One of the roles of AVA’s Veterinary Public Health Laboratory - as the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) collaborating centre for food safety and the appointed ASEAN Food Reference Laboratory for pesticide residues and environmental contaminants - is to provide training and enhance laboratory testing capabilities in the region. AVA has also been invited by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to host workshops on pesticide and veterinary drug residue analysis. Playing our part in these roles, we organised the following activities.
Nov 2016: ASEAN-China workshop on the ‘Detection of Drug Residues in Seafood Products’
Through lectures and hands-on sessions, ASEAN member countries gained technical insights into the detection and confirmation of veterinary drug residues in seafood products. The workshop covered method development using HPLC-MS/MS, analytical method validation, laboratory quality assurance, and quality control.
Mar 2017: Training on ‘Basic Maintenance and Troubleshooting of Food Safety Analytical Instrumentation Including Effective Uses of Instrument Software
Singapore was invited to be the lead country in IAEA’s regional technical cooperation project, which aims to enhance food safety laboratory capabilities as well as establish a network in Asia to control the use of veterinary drug residues and related chemical contaminants. In support of this project, AVA’s training programme covered screening and advanced confirmation techniques, as well as the use, basic maintenance, and troubleshooting of relevant instruments.
May 2017: Training on pesticide residue analysis
Singapore leads the Pesticide Residues Working Group (under IAEA’s interregional technical cooperation programme) in generating reliable data that will help set the pesticide residue standards for minor crops. As part of this working group, AVA invited delegates from Asia, Africa, and Latin America to participate in lectures and laboratory practical sessions related to pesticide residue analysis.