NCBRT Contact:                                                         FAPTC Contact:

Julie Cavin                                                                  Jennifer Dama

Public Affairs & Outreach Coordinator                       Consortium Coordinator

(225) 578-0619                                                           (269) 441-2995

jcavin@ncbrt.lsu.edu                                                   jennifer.dama@ifpti.org

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European E. Coli Outbreak Puts Spotlight on US Government Preparedness

NCBRT Offers Emergency Training for First Responders

Baton Rouge, LA, Jun 6 — The National Center for Biomedical Research and Training (NCBRT), a member of the Food and Agriculture Protection Training Consortium (FAPTC), is offering DHS-certified and sponsored training at no direct cost to state and local food emergency responders. The NCBRT specifically designed “A Coordinated Response to Food Emergencies: Practice and Execution” course to have an impact on limiting the devastation caused by contamination of the food supply.

The course provides responders with training on food emergency response procedures with an emphasis on coordination between local, state and federal food and health officials.  In the United States, communication among this patchwork of government agencies can lead to slow detection of illness and slow response in containing an outbreak.

“The deadly E. coli outbreak in Europe should not be a surprise. This type of outbreak could happen anywhere,” said Thomas Tucker, NCBRT Director. “We are especially vulnerable here in the United States with our complex processing and distribution system and high volume of imported goods. The NCBRT has gotten ahead of the game by developing and offering training to help prevent and prepare for such an incident.” 

“We are pleased to support such a critical course,” said Gerald Wojtala, Executive Director at the International Food Protection Training Institute (IFPTI).  IFPTI is the  administrative hub of FAPTC. “Training is the key to preparing our government, industry and public health officials for an event like we’re seeing in Europe.”

FAPTC members offer a wide range of training courses for government food and agriculture officials.  These courses are offered at no direct cost to government agencies.  

About NCBRT

The mission of the National Center for Biomedical Research and Training (NCBRT) is to help America prevent, prepare for, respond to and recover from acts of domestic and international terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and high-consequence events through teaching, training, technical assistance and research.

The NCBRT’s three focus areas, or lanes of training, are food safety and agricultural protection, biological incident training and law enforcement training. Committed to “preparing you today for tomorrow’s threats,” the NCBRT has over 12 years of experience in course development and delivery.

The NCBRT is part of the National Center for Security Research and Training (NCSRT) as well as the National Domestic Preparedness Consortium (NDPC), recognized by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as the principal vehicle through which the National Training and Education Division (NTED) identifies, develops, tests, and delivers training to state, local, and tribal emergency responders. More information about the NCBRT can be found at www.ncbrt.lsu.edu.

About FAPTC

The Food and Agriculture Protection Training Consortium (FAPTC), is comprised of eight university-based training centers along with the International Food Protection Training Institute.  It is focused on developing and delivering food protection training primarily to U.S. government regulatory officials at the federal, state, local, tribal and territorial levels along with others responsible for the safety of the U.S. food supply, such as industry, third party auditors, and regulatory officials in other countries. 

FAPTC provides sustainable, standardized, current, peer-reviewed, on-demand training both domestically and internationally.  This training is essential for the coordinated prevention and response to food safety incidents impacting the U.S. food supply and citizens.   More information on FAPTC can be found at www.faptc.org.

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