Introduction:
I am Lamia Briand-Amirat, Professor
in Reproduction at Oniris- Nantes, a French Veterinary School. I am also the
chair of the research subcommittee of HASAC / IETS (Health and Safety
Advisory Committee of the International Embryo Technology Society). Hugo De
Mori is a vet student in his last vet studies graduation, helping us in this
survey as part of his vet thesis.
HASAC is an advisory
Committee consisting of technical specialists in reproductive biotechnologies,
animal health and food safety. It responds to the IETS members' questions and
requests for advice related to those matters at both national and international
levels. It submits recommendations based on current scientific knowledge of
safe and sanitary trade in embryos to the IETS Board of Governors (the Board)
to provide guidance and advice to international agencies, such as the Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and the World Organisation
for Animal Health (WOAH,
founded as OIE).
One of the projects HASAC is working on, is the recategorisation of
risk of transmission of pathogens via embryos
The current IETS
Categorization system covers only in-vivo derived (IVD) embryos. This system is
unsuitable for in-vitro produced (IVP) embryos. We are moving toward a new
IETS categorization system that is suitable for IVD and IVP embryos.
There will be three
categories instead of 4 categories -
·
Cat 1 - Negligible risk of transmission
·
Cat 2 - Unknown risk of transmission
·
Cat 3 - Non-negligible risk of transmission
The results will be
published in Appendix 1 of Volume 1 of IETS Manual 5th edition.
At the last HASAC meeting
(Lima, Peru 2023), we concluded, for IVP embryos, that majority of pathogens
are in category 2, that is, unknown risks (because of lack of experimental studies).
This means there is a very long list of pathogens to review to assess which
could be moved to Category 1 or Category 3. So, we have decided to first focus
on those pathogens that are of interest in international embryo trade.
We ask for your help
in identifying on those pathogens you consider to be of importance to domestic
and international trade of embryos by completing the attached survey
We thank you very much for
your help with this important survey.
Please click on “Next”
below to complete the survey.
lamia.briand-amirat@oniris-nantes.fr
hugo.de-mori@oniris-nantes.fr
