On Friday 28th of February 2025 the activities of the Common Module “Biosafety – Bioterrorism”, held under the auspices of the European Security and Defence College (ESDC) in the context of the Military Erasmus programme, were completed.
The above educational activity was held at the Hellenic Military Academy of Combat Support Officer’s (HMACSO) premises for the fourth time (after the successful conduction on 2020, 2022 and 2024) and included a series of lectures that lasted 5 days (24/02 – 28/02) on the subject «Biosafety and Bioterrorism».
48 students from 6 different countries participated: Greece, Italy, Bulgaria, Poland, Belgium and Romania.
The activity was attended by HMACSO’s students, students from Military Academies of Greece and European Union, as well as students of Greek Universities. Specifically, the participations originated from 10 different Military Schools – Academies: HMACSO, Hellenic Nursing Academy, «”Nikola Vaptsarov” Naval Academy» (Bulgaria), «”Nicolae Balcescu” Land Forces Academy of Sibiu» (Romania), «Italian Air Force Academy» (Italy), «Military Technical Academy “Ferdinand I”» (Romania) «”Carol I” National Defence University» (Romania), «Italian Naval Academy» (Italy), «Royal Military Academy» (Belgium), «Military University of Technology» (Poland) and also citizen students from different Departments of 2 Greek Universities: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and Democritus University of Thrace.
The seminar dealt with the subject of Biosafety and Bioterrorism both at National and European level. Specifically, issues related to food and water safety, protection against outbreaks of diseases due to biological agents, types of biological and chemical threats and health protocols and defense mechanisms of the EU member states were analyzed.
The lectures were presented by Hellenic Armed Forces’ Officers, specially trained on the specific topics and Professors from the Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy Departments of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. The lectures took place in the Lecture Hall of the War Museum of Thessaloniki and the Microbiology Laboratory of the Department of Veterinary Medicine of AUTH.
Within the framework of the program, an educational guided visit was organized to the archaeological site of Vergina, aiming at promoting the cultural heritage of our country. Furthermore, the participants of the seminar had the opportunity to visit the Laboratory of Virology of the Department of Veterinary Medicine. Finally, an additional educational visit was organized at the facilities of the canning company ΖΑΝAE, aiming at familiarizing the participants with the safety procedures of food processing.
Written exams and the evaluation of the seminar by the participants followed. The activities of the Common Module were completed on Friday 28 February 2025 with the speech of the Commander of the Academy, Brigadier General (Med) Petros Kouridakis, who awarded commemorative diplomas to the lecturers and 2 ECTS Certificates to the participants.
