Technology to tend your garden 

With NIFA funding, researchers at Purdue University created the Purdue Plant Doctor, a suite of apps that offers high-resolution photos to help users identify plant disorders in nearly 200 plants, such as trees, annuals, perennials, and tomatoes. 

Recent updates include resources that help users manage established invasive species like emerald ash borer or the Asian longhorned beetle. Homeowners concerned about bees are guided to solutions that protect pollinators.  

Each app helps the user diagnose the problem by asking a series of basic questions on the plant species, the season, and other questions to help narrow down the potential causes of the problem.

Read the Purdue story here.

Study: Too many antibiotics pose harm for bees and humans 

A decade ago, millions of bees mysteriously disappeared leaving farms with fewer pollinators for crops. What came to be known as Colony Collapse Disorder, the explanation for the event included exposure to pesticides, habitat loss and bacterial infections, but scientists now say antibiotics given to bees could also play a role. Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin discovered that honeybees treated with a common antibiotic were half as likely to survive the week after treatment compared with a group of untreated bees, a finding that may have health implications for bees and people alike.

The scientists found the antibiotics cleared out beneficial gut bacteria in the bees, making way for a harmful pathogen, which also occurs in humans, to get a foothold. The research is the latest discovery to indicate overuse of antibiotics can sometimes make living things, including people, sicker.

Bees and humans both have a natural community of microbes in their guts, called a gut microbiome, which helps a variety of functions including modulating behavior, development and immunity. 

Read more about the research here. 

Cattle and soil health 

Soil health is an underappreciated, but critical element in a thriving agroecosystem. Soil microbial health helps sustain ecosystem services such as climate regulation, soil fertility, and food production. 

Scientists at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) have found drastic changes in the bacterial and fungal makeup of soil near manure from cattle that received antibiotics.The scientists analyzed soil samples from 11 dairy farms across the United States and found that the amount of antibiotic-resistant genes was 200 times greater in soil near manure piles than other soil.

This project was supported by the Agriculture Food and Research Initiative (AFRI). 

Read the Virginia Tech story here. 

Breakthrough in bed bug research

In the last few decades, bed bug infestations have experienced a resurgence as a global public health threat. Researchers at Pennsylvania State University and North Carolina State University have developed a fungal biopesticide that has the potential to control bed bugs that are insecticide resistant. Their studies led to the creation of Aprehend, a patent-pending compound based on Beauveria bassiana, a natural fungus that causes disease in insects.

"The goal of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of this product on an insecticide-susceptible lab strain of bedbug, and compare that to its effect on three field-collected strains known to be resistant to insecticides," said senior researcher Nina Jenkins. "We also compared mortality of these four bedbug strains after exposure to either a commercial pyrethroid insecticide or Aprehend."

Previous studies have shown that the formulation can be used as a long-lasting barrier treatment. Bedbugs that cross the barrier acquire fungal spores and spread them to other insects in the area, resulting in a more than 95 percent mortality rate within a week.

Read the Penn State article here. 

Helping kids fight obesity

According to the 2013 Colorado Child Health Survey, one in four children between the ages 2-14 are obese. Some of the factors that lead to childhood obesity are a lack of access to nutritious food, affordable produce, overeating, and exposure to unhealthy food options. Colorado State University’s Fuel for Fun: Cooking with Kids Plus Parents and Play is a school-based program that promotes nutrition and physical activities to fourth graders and their families. This Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) funded project was implemented in eight local schools with the long-term goal of reducing childhood obesity. Fuel for Fun has reached nearly 1,000 students and their families in the Northern Colorado schools.

Check out the infographic here.

Pathogens without borders

The poultry industry, which contributes $440 billion annually to the economy and employs 500,000 people, is experiencing a health threat from the avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC), a major cause of infections in poultry. With funding from NIFA’s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI), scientists at Iowa State University and the Roslin Institute at the University of Edinburgh are discovering ways to reduce the negative impact of APEC on the poultry industry by developing complementary treatment approaches, such as vaccines and and selective breeding.

Their findings show how genes and immune response help combat APEC. Researchers are pinpointing which immune cell types are key to fighting the disease. 

Watch the video here.