A week long ICAR sponsored training program on “Microbiological Examination of Seafood” was inaugurated on 1^st August, 2017 by the Chief Guest Prof A. Ramachandran, Hon’ble Vice Chancellor, Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies (KUFOS) at Kochi based ICAR-Central Institute of Fisheries Technology (CIFT). The training programme starting from 1-7 August, 2017 has been arranged for enhancing the technical competencies of participants on modern techniques of isolation and detection of pathogenic bacteria in seafood to meet the challenges of maintaining microbiological quality and seafood safety.

    

While delivering the inaugural address the Chief Guest Prof. A. Ramachandran, Vice Chancellor, KUFOS highlighted about the source of seafood contamination and its impact on human life. Expressing concern over the alarming aquatic environment, he said that there is need to screen the pathogenic bacteria in seafood that causes microbial contamination and also emphasized on hygienic maintenance during handling and processing of fishes. Appreciating the microbiological work done by ICAR-CIFT, he suggested for making research collaborations with KUFOS to face the challenges ahead.

 

Dr. Ravishankar C.N., Director CIFT in his presidential remarks stressed on the role of microbes in harvest and post-harvest sectors in fisheries and described the contributions made by CIFT for the betterment of seafood industry and the fishermen community. He lauded the effort of MFB Division for taking forward the technological developments in microbiology to the field especially by the technical staff for whom this program is exclusively designed for.

 

Initially, welcoming the gathering, Dr. M.M. Prasad, Course Director and Head of Microbiology, Fermentation and Biotechnology (MFB) Division of CIFT outlined the importance of the training programme and said that the food microbiology has made tremendous strides in the last two decades through highly advanced detection methods that can be effectively utilized for microbial examination of seafood.  Dr. A.K. Mohanty, Head of Extension, Information and Statistics (EIS) Division in his address mentioned the importance of seafood export in India that fetched all time high revenue earning of $5.78 billion during 2016-17 and said that this OJT programme is an appropriate initiative in this direction for learning and unlearning of microbial techniques for examination of seafood.

 

About 25 technical officers from different parts of the country representing universities and leading research institutes of ICAR participated in the programme. On this occasion, the Chief Guest released a training manual. Besides, Dr. V. Murugadas, Course Coordinator offered felicitations and Dr. G.K. Sivaraman, Course Coordinator proposed vote of thanks.

 

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