CABI Blogs: hand picked... and carefully sorted

Ever wondered how much carbon is stored in a tree?

Photo courtesy of Google Images.

As trees photosynthesise they use carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the atmosphere with water from rain or irrigation and nutrients from the soil to form carbohydrates, which make up the tree’s biomass, but how much carbon is made by a tree in this process? Researchers at Ecometrica have worked it out!

SpongeBob Gets Taxonomical

SpongeBob SquarePants, the enthusiastic underwater animated character, is now commemorated in the scientific name of a fungus,Spongiforma squarepantsii. The fungus is in the Boletaceae family, and is described in a paper in press in the journal Mycologia, based on specimens collected in 2010 in Lambir Hills National Park, in Sarawak, Malaysia. The bright orange fungus smells “vaguely fruity or strongly musty”, according to its description in the journal. San Francisco State University researcher Dennis Desjardin felt that the the spore-bearing surface, when viewed with scanning electron microscopy, somewhat resembles a "seafloor covered with tube sponges", reminiscent of SpongeBob’s Bikini Bottom home.

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 Spongiforma squarepantsii, taken by the paper's authors

 

 

Is there an agronomist in the house?

 
One of my colleagues has just passed me an interesting article entitled UK agronomy skills - a lost generation which she spotted in the 6^th June issue of Chemistry & Industry. In this article, the chief executive of the Processors & Growers Research Organization, Salvador Potter highlights the shortage of basic agronomy skills facing the industry. He recalled leaving university 35 years ago with no shortage of job offers from an industry taking food production issues seriously. The large commodity surpluses of the 1980s and politicians taking the view that we can import foodstuffs to meet any shortfall have led to a marginalization of agronomy and a dearth of university courses. I took a quick look at the UCAS website and only one institution (Newcastle University) offers a course on agronomy and only around a dozen offering courses on agriculture. We are facing a situation where the 1960-70s college generation are reaching retirement and are not being replaced with graduates with the necessary skills to man much reduced government funded extension services, linking research and farm practice. These extension services have an important role in interpreting advances in research to formulate practical and effective grower advice and dissemination among growers via training seminars, meetings, bulletins and advice lines.

The food price spikes of recent years have given governments a wakeup call, underlining the fragile nature of the supply network and the tendency for countries to protect their own interests by banning exports or buying up stocks when supplies run short. New technologies such as crop genetics, improved chemicals for crop nutrition and protection, and precision farming offer the greatest opportunities to improve productivity. But in the last decade or so Potter points out that crop yields have decreased across the board for the UK’s commercially grown crops indicating that we are failing to translate research advances into on-farm practice.

If we are to reduce the 30% postharvest losses in developing countries (the aim of CABI’s Plantwise initiative) and counter the 30% thrown away be developed economies, Potter suggests that college courses must readapt to focus on practical and sustainable crop production and equip graduates with communication skills to more effectively pass on this knowledge to the farming community.

Major Veterinary Achievement - Cattle Plague Eradicated

 The World Animal Health Organization (OIE) has declared that the cattle disease Rinderpest (also known as Cattle Plague) has been eradicated, which means that all 198 countries and territories with rinderpest-susceptible animals were free of the disease. The global disease freedom status is expected to be ratified by Ministers of Agriculture at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) conference on 28 June.

This is the first time ever that a viral disease of animals has been eradicated. The last outbreak of Rinderpest was confirmed in 2001, when buffaloes were infected in Kenya. Rinderpest now becomes only the second viral disease ever to be eradicated, following the elimination of smallpox in the human population, which was last seen in 1977. A certain amount of pride in veterinary medicine about this achievement is almost palpable, which will undoubtedly lead into better animal health, and consequently better public health.

Rinderpest was a viral disease (caused by morbillivirus) that affected cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats, and wild animals such as antelope, giraffe, kudu, and wart hogs. The disease has killed hundreds of millions of cattle around the world for centuries. It was a highly contagious disease which could kill infected animals within days, wiping out entire herds. The disease has devastated livestock herds since Roman times, leaving economic ruins in its wake - it is speculated that the disease contributed to the downfall of the Roman empire in 4th Century. While waves of the disease regularly devastated livestock herds in Asia and Europe over history, animals elsewhere were spared the disease until 1887 when it was introduced into the Horn of Africa. A 19th-century outbreak of the disease in Ethiopia resulted in famines that wiped out one third of its human population.

In response to the devastation caused by the plague, the world's first veterinary school was founded in Lyon in 1761, which is usually regarded as the beginning of the modern veterinary profession, (our profession this year celebrates its 250th anniversary, see blog). In 1924, the World Organisation of Animal Health (OIE) was formed because of the continuing threat of Rinderpest. Control of Rinderpest was also one of the primary reasons for the creation of the FAO in 1947.

According to the FAO, Rinderpest was at its peak in the 1920s, when the disease spread from Scandinavia to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa and from the Atlantic shore of Africa to the Philippine archipelago, with outbreaks reported in Australia and in Brazil.

The first steps to control the disease were made following the development of the "Plowright vaccine" in the 1950s. Dr Walter Plowright, a British veterinarian, and his colleagues developed an attenuated-live virus Rinderpest vaccine in Kenya. Further advances were made when the Plowright vaccine was improved in order to remain stable in the extreme heat of central Africa, and when effective control and immunization programmes were implemented.

In 1994, the Global Rinderpest Eradication Programme (GREP), headed by the FAO was launched. GREP initially focused on establishing the geographical distribution and epidemiology of the disease and later it promoted actions to contain Rinderpest within infected ecosystems and to eliminate reservoirs of infection. Once experts were satisfied that the virus had been eliminated from a region, surveillance schemes were put in place to ensure it did not return. Eradication required enormous efforts of veterinary professionals and local residents to ensure that the disease no longer existed.

Some 10 years prior to the peak of Rinderpest epidemic, CAB International was established in 1910, and since then CABI has been facilitating communication and exchanging veterinary information on animal diseases such as Rinderpest to more than 150 countries and in over 50 languages. The CAB Abstracts database currently contains more than 4600 references with abstracts on Rinderpest from 1913 to the present. The database can be searched to find the world's literature on this topic using either “Rinderpest” or “cattle plague” as search terms (4233 hits for “Rinderpest” and 3639 hits for “cattle plague”).

Further reading: Spinage, C. A. (2003). Cattle Plague. A history. 765 pp., Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York, USA. (ISBN 0-306-47789-0)

Building a low-carbon world: the sixth industrial revolution

To avoid destroying our relationship with the planet, we'll need to make radical changes and revolutionise the way we use energy and the type of energy we use. Are policies and people in networks and communities what will ultimately make it happen? Read on to learn more about the Annual Dorchester Lecture, which was delivered last night by Lord Stern, at the Dorchester Abbey, Oxfordshire, and which we, the CABI Environmental Impact team, had the privilege to attend.

Handwashing: harnessing the yuck factor to improve public health

The recent E. coli O104:H4 outbreak has set us thinking about handwashing again. (We've tackled it before in  Now wash your hands)

It’s very difficult to change people’s behaviour  and to prove my point,  just watch this video
“Do Shocking Images Change Hygiene Behavior”.  The video refers to a study from University of Denver "Using a relevant threat, EPPM and interpersonal communication to change hand-washing behaviours on campus" which found that making you feel awful about what might be on your hands works better than appealing to the conscience.

But as well as “yuck” factor signs which seem to work on the Denver students,  I wondered what else could be done..

Germany scores own goal…its not Spanish cucumbers!

It's not cucumbers, it might be beansprouts? E. coli O104 has killed 22 people so far, made over1400 ill and reached 11 countries. It has had a significant effect on two countries- damaging Spain’s economy and damaging the credibility of the German public health system. The fallout is broader still:  the EU – and that includes us - is now offering compensation to Spanish farmers - using a central fund. 

For the bewildered public, the clue is in the name Escherichia coli…coli, Latin for intestine; for these bacteria live in the gut of man and warm-blooded animals. Unfortunately, some strains (STEC/VTEC, see Outbreak of E. coli acronyms in Germany) produce toxins that can cause severe diarrhoea, and this is always down to someone’s lack of hygiene.
Not washing hands after defecation, using a water supply contaminated with faeces to wash or water crops or poor manure preparation. It’s transmitted because poo was on your fingers or on your food and went into your mouth!

Why Washing Your Vegetables and Hands May Not Protect You from E. coli, Staphylococcus, Salmonella…?

Following the recent outbreak of E. coli food poisoning in Germany that claimed at least 37 lives as of 14 June 2011 and still counting, numerous articles have been written, but many fundamental questions still remain unanswered.

As you will remember, contaminated Spanish cucumbers were initially blamed for the outbreak of E. coli infection, which prompted the Spanish government and farmers to vehemently deny this claim (justifiably, as it turned out) and demand compensation.

As soon as “the Spanish cucumber story” was shown to be a false alarm, tomatoes, salad and vegetable sprouts (of German origin) were declared as potential culprits. It is unclear why other vegetables, such as peppers, courgettes, mushroom, to list but a few, were kept off the list of suspects, particularly because all the laboratory tests performed so far have been inconclusive.

As time goes by, it is less likely that the source(s) of this outbreak will be identified any time soon. However, even if a contaminated vegetable (or various vegetables) is identified and successfully linked with this outbreak of E. coli in humans, identifying the pathway of contamination may prove more difficult.

While looking for potential sources of vegetable contamination with pathogenic microorganisms, I searched CAB Direct database and came across a very interesting review published 20 years ago by German Professor Strauch of the Institute of Animal Medicine and Hygiene, University of Hohenheim, which explains how pathogens may contaminate food crops. He warned about the potential of pathogenic organisms to cross from manure or sewage into food crops and suggested that “the agricultural utilization of hygienically dubious sewage or sludge poses a risk for the whole national economy.”

In his 1991 review “Survival of pathogenic microorganisms and parasites in excreta, manure and sewage sludge” (Rev Sci Tech. 1991 Sep;10(3):813-46), Strauch also reported that two groups of researchers had found that pathogenic organisms can be taken up by crops that are used in human and animal nutrition.

Once pathogenic microorganisms are incorporated into crops (including vegetables), washing the outside of fresh vegetables is of little benefit, because all the pathogens from the sludge (bacteria, viruses and parasites) are inside the plant.

Recent developments in the world of biofuels

Opinions on the use of crops for biofuel and bioenergy continue to be polarized – are they a ‘good thing’ or not? When are they a ‘good thing’? Who benefits?

How do you measure the impacts and their interactions at a local, national and international level on food security, land resources, water, greenhouse gas emissions, energy security, poverty, social development, sustainability…and try to remain impartial and objective?

The Bioenergy and Food Security (BEFS) Analytical Framework developed by FAO aims to address these issues by providing an analytical framework and set of tools which can be used to measure these impacts. Using a step-by-step methodology, the goal is to help policymakers make informed decisions on whether development of bioenergy is a viable option for their country and identify suitable policies that will maximize benefits and minimize risks.

Three separate reports describe the implementation of the framework in Peru, Tanzania and Thailand, with suggestions for suitable options for each country.

Another source of information is Recent developments in the world of biofuels, a critical analysis by CABI scientists of the latest research on the potential and realities of growing and processing jatropha, algae and biomass for biofuels or bioenergy - see Biofuels Information Exchange.

Land use and poverty alleviation issues in Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, India, China and Brazil are discussed as well as research into using problematic invasive aquatic weeds (water hyacinth - pictured above - is a favourite) for bioenergy. The pros and cons of algal biofuels, and the latest technology for concentrating biomass energy into a more energy-dense form which makes transport to a processing plant more feasible are discussed, and more…

BIE is an impartial site for exchanging information on biofuels research – the exchange on pests of jatropha has generated the longest running discussion over the last 2 years – and the site provides open access to documents on biofuels, including the peer-reviewed Land Use Change: Science and Policy Review (copublished with Hart Energy Consulting) and abstracts of the latest research on biofuels from the CAB Abstracts database.

For a comprehensive resource of published information on research into man’s impact on the environment see CABI’s Environmental Impact which has a special section on biofuels research information – abstracts, books, book chapters, reports, reviews.

This song could go viral

Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis (VEE) is not often referenced in song, but The Crab Hole Mosquito Blues has just been released online in text and audio in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, charting the spread and control of the disease, which affects horses and people.

An alphavirus, such as VEE (Center for Disease Control)

The song describes the discovery that Deinocerites pseudes, the crab hole mosquito, found along the Pacific coast of Central America was a vector for the VEE virus.  Scientists at the Middle America Research Unit (MARU), Ancon, Panama Canal Zone wrote the song during an outbreak of VEE that affected Central America, Mexico, and the USA. The scientists managed to characterise the spread of different antigenic forms of equine and associated human disease throughout the Americas.  The research by MARU and others led to the development of an effective vaccine, allowing the disease to be controlled.