Articles by author: Brock University

• Brock working with Niagara community to encourage safe Halloween

  Wednesday, October 28, 2020 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: 28 October 2020 – R0163

  Halloween masks have taken on a whole new meaning in 2020.

  Brock University is reminding its students and community to be good neighbours and stay safe as Halloween — in the midst of a global pandemic — approaches on Saturday, Oct. 31.

  Brock continues to work with local municipalities, Niagara Regional Police Service and Niagara Region Public Health to educate its students about making smart decisions, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

  “We ask that students make smart and safe choices this Halloween and do whatever they can to help curb the spread of COVID-19,” said Brad Clarke, Director, Student Life and Success. “With case counts rising, the actions we all take now matter. There will come a time for us to celebrate together again, but unfortunately, this is not that time.”

  Brock Campus Security has a full shift of staff working on campus during Halloween weekend, and has scheduled additional officers for residence patrol.

  Additionally, as part of Brock’s Off-Campus Patrol program, Brock will patrol neighbourhoods in Thorold and St. Catharines on Friday, Oct. 30 and Saturday, Oct. 31. Brock is also subsidizing the cost of hiring additional NRPS officers to assist with neighbourhood patrols on each of those nights.

  The Brock University Students’ Union (BUSU) has also been speaking with students through a video message posted to its YouTube page.

  “We know that Halloween is a festivity that students enjoy celebrating,” said BUSU President Asad Jalib. “With COVID-19 cases on the rise in our province, we need to continue to follow public health guidelines as we have been doing over the past few months. Together, we will get to the other side.”

  While much of the focus this fall has been on COVID safety, Brock and the students’ union have been using social media to also encourage responsible partying, safe drinking, consent, how to comply with local and provincial bylaws and fire safety.

   

  COVID-19 tips from Public Health:

  • Limit close contact to people living in your own household
  • Virtual gatherings or events are the safest way to visit or recognize occasions with people outside your household
  • Gatherings or events outdoors are safer than indoors; however, physical distancing of two metres must still be maintained
  • If you have a gathering with people you do not live with, physical distancing of two metres must be maintained and gatherings must adhere to public health restrictions
  • The fewer people gathered, the lower the risk of COVID-19 transmission 

  Public Health tips around Halloween:

  • Stay home if feeling ill or if you have mild symptoms
  • Only go out with members of your direct household
  • Only trick-or-treat outside
  • Both trick-or-treaters and people handing out candy should wear a face covering
  • A costume mask is not a substitute for a face covering and should not be worn over a face covering as it may make it difficult to breathe
  • Whether collecting or handing out treats, wash your hands often and thoroughly or use hand sanitizer
  • Do not leave treats in a bucket or bowl for children to grab
  • Consider using tongs, or other similar tools to hand out treats

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Dan Dakin, Manager Communications and Media Relations, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca or 905-347-1970

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  Categories: Media releases

• Brock’s CCOVI to co-lead $6.2-million national research program supporting clean plant program for grapevines

  Wednesday, October 28, 2020 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: 28 October 2020 – R0162

  A $6.2-million multi-partner funding commitment will allow Brock University’s Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute (CCOVI) to support the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and the Canadian Grapevine Certification Network (CGCN-RCCV) to fast-track the certification of grapevine planting material as virus-free.

  Under Genome Canada’s Genomic Applications Partnership Program (GAPP), CLEan plAnt extractioN SEquencing Diagnostics (CLEANSED) is a jointly funded initiative between Brock, CFIA, CGCN-RCCV, University of Victoria, Université de Sherbrooke, Genome Canada, Genome BC, Genome Quebec, Ontario Genomics, Agriculture and Agri Food Canada (AAFC), Compute Canada, Conseil des vins du Quebec and Illumina.

  CLEANSED uses High-Throughput Sequencing technology with improved sensitivity to simultaneously detect multiple viruses in a grapevine. This genomic-based solution would replace more than 30 tests currently being performed on grapevines to look for diseases. This one genomic test can speed up the release of virus-free grapevine material from three years to one year or less, providing rapid access to valuable new varieties. CGCN-RCCV will use this for testing and monitoring domestically propagated vines, ensuring grape growers have faster and more affordable access to clean vines.

  “This funding will allow grape growers to rapidly improve the health of their vineyards and boost the domestic capacity in the supply of much needed virus-free grapevine plant material in Canada,” says CCOVI Senior Scientist Sudarsana Poojari, who is leading the academic team of scientists.

  The end users of the research are CFIA and CGCN-RCCV, which will implement CLEANSED to ensure Canadian grapevines start clean and stay clean. CFIA ensures grapevine imports, exports and new domestic grapevine varieties for commercialization in Canada are free of regulated viruses and all non-regulated viruses of economic concern, while CGCN will approve and commercialize CLEANSED for testing grapevines in a national domestic clean plant program.

  “The CFIA is pleased to co-lead this project that will implement genomic technologies in support of a leading-edge national ‘clean plant’ program and diagnostics at the Sidney Centre for Plant Health,” says Jaspinder Komal, Vice-President, Science Branch, CFIA. “The solid science of the project will help our grape growers to quickly access healthy plants of diverse new varieties, resulting in increased production. Such approaches will be able to facilitate adaptation of Canadian and world agriculture to climate change.”

  The research is a collaborative effort between academia, government and industry to tackle grapevine virus disease management, which has been identified as the top priority for long-term sustainability of the $9-billion Canadian grape and wine industry.

  Grape growers currently lose an estimated $23 million per year due to grapevine virus infections. In order to both replace infected material and maintain routine vine replacement and modest expansion, growers currently need access to an estimated 6.7 million affordable, virus-free vines.

  High cost and convoluted testing methods, however, have been hindering the ability of growers to obtain those vines, says CGCN Vice-Chair and grape grower Bill Schenck.

  “As growers across the country continue to deal with viruses that effect crop quality and vine health, the timing could not be more perfect than now for this project,” he says. “The industry needs to have a Canadian source of clean vines that have been tested for viruses, and a program that can show the vines are true to type.”

  He says this work will standardize and validate high throughput sequence screening protocols, allowing it to be implemented into a clean grapevine program driven by the industry it benefits.

  Mike Rott, Receptor Project Leader and CFIA Scientist, says reducing the time and cost of testing, while at the same time improving sensitivity and accuracy through CLEANSED, is “critical in a highly competitive international market.”

  CCOVI Director Debbie Inglis says this announcement is the culmination of three years of collaborative work to tackle this priority issue, including previously developed Memorandums of Understanding between CCOVI and AAFC, CFIA and CGCN to support a clean plant program for grapevines in Canada.

  “We’re always looking for rapid, sensitive cost-efficient ways to prove that plant material is devoid from disease, and the application of this research is a milestone for Canada,” she says. “Grapevine is leading the way for the first official clean plant program in the country, where we can be assured that the plants we’re propagating and putting into the ground are free from disease.”

  Brock Vice-President, Research Tim Kenyon says “CCOVI consistently brings together major stakeholders in the grape and wine sector to produce breakthrough policies, programs and services in the industry, generating major contributions to local and national economies.

  “This significant grant from Genome Canada shows the confidence stakeholders place in CCOVI’s leadership, research and innovation, one example being the leading-edge CLEANSED virus detection tool.”

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews: 

  * Dan Dakin, Manager Communications and Media Relations, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca or 905-347-1970 

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  Categories: Media releases