 For me, it's a privilege and an honor to be part of a group like GEMRA. As a public health veterinarian and scientist from Latin America, it's very important to me to bring up to the GEMRA meetings the analysis, perspective and mission from a fairly large geographical area such Latin America that is unique in many aspects. In the world, differences in culture, burden of diseases, political and economic situation, among others, have an impact in full-born diseases. So part of my mission in the meeting is to collaborate and contribute to the discussion and analysis from both a Latin American and a global perspective. Well, GEMRA is formed by a group of outstanding highly recognized scientists and experts from different countries of the world. This group provides an incredibly rich vision of expertise to address and help in the solution of microbiological food safety issues. The experts that participate in this meeting bring all their scientific skills and feel knowledge to the table. All that applied knowledge and work will protect people by helping in providing solutions to food safety and health problems in communities from all around the world.