Global Animal Health, Food Safety, and International Trade

Course Code: FSC 817

Credits: 3 credits

This course will provide students with an overview of rapidly changing global animal health patterns, food safety, and subsequent modifications in world trade. The interrelationship of animal agriculture with food industries, national infrastructure, disease diagnostics, animal and human pandemics, political systems, and global trade will be investigated during the semester. 

We will utilize a multidisciplinary approach to explore the expanding and critical role that food safety, the environment, socioeconomic and cultural systems have assumed within the global agricultural marketplace. You will integrate many of the concepts of food law and regulations into animal health and subsequent global trade practices. Additionally, you will learn about necessary innovative tools and frameworks utilized to study and tackle many of these global food health challenges. Critical thinking concepts and communications skills will be enhanced by topic discussions, comparative trade analysis, weekly ‘Food Safety in the News’, and relevant readings. Global health challenges affecting food safety and security will be integrated into weekly topics. Students will gain working knowledge of trade regulations and policies affecting world economic stability.

Topics covered (subject to change):

  • Introduction to global livestock health policies
  • The new normal: food safety and the zoonotic pandemic of emerging infections
  • Understanding pandemics and food safety: ancient infectious diseases- where did they come from and why are they returning?
  • Shaping of global livestock health policy and trade: risk-based trade decisions
  • Components of effective livestock health infrastructure
  • International livestock health standards and standard setting organizations: WOAH, USDA, WTO, WHO, FAO, Codex
  • Understanding the World Organization for Animal Health: development and adoption of WOAH standards
  • Global trade and the World Bank – capacity building
  • Open borders affecting food safety and trade
  • Women’s role in livestock production and agricultural trade
  • Animal welfare role in accepting global animal trade
  • Antibiotic Resistance (ABR) in animals and humans: the implications for food safety and global trade
  • GMO’s affecting trade barriers internationally
  • Epidemiology and the public health impact of foodborne disease pathogens: a shared threat
  • Future challenges and opportunities

Schedule:

This course is offered in the fall semester. 

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