Abstract
List of partipants

This meeting was attended by approximately 120 delegates coming from more than 20 different Countries, mostly European but also including Australia, Canada, USA and Chile.

The meeting started on Wednesday 26th Aprile with the opening ceremony in the Ateneum Building of the University of Bari. During such event the local academic authorities have welcomed all the participants and Proff.ri Nuzzaci and Porcelli have introduced the congress with a main lecture on “Common traits between entomology and forensic science”. The Rector of the University of Bari (Prof. Gironre) has finally assigned a special award to Martin Hall (EAFE President) and Lee Goff (University of Honolulu) for their contribution to the development of the forensic entomology discipline around the world.

On Thursday 27th, a full day workshop was held at the main Building of the Polizia di Stato on “Recovery of decomposed bodies and collection of entomological evidence”. Thanks to the efforts made by Dr. Vito Borraccia (Polizia di Statao) this workshop has been especially designed for criminal investigators, crime scene technicians, forensic pathologists, forensic entomologists and other law enforcement practitioners. It was attended by approximately 200 delegates among which many policemen coming from the local territory. During the workshop representatives of the most active laboratories of forensic entomology within the police service (French Gendarmerie, Canton Ticino Police in Switzerland, Policia Cientifica de Madrid) have illustrated their procedures and standards for the investigation of corpses colonized by insects.

The scientific part of the meeting was held from 28th to 29th April 2006 in the Section of Legal Medicine of the University of Bari. Following the invited lectures made by Jamie Stevens (University of Exeter, UK) on “DNA-based approaches to the identification of insects”, Jeff Wells (University of West Virginia, USA) on “DNA-based indentification of Calliphoridae” and Rich Merritt (President of the American Board of Forensic Entomology from Michigan State University, USA) on ”Role of aquatic invertebrates in forensic investigations”, a total of 23 oral presentations were made and 24 poster displayed (see abstracts on the site) dealing with different fields of forensic entomology from case studies to field and laboratory researches. All the oral and poster presentations have been published on a book of abstracts.

At the end of the scientific sessions Lee Goff (University of Honolulu) has closed the meeting discussing the most frequent problems and pitfalls in application of entomological evidence among which, in particular, the relationship between the period of insect activity and the time since death. During a round table on procedures and standards in forensic entomology, the results of a sort of simulated case or better, an interlab test, have been finally evaluated by some EAFE Board members among which Emmanuel Gaudry (Captain of French Gendarmerie), Helene Leblanc (Forensic Alliance Limited) and Jens Amendt (University of Frankfurt). The simulated case can be the first step on the way to quality assurance and certification which includes best practice on collection and preservation of entomological evidence, but also identification of the species and determination of the minimum post-mortem interval.

At the EAFE meeting, Jens Amendt has been elected the new EAFE President. In this occasion we would like to say a really good luck to Jens but also we would like to thank You very much Martin Hall for his effort in promoting and representing our new-born association for the past four years. We have been privileged to have Martin Hall as our first President.

We believe that this annual meeting has been a great opportunity for professionals from many different disciplines to meet and discuss the latest development in forensic entomology. We really hope You will never forget such meeting and the social events organized for You among which the brief walking tour in the old part of the town of Bari with its typical narrow winding streets and its medioeval monuments such as the Norman-Swabian Castle, the Romanesque Cathedral and the Basilica of St. Nicholas. We are quite sure You will never forget the tour visit to Castle “del Monte”, one of the finest Castle in Europe with its eight angular towers and …. unfortunately the unusual rainy and cloudy weather we had during all the meeting. But maybe this could be a good reason for all the delegates to return back to Bari just for spending their holidays on the beaches catching some sun. A good occasion to dress again the blue cap with the EAFE logo!

It was a great pleasure for us to host all of You in Bari and we really hope to meet You soon at the next meeting in Brussels (Belgium). Sincerely,

Franco Introna and Carlo P. Campobasso.

Carlo CAMPOBASSO

Organising Committee, EAFE 2006