Romanian Institutions Collaborate with National Stakeholders for Genomic Surveillance of Salmonella

Last October 17, in Romania, the Institutul Național De Sănătate Publică (INSP, Romania) and the Institutul Național De Cercetare – Dezvoltare Medico-Militară Cantacuzino (IC, Romania) organized a stakeholder meeting with representatives from the Institute of Diagnosis and Animal Health and the Romanian Ministry of Health. This meeting occurred in the framework of the European Union (EU) co-funded project entitled Implementation of Pandemic Preparedness Plan using Integrated Genomic Surveillance Programs (PANDOMIC).

The PANDOMIC project, coordinated by an international consortium composed of the Laboratoire national de santé (LNS, Luxembourg), the INSP and IC, aims to:

• Extend and strengthen sequencing and bioinformatics analysis capacity in public health laboratories;
• Establish a pandemic preparedness plan for public health microbiology laboratories to meet EU and European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) requirements for genomic surveillance.

The main goal of the meeting was to create partnerships to ensure complementarity and knowledge sharing in microbial genomics and data analysis. This is essential to develop a strong national integrated genomic surveillance program.

The following items were on the agenda:

• Setting the timetable for the development of a proposal for the use of Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) in the current methodology for surveillance of human isolates of Salmonella with antibiotic resistance;
• Establishing the basis for a scientific collaboration agreement in the implementation of the One Health concept in Salmonella and salmonellosis surveillance;
• Realization of a protocol for transfer of strains/probes/genomic data between laboratories involved in surveillance (human and animal public health);
• Establishing the necessary steps in the development of the preparedness plan for microbiology laboratories involved in public health activities to ensure rapid response to pandemics/epidemics.