Recently added articles from Agricultural Research:
Microbes: marvels and miscreants.(FORUM)
May 01, 2009; ... Millions of different kinds of microbes live on our planet--in the air, in water, on the ground--and, of course, inside us and other living things. Some--like the microbes that live inside the gut and help us digest our food--enable us to live life to the fullest. Others prefer ...
Bashing botulism: scientists sleuth world's most powerful toxins.
May 01, 2009; ... Mom may have warned you not to eat food from a can that's dented, swollen, or leaking. As usual, she was right. Her concern may have been that you'd get botulism. This illness is caused by botulinum toxin, which is produced by a soil-dwelling microbe, Clostridium botulinum, and ...
Back to the past with new TSE testing.(transmissible spongiform encephalopathies research)
May 01, 2009; ... Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) are rare--but lethal--neurodegenerative disorders that affect a range of mammals, including humans. Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE)--or "mad cow disease"--is one TSE that has had significant economic and public health impact. The TSEs ...
Animal studies safeguard food supplies--and human health.
May 01, 2009; ... Hundreds of different species of Mycobacterium are known to exist, and many of them have been infecting animals and humans--sometimes with deadly results--for thousands of years. Scientists at the Agricultural Research Service's National Animal Disease Center (NADC) in Ames, Iowa, are ...
New methods for ensuring food safety.
May 01, 2009; ... Good news for fans of raw cookie dough. Researchers at ARS's Eastern Regional Research Center (ERRC) in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania, have filed a patent on technology that can further protect pasteurized liquid eggs from food safety threats. These threats include both naturally occurring ...
Insurance for the future that pays current dividends.(Germplasm)
May 01, 2009; ... During the Irish potato famine of the mid-1800s, late blight--caused by the fungus Phytophthora infestans--led to the deaths of about 1 million people, and a further million emigrated as a result of the famine. The potato, a food staple in Ireland, simply had no resistance to the disease. ...
New values for vitamin D in foods.
May 01, 2009; ... Vitamin D is essential for maintaining strong bones. And researchers continue to explore additional ways that vitamin D is important to human health. Now the scientific community is focusing attention on the need to assess the dietary intake of vitamin D in the United States. ...
The poultry pantry: plums, probiotics, safflower, and tea.
May 01, 2009; ... Agricultural Research Service immunologist Hyun Lillehoj has been working with colleagues in the agency and around the world to find ways of strengthening the poultry immune system with dietary supplements. Boosting bird health helps poultry ward off the effects of avian ...
Edible fungus could help address vitamin A deficiency.
May 01, 2009; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] According to the World Health Organization, vitamin A deficiency is a major public health concern in more than half of all countries, but especially those in Africa and Southeast Asia. In children, vitamin A deficiency is a leading cause of preventable ...
New vitamin mix gives farmed fish vim and vigor.
May 01, 2009; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Just like people, fish need their daily quota of vitamins. For instance, one of America's most popular farmed fish, rainbow trout, need at least a dozen different kinds of vitamins so they can grow normally and stay healthy. [ILLUSTRATION ...
Luscious lychee: scientists find keys to plentiful, predictable harvests.
May 01, 2009; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Many plants prosper in Hawaii's mild, sunny climate. The long list of contented species includes lychee, or Litchi chinensis, perhaps best known for the flavorful ice cream you can often find at Asian restaurants. The fruit's sweet, slightly ...
Cotton bests other spray-on erosion-control mulches.
May 01, 2009; ... Agricultural Research Service agricultural engineer Greg Holt helped develop the erosion-control industry's first cotton hydromulch "spray-on blanket." Developed in cooperation with Cotton Incorporated of Cary, North Carolina, and Mulch & Seed Innovations of Centre, Alabama, ...
Just a few queens started U.S. fire ant population.(Science Update)(Brief article)
May 01, 2009 ... A study suggests that the current U.S. population of red imported fire ants can be traced back to as few as 9 to 20 mated queens that were introduced into Mobile, Alabama. Individuals from two fire ant populations in South America and six populations across the southern United States were ...
Paper mill waste may be just right for reclaiming mineland.(Science Update)(Brief article)
May 01, 2009 ... Paper mill waste can safely be applied at a rate three times higher than typical rates to reclaim soils of surface-coal-mined areas. Paper mill sludge was applied at rates of 300 tons per acre to steep slopes in southeast Ohio that had been recently surface mined. Researchers compared the ...
Gene-silencing technique to be deployed against soybean fungus.(Science Update)(Brief article)
May 01, 2009 ... The soybean rust fungus Phakopsora pachyrhizi may meet its match, thanks to a gene-silencing technique that scientists plan to deploy to identify genes that enable plants to naturally resist this fungal foe. Scientists will use gene silencing to discover plant genes that play a role in ...
Modeling erosion damage from ephemeral gullies.(Science Update)(Brief article)
May 01, 2009 ... Ephemeral gullies are common features on agricultural landscapes and can sometimes lead to soil losses that exceed losses from sheet or rill erosion. Scientists have developed a model to evaluate how tillage practices can affect formation and evolution of ephemeral gullies and subsequent ...
Understanding earth from space.
Apr 01, 2009; ... When most people think of space satellites, they most likely don't think of agriculture. But the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the largest U.S. civilian operational user of satellite imagery. USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists are among the most ...
Spying on crop residue.
Apr 01, 2009; ... Craig Daughtry and Paul Doraiswamy are developing techniques to figure out from satellite sensors how much of America's croplands are being farmed using conservation tillage or reduced tillage. They are also developing techniques for using satellite sensors and GIS (Geographic Information ...
Knowing where to look for infestations of leafy spurge.(Airborne Visible Infrared Imaging Spectrometer )
Apr 01, 2009; ... Using NASA's advanced hyperspectral sensor, the Airborne Visible Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS), Raymond Hunt and colleagues have developed and tested a new method for locating leafy spurge (Euphorbia esula), a noxious invasive weed that causes more than $200 million a year in ...
Inflammation and you: how foods from plants protect us from disease.
Apr 01, 2009; ... Intriguing compounds found in familiar fruits, vegetables, and spices help fight harmful inflammation. And, in doing that, these phytochemicals--the resveratrol in red wine or the catechins in green, white, and black teas, for instance--may also reduce our risk of diseases associated with ...