Training programmes are a crucial component of the capacity development programmes that the European Commission for the control of Foot-and-Mouth disease has provided to veterinary services to improve preparedness and risk monitoring of FAST diseases. It is a priority of the Commission to identify the impact of these programmes, how much learners applied and cascaded what they learnt and since multiplied the impact of the knowledge and skills related to FAST diseases. The purpose of this report is to provide an aggregated picture of the impact of training programmes delivered between September 2019 and December 2020, with a focus on application and cascading of learning.

Foot-and-mouth Disease (FMD) remains the first transboundary animal disease (TAD) threat to European livestock production. A single introduction usually has extremely serious, and frequently catastrophic, impacts. The European Commission for the Control of Foot-and-Mouth Disease (EuFMD), under a framework of co-ordination with EC (DG-SANTE), FAO and OIE, as played a significant role in reducing the risk and ensuring better preparedness. Partly as a result of this, the EU has not had, for the first time in its history, an outbreak of FMD case for the past ten years. In this time the EuFMD has established an internationally respected capacity for efficient delivery of training and in-country support to FMD Progressive Control Programmes, and most recently, in modelling of FMD control measures to guide emergency planning. The HOLD-FAST strategy continues the focus upon FMD risk reduction but extends the scope of the preparedness and risk reduction activities to similar TADs which pose an immediate threat to the Member Nations (hereafter FAST is used for FMD and similar TADs).

Pharmaceutical Biotechnology: A Focus on Industrial Application covers the development of new biopharmaceuticals as well as the improvement of those being produced. The main purpose is to provide background and concepts related to pharmaceutical biotechnology, together with an industrial perspective. This is a comprehensive text for undergraduates, graduates and academics in biochemistry, pharmacology and biopharmaceutics, as well as professionals working on the interdisciplinary field of pharmaceutical biotechnology. Written with educators in mind, this book provides teachers with background material to enhance their classes and offers students and other readers an easy-to-read text that examines the step-by-step stages of the development of new biopharmaceuticals. Features: Discusses specific points of great current relevance in relation to new processes as well as traditional processes Addresses the main unitary operations used in the biopharmaceutical industry such as upstream and downstream Includes chapters that allow a broad evaluation of the production process Dr. Adalberto Pessoa Jr. is Full Professor at the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences of the University of São Paulo and Visiting Senior Professor at King’s College London. He has experience in enzyme and fermentation technology and in the purification processes of biotechnological products such as liquid–liquid extraction, cross-flow filtration and chromatography of interest to the pharmaceutical and food industries. Dr. Michele Vitolo is Full Professor at the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences of the University of São Paulo. He has experience in enzyme technology, in immobilization techniques (aiming the reuse of the biocatalyst) and in the operation of membrane reactors for obtaining biotechnological products of interest to the pharmaceutical, chemical and food industries. Dr. Paul F. Long is Professor of Biotechnology at King's College London and Visiting International Research Professor at the University of São Paulo. He is a microbiologist by training and his research uses a combination of bioinformatics, laboratory and field studies to discover new medicines from nature, particularly from the marine environment.

The current COVID-19 pandemic has expanded lay people’s vocabulary; PCR-testing is no longer mentioned only by virologists, nor are the terms basic reproduction ratio and herd-immunity limited to epidemiologists. This expansion of vocabulary that was previously only used in specialist settings already demonstrates global, societal impact. We have learnt that it is insufficient simply to act on disease emergence and spread. More focus is needed on prevention and surveillance of the precursors of emerging infectious disease, as well as early detection. To succeed in this, it is a necessity to collaborate across sectors – academics, governments, industry and the public – in a transdisciplinary way.

This eBook is a collection of articles from a Frontiers Research Topic. Frontiers Research Topics are very popular trademarks of the Frontiers Journals Series: they are collections of at least ten articles, all centered on a particular subject. With their unique mix of varied contributions from Original Research to Review Articles, Frontiers Research Topics unify the most influential researchers, the latest key findings and historical advances in a hot research area! Find out more on how to host your own Frontiers Research Topic or contribute to one as an author by contacting the Frontiers Editorial Office: frontiersin.org/about/contact.

This issue of Clinics in Chest Medicine, guest-edited by Drs. Carrie A. Redlich, Kristin J. Cummings, and Peggy Lai, is focused on Advances in Occupational and Environmental Lung Diseases. Topics discussed in this issue include but are not limited to: Master Clinician – selected occupational and environmental pulmonary cases; Chest imaging in the Diagnosis of Occupational Lung Diseases; Harnessing electronic medical records to enhance the diagnosis of work-related lung diseases; The impact of health disparities on lung disease; Respiratory health effects of exposure to cleaning products; Occupational upper airways disorders, including laryngeal dysfunction; Occupational bronchiolitis – including flavoring-related lung disease, deployment; Coal workers pneumoconiosis and other mining-related lung disease: the re-emergence of an old disease (including COPD in miners); Occupational contributions to ILD (including asbestos, overlap HP and ILD); Silicosis – Persistence of an old disease, old and new exposure settings and prevention; Occupational respiratory cancer: Chest CT screening; Occupational respiratory Infections: pneumonia, healthcare workers; Update on climate change: its impact on respiratory health at work, home, and at play; The changing nature of wildfires: update on the respiratory health of first responders and communities; The microbiome and damp Indoor environments; The on-going impact of World Trade Center exposures on respiratory health; The impact of Electronic cigarettes and smoking cessation; The respiratory risks of ambient /outdoor air pollution; and Indoor air pollution and respiratory health.