Food and Bioterror

David Lineback - director, Joint Institute of Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, University of Maryland
Expertise: lessons of September 11 on food safety and food security; microbiological food safety and foodborne disease

Credentials: chairman, 12th World Congress of Food Science and Technology (July, 2003) Organizing Committee; chair, Scientific Council, International Union of Food Science & Technology; past president, Council for Agricultural Science and Technology; former dean, College of Agriculture, University of Idaho
Contact: 301-405-8382 (office); 301- 946-7203 (home); lineback@deans.umd.edu
Website: www.jifsan.umd.edu

Jianghong Meng - professor, food science and nutrition, University of Maryland
Expertise: terrorism through the food supply; developing techniques for faster detection of pathogens in foods, including intentionally-added toxic agents, especially Echerichia coli, Campylobacter spp. and Salmonella serovars; virulence properties and antibiotic resistance of these foodborne pathogens

Credentials: co-published numerous papers on antimicrobial resistance, including "Resistant bacteria in retail meats and antimicrobial use in animals" in New England Journal of Medicine
Contact: 301-405-1399 (office); jm332@umail.umd.edu; or Ellen Ternes, 301-405-4627; 301-257-0073 (after-hours)
Website: www.agnr.umd.edu/users/nfsc/meng.htm

Norman Hansen - professor, chemistry and biochemistry, University of Maryland
Expertise: detecting pathogens, protecting food supply from bioterrorism

Credentials: searching for antibiotic alternatives for food supply, specifically, antimicrobial peptides, proteins that kill infectious bacteria, including bacterial spores, such as the anthrax-causing bacillus
Contact: 301-405-1847 (office); jh21@umail.umd.edu
Website: www.chem.umd.edu/faculty/biochem/hansen/hansen.htm

Robert Sprinkle M.D. - professor of public policy, University of Maryland's School of Public Affairs
Expertise: biosabotage of food supply; prospect of the biosabotage of agriculture by individuals, groups, hostile states or unscrupulously competing corporations

Credentials: editor-in-chief, Politics and the Life Sciences
Contact: 301-405-0184 (office); 301-864-2170 (home); rs236@umail.umd.edu
Website: www.puaf.umd.edu/faculty/people/sprinklem.html;
www.politicsandthelifesciences.org

Economic Impact of Food Attacks
Bruce L. Gardner - professor of agricultural and resource economics, University of Maryland
Expertise: global and domestic agricultural economics
Gardner says:
"Without a lot of effort, putting an organism into the food supply could have a huge economic impact. If people think there is even a possibility that they can get seriously ill or die from food they won't buy it. Look at the Chesapeake Bay pfisteria scare a couple of years ago. Even though humans can't contract pfisteria, fish sales fell off by half for a month. It had a huge impact on the industry. And this was a minor incident."

Credentials: former assistant secretary for economics, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1989-1992; author, "The Economics of Agricultural Policies"
Contact: 301-405-1271 (office); 301-927-9108 (home); bruceg@arec.umd.edu
Web site: www.arec.umd.edu/bgardner/

Toxic Molds
George Bean - professor, cell biology and molecular genetics, University of Maryland
Expertise: toxic fungi; toxic molds; detection and prevention of toxigenic fungi in foods and animal feeds

Credentials: three decades working with toxic fungi that occur in foods and feeds; recent interview with Horizon Entertainment on toxic molds
Contact: gb9@umail.umd.edu; or Ellen Ternes, 301-405-4627; 301-257-0073 (after-hours)
Website: www.life.umd.edu/CBMG/faculty/bean.html