore how the delineation and regulation of boundaries simultaneously constitutes bodies and territories as distinct. Third, I describe the discursive construction of a particular kind of global geopolitics which represents vulnerability according to the interconnectedness of states. Finally, the pandemic virus acquires a form of utility that portrays preparedness as having the potential for securing society against a broad range of potential threats. Anticipating the exceptional features of pandemic is to be achieved through the integration of contingency mechanisms into existing systems of preparedness whose objective is continued economic and social functioning. The regulation of circulation central to pandemic preparedness establishes an ongoing engagement in decisions about freedom and constraint in relation to different forms of mobility or circulation. My findings are interpreted in light of their implications for understanding the global regulation of, and intervention into, molecular life.

This study aims to provide a comprehensive overview of wineries’ attitudes towards wine tourism in New Zealand from the supply-side perspective. It is based on a survey of New Zealand national wineries’ conducted in 2010, and follows up to two previous New Zealand National Wineries’ surveys conducted by Hall and Johnson (1997) and Christensen et al. (2004). This research benchmarks changes which have taken place in the New Zealand wine industry with respect to wine tourism since 2003, as well as examining new elements of the contemporary wine tourism environment with respect to winery attitudes towards innovation, the environment, biosecurity and sustainability. The incorporation of questions from previous New Zealand National Wineries’ Surveys allows for longitudinal information to be presented between the 2010, 2003 and 1997 surveys. This comparative analysis of the survey time series provides value to the existing New Zealand wine tourism research by illustrating how wineries in New Zealand have used tourism as part of their business strategy. The findings reveal that there are many significant gaps in what is known about the character of the New Zealand wine tourist, and also of the industry itself. Biosecurity and sustainability issues are examined, and for the first time in wine tourism research anywhere in the world a section dedicated to innovation within the context of wine tourism is also included. Though the nature of wine tourism in New Zealand appears to fluctuate, the generally positive attitude of the wine industry towards tourism indicated in this study suggests that there is still unrealised potential within the industry, provided that it is both safeguarded against external threats, and is also promoted correctly through the appropriate channels in order to assure future growth.

Emerging infectious disease has become a paradigmatic way of thinking about disease in recent years. In response to the widely-held view that an emerging pandemic is an imminent, albeit uncertain, event linked to global interconnectedness, pandemic preparedness has been the target of considerable political concern and economic investment. To date, there has been relatively little critical research questioning the broader social and political implications of this seemingly natural undertaking. My research addresses this knowledge gap by exploring pandemic influenza planning as a global approach to the regulation of emerging infectious disease. I investigate how pandemic is framed and the ways in which these framings link to broader political and economic contexts. I undertake a Foucauldian-informed, critical discourse analysis of four key pandemic planning documents produced by the World Health Organization between 1999 and 2009. I ask how infectious disease is constructed in particular ways, and how these constructions can be interpreted in relation to broader global contexts. My findings, which describe a range of discursive strategies in governing pandemic, are four-fold. First, I examine the characterizations of the influenza virus, and their effect of rendering normal and pandemic circumstances as indistinct. I describe how these constructions are implicated in the framing of preparedness as a continuous engagement with the process of emergence. Next, I explore how the delineation and regulation of boundaries simultaneously constitutes bodies and territories as distinct. Third, I describe the discursive construction of a particular kind of global geopolitics which represents vulnerability according to the interconnectedness of states. Finally, the pandemic virus acquires a form of utility that portrays preparedness as having the potential for securing society against a broad range of potential threats. Anticipating the exceptional features of pandemic is to be achieved through the integration of contingency mechanisms into existing systems of preparedness whose objective is continued economic and social functioning. The regulation of circulation central to pandemic preparedness establishes an ongoing engagement in decisions about freedom and constraint in relation to different forms of mobility or circulation. My findings are interpreted in light of their implications for understanding the global regulation of, and intervention into, molecular life.

Throughout the world, systems of life science governance carry historical, cultural, and political legacies, which now confront the revolutionary and pervasive advances of twenty-first century biotechnology. Nations' adaptability to the twin challenges of attempting to secure the benefits while reducing the risks and threats is a large and still burgeoning governance challenge. The legacy of the Soviet Union is particularly important in this regard, since its history of prolonged authoritarian rule and intense development of biological weapons in combination with the continuing scientific and technological prowess of Russia is a governance challenge, unprecedented in its nature and scale. The aim of the dissertation therefore is to examine to what extent and by what means it is possible for Russia to reconcile its on-going expansion in biotechnology with the institutional and normative inertia arising from its Soviet past. The first part of the dissertation (Chapters 1-4) seeks to uncover and analyse both the growth and consolidation of the governance of biotechnology and the multifaceted governance challenges brought about by the rapid advancement of the life sciences in the twenty-first century. The second part (Chapters 5-8) examines the extent to which the Soviet institutional and infrastructural legacies in the culture of life science research still persist in Russia and impact the governance of biotechnology in that country. The concluding chapter offers an assessment of the current state of the governance of biotechnology in Russia and outlines a scope for further research.

A esterilização de materiais odontológicos é realizada através de autoclaves ou estufas. Para a utilização desses equipamentos, deve-se seguir diversas orientações estabelecidas pelos órgãos de saúde competentes. Pelo fato das leis não serem uniformes para todos os órgãos de saúde, ocorrem divergências com relação à monitoração dos aparelhos de esterilização. Considerando diversos problemas relatados na literatura e na utilização dos equipamentos, foi desenvolvida uma rotina de monitoração física, química e biológica para que os cirurgiõesdentistas possam obter uma maior garantia de que suas autoclaves e estufas estão operando corretamente e verificar se elas estão sendo eficazes na esterilização dos materiais odontológicos, atendendo o que estabelece o Ministério da Saúde. Para implementar a rotina, de acordo com as diretrizes do Ministério da Saúde foram efetuadas monitorações em 12 equipamentos de esterilização (6 autoclaves e 6 estufas), totalizando sete consultórios da cidade de Curitiba. Os resultados das monitorações mostraram que houve falhas no processo de esterilização em todos os 12 instrumentos avaliados. A aplicação da rotina mostrou que a realização das monitorações é fundamental para detectar possíveis falhas de esterilização, possibilitando um maior controle sobre os materiais odontológicos, reduzindo assim os riscos de infecção para o paciente e o cirurgião-dentista. / Dental instruments can be sterilized by means of autoclave (steam) or kiln (dry heat). In order to utilize these equipment, several directives established by health care governmental organizations must be followed. Since the instructions are not common for all the involved health care organizations, there are some differences considering the monitoring of these equipment. Thus, taking into account several problems found in the literature and in the practical use of the equipment, a monitoring routine covering physical, chemical and biological tests was developed in order to assure that dentists can have their equipment working properly and that they are complying with the directives of the Health Ministry. To implement the routine, 12 sterilization equipment (6 autoclaves and 6 kilns) of 7 dental offices from Curitiba city were monitorized, following the guidelines of the Health Ministry.The results obtained have shown that there were some kind of failure on all 12 tested equipment. Finally, the application of the routine showed that monitoring is critical to detect failures in the sterilization process, therefore the monitoring allows a greater control over dental instruments and reduces the risk of infections for patients and dentists.