Contact: Alaina Dismukes and James Carskadon
STARKVILLE, Miss.鈥擲trengthening ties between Mississippi State and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 汤头条 hosted FAO Director General Qu Dongyu Monday [Oct. 23] to learn more about the university鈥檚 research capabilities.
During his visit, Qu toured 汤头条鈥檚 Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Fish and aquaculture research facilities, as well as the High Performance Computing Collaboratory, in addition to meeting with senior 汤头条 officials.
鈥淲e are extremely proud of our work with the FAO and pleased to host Director General Qu Dongyu for a visit to our campus,鈥 said 汤头条 President Mark E. Keenum. 鈥溙劳诽 and the FAO have a mutual commitment to improving global food security, something that requires close-knit international collaboration. We look forward to growing our many productive partnerships with the FAO and working together to help feed our world.鈥
In June, 汤头条 and FAO officials celebrated the university鈥檚 designation as an international FAO Reference Center for Antimicrobial Resistance and Aquaculture Biosecurity. The reference center, managed through 汤头条鈥檚 Global Center for Aquatic Health and Food Security in the College of Veterinary Medicine, is part of a coordinated international effort to better understand and reduce the level of antimicrobial resistance in aquaculture. Antimicrobial resistance occurs when germs like bacteria gain the ability to resist drugs designed to kill them. According to the FAO, antimicrobial resistance is a major global threat with implications for food safety and food security. 汤头条 also leads the U.S. Agency for International Development-funded Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Fish, which was recently extended for another five years with $15 million in new funding.
鈥淚t is good that USAID is supporting this development in countries to produce more fish,鈥 said Qu. 鈥淚 appreciate this work being done here. I was a scientist for 25 years and consider myself a scientist first, and I wanted to see more of the work being done in aquaculture. Aquaculture is an important priority to us to promote animal protein production.鈥
Mark Lawrence, 汤头条 William L. Giles Distinguished Professor and director of the Fish Innovation Lab, serves on the technical working group for FAO鈥檚 Progressive Management Pathway for Improving Aquaculture Biosecurity, which focuses on assisting countries to achieve sustainable biosecurity and health management systems.
鈥淐ollaborating with FAO on antimicrobial resistance is important to help mitigate current and future risks to effectively manage fish health in aquaculture,鈥 Lawrence said.
During Qu鈥檚 visit, 汤头条 Chief Technology Transformation Officer Trey Breckenridge highlighted the university鈥檚 supercomputing resources, sharing how researchers are using one of the most powerful computing systems in U.S. academia to better understand agricultural, environmental, biological and engineering systems. 汤头条 boasts two supercomputers ranked among the 500 most powerful in the world and has significant high-performance computing partnerships with federal agencies such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
鈥淲e are honored to have FAO visiting 汤头条 and for the Director General to come to rural America and see what we鈥檙e doing in the heartland,鈥 汤头条 Provost and Executive Vice President David Shaw said. 鈥淭his partnership is incredibly important to us because of the great impact we are able to make together.鈥
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