Monsanto announces corn rootworm grant recipients ST. LOUIS, Mo. — Monsanto Company has announced that six recipients will be awarded research grants as part of the Corn Rootworm Knowledge Research Program. The program was established to provide merit-based awards of up to $250,000 per award per year for up to three years for outstanding research projects that address specific aspects of corn rootworm biology, genomics and management issues.
The CRW Knowledge Research Program is guided by a 10-person advisory committee that is co-chaired by Dr. Steve Pueppke, associate vice president for research and graduate studies and AgBioResearch director at Michigan State University, and Dr. Dusty Post, Monsanto’s global insect management lead. Additional committee members include experts from academia and agricultural organizations, and were selected based on their expertise in corn rootworm biology and insect management practices.
“This program focuses the efforts of our best public sector researchers from across the United States on one of the most damaging pests of corn,” said Pueppke. “We hope the research helps provide effective and sustainable solutions and management practices that help benefit corn producers,” said Pueppke. The six awards granted focus on a number of items from evaluating how best to manage corn rootworm under current production practices to evaluating strategies to delay the onset of resistance evolution. The award recipients are: Bryony Bonning, Iowa State University; Aaron Gassmann, Iowa State University; Bruce Hibbard, University of Missouri; Marcé Lorenzen, North Carolina State University; Kenneth Ostlie, University of Minnesota; and Brigitte Tenhumberg, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
UT, NC scientists secure grant to improve produce safety KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A group of scientists at the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture and North Carolina State University are working together to improve the safety of organic produce — naturally.
Their study, “Alternative Post-harvest Washing Solutions to Enhance the Microbial Safety and Quality of Organic Fresh Produce,” began last fall.
The four-year project is supported by a nearly $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative Program. Qixin Zhong, an associate professor in the UT Department of Food Science and Technology, leads the initiative.
“The goal of the project is to provide safe, alternative, sustainable and effective treatments to reduce foodborne illnesses caused by E. coli, Listeria and Salmonella contamination in organic produce,” said Zhong.
The group hopes to provide those effective treatments in the form of alternative organic antimicrobials — naturally occurring substances such as organic essential oils that fight pathogens like E. coli — added to postharvest wash water.
“To improve the microbiological safety of organic produce, there is an urgent need to develop washing practices that not only enhance sanitation effectiveness but also fulfill the requirements of organic fresh produce,” said Zhong.
As part of the project, the researchers also will evaluate the economic feasibility of their work and impact on the shelf life of various types of organic produce.
UK researcher awarded $2.9M for equine viral arteritis studies LEXINGTON, Ky. — Udeni Balasuriya, a professor at the University of Kentucky Maxwell H. Gluck Equine Research Center, recently received $2.9 million to identify the genetic factors responsible for establishment of the equine arteritis virus (EAV) carrier state in stallions. The five-year grant was awarded by the U. S. Department of Agriculture-Agriculture and Food Research Initiative. According to Nancy Cox, associate dean for research in UK’s College of Agriculture and administrative leader for UK’s Ag Equine Programs, Balasuriya’s grant was ranked the highest in its category, unusual for a USDA grant program that normally targets food animals.
This is one of the largest grants awarded in the College of Agriculture in the last year, she said, and is a special kind that includes funds for getting results out to the public in the fastest, most efficient way.
Outbreaks of equine viral arteritis (EVA) result in significant economic losses to the equine industry due to high rates of foal loss in pregnant mares, death in young foals and establishment of the carrier state in stallions. The virus is maintained in the equine population between breeding seasons by persisting in carrier stallions.
The project stems from research by a graduate student, Yun Young Go, who worked in Balasuriya’s laboratory at the Gluck Center. The initial focus of her project involved the characterization of the EAV target cell population(s) in equine white blood cells. White blood cells are important because they eliminate cells attacked by the virus.
According to Balasuriya, the study demonstrated that EAV could infect isolated cultured white blood cells in the lab.
“Subsequently, this study was expanded to include the latest information available from the equine genome,” he said. The genome studies were done in collaboration with Ernie Bailey and James N. MacLeod, both researchers at the Gluck Center. Co-principal investigators of the study include seven Gluck Center faculty members—Sergey Artiushin, Bailey, Frank Cook, David Horohov, MacLeod, Edward Squires, Peter Timoney and Mats Troedsson. This collaboration includes expertise in the areas of immunogenetics, genomics, molecular virology and viral pathogenesis, equine reproduction, equine immunology, diagnostic pathology, molecular and cell biology and equine infectious diseases.
The study will further investigate the possibility that susceptibility may be different in different horses. For more information on the Gluck Center, visit www.ca.uky.edu/gluck |
