About the Brazil ETT
Two ETT workshops in Brazil, the first in June 2006 and the second February 2007,
brought together a team of highly competent researchers and teachers to
develop teaching tools for an advanced course on methodologies for environmental
risk assessment of GM crops. The teaching materials build on the four
years of GMO ERA Project experience in developing the methodologies, and
the Brazil team has applied their own expertise to adapt the methodologies
to a Latin American audience. Using these course materials, the team of
experts will be prepared to teach advanced-level courses on ERA of GMOs
for research scientists, graduate students, and regulators with a science
background. The Brazil ETT will build capacity in Latin America by forging
links with scientists and regulators in neighboring countries.
Activities of the Brazil Expert Teaching Team
(ETT)
PFOA Pilot project in Brazil
July 2008
The Brazilian coordinators of the GMO ERA Project together with Dr. Julia Guivant received funding to run a pilot Problem Formulation and Options Assessment (PFOA) process in Brazil. The pilot took place on March 27-28, 2008 in Brasilia.
A steering committee for the pilot project chose the case study GM crop— a transgenic bean (Phaseolus sp.) that is resistant to bean golden mosaic virus (BGMV). The disease emerged in the 60s in Brazil and has since increased in importance, mainly due to the expansion of the soybean cultivation area (as soybean is a good alternative host for the insect). BGMV resistance is important for the crops cultivated during the dry season, when the disease causes a reduction in productivity of 40% to 100%. The transgenic construction was developed by Embrapa´s researchers and has been under field testing since 2000.
Eighteen stakeholders participated in the PFOA Pilot, including farmers, industry representatives, academics, and consumers, plus a mediator. Experts were also on hand to give presentations and answer questions that arose about the bean from the stakeholders; the experts had knowledge of transgene construction, socio-economics of bean farming, and integrated pest management of beans. After presentations by the experts about the case study crop, problems, and possible alternatives, participants formed three groups and discussed the issues. Each group then reported the results, including both consensuses and divergences within the group. The participants reported that overall they found the experience valuable and felt that this sort of discussion is important and necessary for new technologies, and that policy makers should take the results of such stakeholder discussions into account.
Currently the coordinators are analyzing the results of the pilot and creating a report on the experience in the hopes that the insights from the pilot can be applied to other another PFOA process in the future.
The pilot was funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology through the Centro de Gestão e Estudos Estratégicos (CGEE)
Brazilians present the GMO ERA Project to Latin American institutions
January 2008
Brazilian GMO ERA Project coordinators, Drs. Eliana Fontes and Deise Capalbo, visited institutions in Latin America as part of the regionalization activity of the GMO ERA Project in October-December 2007. They presented the project to government institutions and universities in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Ecuador, meeting with regulators and researchers, as well as representatives of farmers associations and the private sector.
The meetings revealed substantial interest in the Brazilian project activities and achievements, and affirmed a great need for capacity-building on environmental risk assessment of GMOs among regulators and scientists. The Brazil coordinators were able to gain insight into the state of biosafety regulation and research in each country and build a network of personal contacts for developing collaborative capacity-building activities, based upon the GMO ERA Project results in Brazil. This support will help in the search for funding for regional activities so the Brazil ETT can offer training in collaboration with these contacts.
In Uruguay, the coordinators visited DINAMA – National Division of Environment, and Instituto Nacional de Investigación Agropecuaria (INIA) – La Estancuela, and in Argentina, the Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA) – Castelar. In Paraguay, the visited the División the Investigacion Agricola (DIA) of the Ministry of Agriculture, the Universidade Nacional de Asunsion (UNA), and the Instituto Interamericano de Cooperación para la Agricultura (IICA). In Equador, Deise Capalbo visited Universidad San Francisco de Quito, the National Coordinator for the UNEP/GEF Project for Biosafety, Escuela Politecnica del Ejercito (ESPE), and Escuela Superior Politecnica del Litoral (ESCOL).
Funding for a PFOA pilot project in Brazil
January 2008
The Brazilian coordinators of the GMO ERA Project, together with Julia Guivant, submitted a proposal and received $200,000 Reals ($100,000 USD) to run a pilot Problem Formulation and Options Assessment (PFOA) process in Brazil. The pilot is funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology through the Centro de Gestão e Estudos Estratégicos (CGEE), and will be concluded later this year.
Five members of the Brazil PFOA committee met in September 2007 to kick off the pilot project and to form a steering committee for the project. The steering committee has since met twice and made plans for the pilot project, including finalizing the case study GM crop— a transgenic bean (Phaseolus sp.) that is resistant to bean golden mosaic virus (BGMV).
Brazil ETT finish working draft of gene flow
teaching tools
September 2007
The Brazil Expert Teaching Team (ETT)
gene flow group came together to improve and complete a working draft
the gene flow teaching tools at Campina Grande, Brazil, from August 21-24.
Paulo Barroso, Lucia Hoffmann, Ana Ciampi, Paulo Melo and Murilo Zerbini
were present, and Claudia Jacobi and Luciana Benchimol participated via
electronic communication.
The gene flow teaching tools consist
of nine teaching sessions, with each session taught through a mixture
of lecture, small group exercises and discussion. The group developed
materials for the lectures (powerpoint presentations, outlines, and handouts)
and designed the small group exercises for each session. Final edits are
currently being done on the tools.
The Brazil ETT will use these teaching tools to teach advanced courses
on environmental risk assessment of GM crops. ETT members have already
begun to use the tools; for instance, Lucia Hoffman will be using portions
of the gene flow materials for a course on molecular markers for post--graduate
students at Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN).
PFOA workshop in Brazil
A two-day workshop on conducting a Problem
Formulation and Options Assessment (PFOA) took place on July 10-11,
2007 in Brasilia.
Read more>>
Brazil ETT workshop on transgene expression and
locus structure
June 2007
The Brazil ETT held
a workshop to create teaching tools for the transgene
expression and locus structure section of the project in Brasilia,
27-28 June 2007. The workshop was coordinated by Dr. André Dusi
(Embrapa Vegetables), and participants were Dr. Alberto Vilarinhos (Embrapa
Cassava and Tropical Fruits), Dr. Débora Pires Paula, and Dr. Francisco
Aragão (both from Embrapa Genetic Resources and Biotechnology).
Dr. Alexandre Nepomuceno (Embrapa Soybean) and Dr. Renato Resende (University
of Brasília) also contributed materials to the workshop.
During the workshop, participants created materials for courses on the
transgene characterization section. Topics that will be covered in the
courses include transformation methods and their implications for ERA,
and analyses needed to support an ERA, such as molecular characterization
of the transgene locus structure, analyses of transgene expression, and
transgene inheritance. The teaching emphasizes why it is essential to
characterize locus structure, transgene expression and transgene stability,
both for risk assessment and risk management of GMOs, and highlights suitable
methods for doing this. The teaching tools are now in the process of being
reviewed and improved.
Brazil ETT workshop
on resistance risk assessment and management
July 2007
Dr. Celso Omoto coordinated a workshop to develop the teaching
tools on resistance risk assessment
and management, and to bring together a team for this section of the
Brazil ETT.
The Resistance Workshop was held at Embrapa Cenargen in Brasília
on July 5th and 6th, 2007. Participants were Dr. Eliane Dias Quintela,
Dr. Herbert Álvaro Abreu de Siqueira, Dr. Jose Magid Waquil, Dr.
Pierre Silvie and Dr. Samuel Martinelli. Brazil ETT member Dr. Edison
Sujii opened the workshop, and project coordinator Dr. David Andow gave
a background lecture. During the workshop, participants revised the existing
teaching tools, then each participant taught specific sessions to become
more comfortable using the tools. Participants also agreed that the next
step is to translate the resistance teaching material into Portuguese.
The tools are now in the process of being finalized and translated by
participants.
Brazil ETT members use non-target
teaching tools for graduate training
November 2006
Members of the Brazil ETT
non-target group have improved the non-target teaching tools that were
developed at the first Brazil ETT workshop,
and used these tools for the first time to teach a course in October 2006.
Angelo Pallini, Carmen Pires, Eliana Fontes, and Andre Dusi taught a 5-day
graduate level course on risk assessments for biodiversity
and non-target effects as part of the Entomology Masters and Ph.D.
programs at the University of Viçosa, Brazil. In addition, Paulo
Barroso taught a shorter session on gene
flow and Jose Waquil taught a shorter session on resistance.
The students displayed good participation, significantly increased their
understanding of key concepts, and gave positive evaluations of the courses.
As a result, the teaching tools have been further developed and refined.
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Discussion in non-target group, 2nd Brazil ETT workshop
2nd Brazil ETT workshop
1st Brazil ETT workshop
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