Ames, Iowa
December 1, 2005
Iowa State University
is among the first in the nation to offer a course in risk
assessment for the biological sciences.
The graduate course teaches students how to interpret the
risk of adverse incidents in such situations as transgenic
contamination, the occurrence of salmonella in food and
other agricultural or biological situations.
The course is in its first semester. Risk Assessment for
Food, Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine is offered by the
Department of Agronomy and the Department of Veterinary
Diagnostics and Production Animal Medicine.
According to Scott Hurd, co-instructor and veterinary
diagnostic and production animal medicine professor, risk
assessment involves connecting the chain of events that lead
to a negative health impact in a way that estimates the
probability of that harm or risk occurring.
"Risk assessments provide policy-makers scientific
information to use in making decisions," Hurd said.
Risk assessment methodology is consistent across disciplines
and has been used for years in other areas, such as
engineering and economics. However, Iowa State is among the
few to apply it to the biological sciences, particularly
food and veterinary medicine.
Jeff Wolt, agronomy professor and course co-instructor, said
the course allows students to understand how science is used
in decision-making.
"We introduce students to the concept of risk assessment,
how to perform risk assessment and how to deliver the
information to policy-makers," Wolt said. "A risk assessment
can serve as the conduit for bringing science to the policy
arena."
The course requires students to develop their own risk
assessments in their areas of interest and review assessment
case studies. Examples of assessments students are likely to
create include the impacts of antibiotic resistance on food
supply and the likelihood of bacteria existing in food.
Angela Laury, an animal science and meat science graduate
student enrolled in the course, chose to perform a risk
assessment on Bacillus cereus on fried rice. "I want
to determine the likelihood of this bacteria occurring in
restaurants when fried rice is reheated," said Laury.
This course is the first in an envisioned three-course
series. The remaining courses will cover risk assessment,
risk analysis, which is the integrated process of assessing,
managing and communicating risk, and policy formulation.
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