UC Blog
USDA and UC join forces against potato psyllid
Scientists at USDA's Agricultural Research Service and UC Riverside will work together to develop a chemical attractant to monitor and manage the potato psyllid, according to an ARS news release issued today.
The psyllid harms the potato industry in two ways. Toxins emitted when the pest feeds causes psyllid yellows and an organism vectored by the psyllids causes a condition known as "zebra chip."
Zebra chip happens when sugars accumulate in some areas of the tuber instead of starch. Dark lines run the length of affected potatoes. In chipping varieties, these areas turn black when the chips are fried, creating a black, striped effect that gives rise to the name "zebra chip," according to the UC IPM Pest Note on potato psyllid.
Under a six-month cooperative agreement, UC Riverside entomologist Jocelyn Millar and ARS scientists in Wapato, Wash., will together try to isolate, identify, synthesize and test the specific chemical or chemicals that female potato psyllids use to attract mates.
"The agreement between UC Riverside and ARS is a pooling of resources and personnel that leverages Millar’s research on insect chemical ecology with the Wapato team’s behavioral assay studies," said the news release, written by Jan Suszkiw.
ARS scientists look at "zebra chips."
UC expert speaks at Lodi town hall meeting
A town hall meeting yesterday, hosted by the North San Joaquin Water Conservation District, included comments from UC Davis Cooperative Extension groundwater hydrology specialist Thomas Harter, according to an account in the Lodi-News Sentinel.
The discussion centered on a local ballot initiative to fund the development of infrastructure for groundwater recharge. The story said authorities are working to solve "the region's groundwater crisis."
"The ground isn't sinking like in Bakersfield," said the general manager of the Stockton East Water District. "But if we don't act on it, that's what we are looking at."
Harter provided general information about groundwater hydrology at the meeting, the newspaper reported.
"Groundwater is like a bank account, if you take more out than you put in, you will have a lower balance," Harter was quoted. "It will be a matter of decades, not weeks or months, to refill the basin."
The upcoming ballot initiative, Measure C, would enable the district to collect a fee for pumping groundwater, the story said.
For groundwater links, publications, research and a blog, see Harter's Groundwater Hydrology website.
Thomas Harter.
Researchers respond to Sac Bee Sierra grazing story
UC Davis Cooperative Extension researchers Ken Tate and Rob Atwill responded to a story about High Sierra grazing published last month in the Sacramento Bee in the California Farm Bureau Federation's newspaper AgAlert.
The Sacramento Bee story suggested that cattle grazing in high-elevation areas of the Sierra Nevada causes water contamination. Following is an opening excerpt of Atwill and Tate's commentary. See the AgAlert link for the complete 600-word response:
"Our shared challenge is to continue to identify and enact grazing practices which reduce pollution risks, enhance watershed health and sustain agricultural enterprises.
"All of our local communities are reeling from budget blows and decreasing revenues. Our local rural communities depend on livestock grazing and associated businesses for a stable economy.
"Sustainable food production and natural resources are crucial to our state, country and world. We all depend upon healthy watersheds."
Ken Tate, left, and Rob Atwill.
Foodborne illness outbreak not the usual bug
The reported foodborne illness outbreak in Ohio, Michigan and New York this week differs from other recent leafy green contamination episodes in the type of E. coli that was identified in the lettuce, according to an article published today in Western Farm Press.
Trevor Suslow, a UC Davis Cooperative Extension food safety specialist, told reporter Cary Blake that E. coli 0157:H7 is the classic type of E. coli that can cause serious illness and potential death.
“E. coli 0145 is well recognized as a type that can cause these kinds of clinical symptoms and illness; however it is not commonly associated with food,” Suslow was quoted. “The 0145 and 0157:H7 strains are among the most aggressive and more virulent types of E. coli.”
The Western Farm Press article said the FDA is investigating a farm in Yuma, Ariz., as part of its traceback investigation into the source of the E. coli 0145 outbreak in romaine lettuce that is believed to have made 19 people ill.Kurt Nolte, director of University of Arizona Cooperative Extension in Yuma County, said the lettuce in question was shipped in bulk from the desert to a processing plant in another state. A New York state public health laboratory in Albany confirmed E. coli 0145 in an unopened bag of Freshway Foods shredded romaine lettuce.
Freshway Foods, a processor in Sidney, Ohio, voluntarily recalled products containing romaine lettuce with a use-by date of May 12 or earlier, the article said. The products were sold under the Freshway and Imperial Sysco brands in 23 states.
California lettuce is not implicated in current foodborne illness outbreak.
Business Operations Centers
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