California Ag Network

Tag: Agricultural Research Service

  • ARS Develops New Disease-Resistance Traits for Sugarbeets

    Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists have bred new disease-resistant sugarbeet lines using cutting-edge genome mapping technologies. By adapting these new genomic lines and genomic tools, plant breeders are now able to greatly improve the sugarbeet’s tolerance to disease.

    Fusarium Yellows is one of many fungal diseases that can result in extensive damage to the sugarbeet crop yield. The soil-borne fungus triggers wilting, yellowing, loss of leaves and a plant’s death. In 2023, Fusarium caused over $31 million dollars in economic losses for U.S. sugarbeet farmers, according to Kevin Dorn, a geneticist at the Soil Management and Sugarbeet Research Unit in Fort Collins, CO.

    “Improving genetic resistance to disease has been the focus of ARS sugarbeet research for decades,” Dorn said.

    ARS’ development of new genetic sugarbeet lines could curb Fusarium and other diseases, resulting in a more productive crop. This insight is part of a larger effort by ARS researchers to continually improve its breeding efforts through genome analysis.

    In May 2024, ARS researchers published the results of their most recent genome research.

    “The key point of this paper is that we used this advanced DNA sequencing technology to create the most complete map of the sugarbeet genome to date,” said Dorn. “We also adopted that new map to identify the genomic location of the Fusarium resistance trait. In addition, we utilized a sequencing technology called ‘RNA sequencing,’ to pinpoint the individual genes likely responsible for the resistance.

    “DNA sequencing technology is really amplifying the impact of our research programs,” he added.

    The ARS team’s use of genomic analysis of new resistant lines is providing essential tools for public and private sugarbeet breeders.

    “Here is a resistance trait that breeders can immediately transfer into commercial lines,” Dorn said. “Normally, it would take years to evaluate a new line and introduce it into a breeding program. Additionally, this research allows us to further develop molecular markers. That will enable commercial breeders to more quickly identify whether what we have discovered in our lab is a new resistant trait that does not already exist in their breeding programs,” he said.

    Dorn expects further discoveries through DNA analysis will create more efficiencies in breeding sugarbeets and other crops.

    “This is really going to speed up our research programs … to the point that ARS-developed traits will be more quickly available for farmers to plant in their fields,” he said.

    In January 2024, the ARS team’s initial findings, were published in the Journal of Plant Registrations, Volume 18, Issue 1. – Tami Terella-Faram, USDA-ARS Office of Communications

  • Varroa Mites and Deformed Wing Virus Make Honeybees More Susceptible to Insecticides

    The first of two apiaries, established in 2014 in Stoneville, Mississippi, provided honey bees for studying the impact of pesticides on honey bees. (Photo by Yu-Cheng Zhu, D5121-1)

    Controlling for Varroa mites, the parasitic mites that feed on honey bees and serve as vectors for viral diseases like deformed wing virus (DWV), can help with improving honeybee populations and make bees less susceptible to harmful insecticides, according to a recent study published in Environmental Pollution.

    Foraging honey bees may be directly exposed to toxic insecticide sprays in the field or exposure may come from honeybees collecting and bringing pesticide-contaminated pollen and nectar back to their hives to feed larvae and young bees. The presence of insecticides, along with other environmental stressors in agricultural areas, can be a factor leading to issues like colony loss — something beekeepers from around the world are trying to overcome.

    “Previous research has shown how chemicals like pesticides make bees more susceptible to mites,” said Yu-Cheng Zhu, a research entomologist at ARS’s Pollinator Health in Southern Crop Ecosystems Research Unit in Stoneville, Mississippi. “In our study, we wanted to see if mites and viral infestations make bees more susceptible to insecticides.”

    In a study, researchers with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) applied the miticide amitraz (Apivar), a product commonly used for treating Varroa mites, off-label to four bee hives and left the other four hives untreated. They monitored the mite population density monthly and DWV density in early, middle, and late season.

    Researchers collected bees from miticide-treated and untreated hives, and quantified gene expressions of four immune genes and two physiology-related genes. They also tested bees’ sensitivity to five representative insecticides. In addition, bees’ natural mortalities were recorded during three seasons.

    “Miticide treatment led to minor or undetectable mite and DWV infestations during the whole bee season, while untreated colonies had substantially higher mite and DWV infestations,” said Zhu.

    The data analyses showed that Varroa mite population irregularly fluctuated over the bee season and mite population density was not dynamically or closely correlated with the seasonal shift of honey bee natural mortality. Unlike mites, DWV density in untreated colonies progressively increased over the bee season. The density was highly correlated with the seasonal increase in honey bee natural mortality.

    “In the untreated hives, the increased DWV infestations resulted in decreased physiological and immunity-related functions in late-season honey bees, making the bees more susceptible to insecticides and increasing natural morality rates during the season,” said Zhu.

    According to Zhu, Varroa mites, also known as Varroa destructor, can reduce fat body and body fluids that contain important detoxification enzymes and immune proteins in honey bees. As a result, bees have impaired immune, detoxification/defense systems, and other essential processes. Coupling those impairments with exposure to insecticides can be detrimental to bee populations.

    “Having impaired immunity, especially later in the season with fewer food sources, can be challenging for honey bees,” said Zhu.

    Zhu, whose work focuses on the toxicological impact of pesticides on beneficial insects in the Mississippi Delta Area, said that the study’s results indicated the importance of studying the “bottom-up” effects of mite infestations on the overall health of honey bees in real-world contexts.

    “Chemical control is still a major method in preventing crop loss and controlling insect pest populations,” said Zhu. “It is important to study the effects of chemical control in honey bee populations so we can find best practices for protecting the health of bees.”

    The Agricultural Research Service is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s chief scientific in-house research agency. Daily, ARS focuses on solutions to agricultural problems affecting America. Each dollar invested in U.S. agricultural research results in $20 of economic impact.

  • Self-Teaching Web App Improves Speed, Accuracy of Classifying Cereal DNA Variations

    Agricultural Research Service and Washington State University scientists have developed an innovative web app called BRIDGEcereal that can quickly and accurately analyze the vast amount of genomic data now available for cereal crops and organize the material into intuitive charts that identify patterns locating genes of interest.

    With the rapid advancements in the field of genomics the past 25 years, a game-changer for crop improvement has emerged referred to as the pan-genome, defined as the assembled genome sequences from multiple varieties within a species. But understanding and enhancing crops based on the huge amount of data that have been generated also has created a challenge for researchers due to the lack of efficient and user-friendly bioinformatic tools, particularly ones designed to handle large volume DNA variations in a species.

    Take wheat, for example. The standard reference wheat genome — which was done for the wheat variety Chinese Spring — is five times larger than the human genome. In addition, researchers have long struggled with the wide variation in the locations of genes that control essential agronomic traits across wheat’s 21 chromosomes. Right now, a dozen wheat genomes are publicly available.

    This adds up to a huge amount of data, making analysis of it a tedious process even for researchers with advanced bioinformatic skills. It is particularly challenging to sort through all of the data to identify similar stretches of DNA that may control the same trait no matter where they are located on a chromosome.

    “Researchers will find BRIDGEcereal to be an invaluable tool for selecting and prioritizing candidate genes that control specific traits in cereal crops,” said Bosen Zhang, a WSU postdoctoral research associate and co-developer of the web app.

    BRIDGEcereal is designed to transform the process of identifying large DNA variation from tedious to efficient.

    “By simply providing BRIDGEcereal with the sequence of DNA you are interested in, it will complete the search process in less than one minute.” explained ARS research biologist Xianran Li, the leader of the BRIDGEcereal project. Li is with the ARS Wheat Health, Genetics, and Quality Research Unit in Pullman, Wash., and is an adjunct professor at WSU.

    “And BRIDGEcereal will organize the data it finds and present it to you in easily understood charts that highlight any patterns of where that DNA is,” Li added.

    It only took a minute for BRIDGEcereal to identify a promising candidate gene as the controller of a wheat mutation that reduces the length of awns, the bristle-like extensions from the wheat grain head. It had been known since the 1940s that a gene on wheat chromosome 4A controls awn development, which is an iconic wheat trait. But the exact gene controlling that trait has remained unknown.

    “By searching dozens of potential genes through BRIDGEcereal, we were able to quickly identify a gene with a large DNA variation as the one that has been eluding researchers,” Li said.

    The scientists also designed BRIDGEcereal to be self-teaching — also called unsupervised machine-learning — meaning BRIDGEcereal can autonomously learn to recognize new patterns without the need for explicit instructions to follow.

    “So what we’ve developed is a one-stop gateway to efficiently mine publicly accessible cereal pan-genomes that will only get more efficient as the data continues to mount up,” Li said.

    BRIDGEcereal was first developed to work with wheat. It has already been adapted to analyze similar data from barley, maize, sorghum, and rice.

    This research was published in the journal Molecular Plant.

    The Agricultural Research Service is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s chief scientific in-house research agency. Daily, ARS focuses on solutions to agricultural problems affecting America. Each dollar invested in U.S. agricultural research results in $20 of economic impact.

  • Gene-Editing Tech Produces First Calf Resistant to Major Viral Disease

    One-week-old calf born with resistance to the bovine viral diarrhea virus. (Photo provided by USDA-ARS)

    Scientists have collaborated to produce the first gene-edited calf with resistance to bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV), a virus that costs the U.S. cattle sector billions of dollars annually.

    The recent study published in PNAS Nexus results from a collaboration between the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS), the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL), the University of Kentucky, and industry partners, Acceligen and Recombinetics, Inc.

    BVDV is one of the most significant viruses affecting the health and well-being of cattle worldwide, and researchers have been studying it since the 1940s when it was first recognized. This virus does not affect humans but is highly contagious among cattle and can cause severe respiratory and intestinal diseases.

    BVDV can be disastrous to pregnant cows because it can infect developing calves, causing spontaneous abortions and low birth rates. Some infected calves survive to birth and remain infected for life, shedding massive amounts of virus to other cattle. Despite more than 50 years of vaccine availability, controlling BVDV disease remains a problem since vaccines are not always effective in stopping transmission.

    However, over the past 20 years, the scientific community discovered the main cellular receptor (CD46) and the area where the virus binds to that receptor, causing infection in cows. Scientists modified the virus binding site in this recent study to block infection.

    Aspen Workman, lead author and researcher at ARS’ U.S. Meat Animal Research Center (USMARC) in Clay Center, Nebraska, said, “Our objective was to use gene-editing technology to slightly alter CD46 so it wouldn’t bind the virus yet would retain all its normal bovine functions.”

    The scientists first tested this idea in cell culture. After seeing promising outcomes in the laboratory, Acceligen edited cattle skin cells to develop embryos carrying the altered gene. These embryos were transplanted into surrogate cows to test whether this approach might also reduce virus infection in live animals.

    It worked, and the first CD46 gene-edited calf, named Ginger, was born healthy on July 19, 2021. The calf was observed for several months and then later challenged with the virus to determine if she could become infected. She was housed for a week with a BVDV-infected dairy calf that was born shedding virus. Ginger’s cells displayed significantly reduced susceptibility to BVDV, which resulted in no observable adverse health effects.

    The scientists will continue to closely observe Ginger’s health and ability to produce and raise her own calves.

    This proof-of-concept study demonstrates the possibility of reducing the burden of BVDV-associated diseases in cattle by gene editing. The edited calf also represents another potential opportunity to lessen the need for antibiotics in agriculture since BVDV infection also puts calves at risk for secondary bacterial diseases. This promising trait is still in the research phase and no associated beef is entering the U.S. food supply at this time.

    The Agricultural Research Service is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s chief scientific in-house research agency. Daily, ARS focuses on solutions to agricultural problems affecting America. Each dollar invested in U.S. agricultural research results in $20 of economic impact.

  • USDA-ARS and Weed Science Society of America Present Weed Science Webinar Series

    The USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and Weed Science Society of America (WSSA) today announced the launch of a free webinar series focusing on current research and advancements in managing weeds and invasive plants.

    “ARS scientists have worked in a wide range of agricultural and natural ecosystems that include agronomic and horticultural crops, pastures, forests, rangelands, wetlands and riparian areas,” said Steve Young, USDA-ARS National Program Leader for Weeds and Invasive Pests. “Our scientists have made contributions to discoveries in the newest fields of robotics and genetics as well as the traditional and fundamental subjects of weed-crop competition, physiology, and integration of weed control tactics.”

    By collaborating with WSSA, ARS scientists aim to highlight the important research that has contributed to the development of sustainable practices to control weeds and invasive plants.

    “WSSA is excited to host a series of webinars to highlight the contribution of ARS scientists to our discipline,” said Stanley Culpepper, WSSA president. “Their efforts to advance the knowledge of managing weeds and invasive plants is a crucial component of long-term management success.”

    Presentations will be given by USDA-ARS weed science research experts every Tuesday from 2-3p.m. ET and include an interactive Q&A session:

    Theme I: Tactics

    April 19 – Non-Crop Systems: Advancements in Weed Biocontrol Tools: Melissa Smith, Research Ecologist at the Invasive Plant Research Laboratory in Fort Lauderdale, FL

    April 26 – New Technology for Weed Identification and Control: Steven Mirsky, Research Ecologist at the Sustainable Agricultural Systems Laboratory in Beltsville, MD

    Theme II: Mechanisms 

    May 3 – Role of Plant Physiology in Weed-Crop Competition: Dave Horvath, Research Plant Physiologist at the Sunflower and Plant Biology Research Unit in Fargo, ND

    May 10 – Molecular Basis for Controlling Invasive Plants: Matt Tancos, Research Plant Pathologist at the Foreign Disease-Weed Science Research Unit in Fort Detrick, MD

    May 17 – Addressing Herbicide Resistance with Alternative Chemistries: Scott Baerson, Molecular Biologist at the Natural Products Utilization Research Unit in Oxford, MS

    Theme III: Impacts 

    May 24 – Spread and Distribution of Invasive Plants: John Madsen, Research Biologist at the Invasive Species and Pollinator Health Unit in Albany, CA

    May 31 – Climate Change Effects on Weeds and Management: Dana Blumenthal, Ecologist at the Rangeland Resources & Systems Research Unit in Fort Collins, CO

    June 7 – Restoration for Managing Invasive Plants: Roger Sheley, Ecologist at the Range and Meadow Forage Management Research Unit in Burns, OR

    To attend the webinar, please register in advance. This webinar is open to the public, and WSSA membership is not required.

    The Agricultural Research Service is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s chief scientific in-house research agency. Daily, ARS focuses on solutions to agricultural problems affecting America. Each dollar invested in agricultural research results in $17 of economic impact.

  • ARS Scientists Develop Prediction Technologies to Reduce Soil Loss

    ARS scientists are the designers of seven of the top ten most used computer simulation models that are helping reduce soil erosion around the world.

    Agricultural Research Service scientists designed seven of the top ten—13 of the top 25—most used predictive technologies/simulation models that are reducing the loss of soil to erosion around the world, according to a recently published study.

    Although originally developed for cutting down soil losses due to erosion from agricultural practices, today these models also are reducing soil loss from erosion on construction sites, mined land, road corridors, logging and clear-cut areas, landfills, even military training grounds and more in at least 126 countries.

    Soil erosion by water has been estimated to annually cost about $8 billion to the global gross domestic product and reduce global agri-food production by 33.7 million tons with accompanying rises in world agri-food prices of up to 3.5 percent, according to a 2019 study. Further, some agronomists hold that soil erosion can unlock and increase carbon dioxide emissions.

    Prediction technologies allow researchers, regulators and land managers to model how changes in various practices will affect the amount of soil that will be lost to erosion, at scales ranging from a single hillslope to whole watersheds. They can compare the likely benefits of applying different soil conservation practices.

    Number two on the list of most used erosion prediction models is the progenitor of them all: the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE), which ARS first published as a complete technology in 1965. USLE began as a fairly simple equation that gave an answer in tons of soil lost per acre per year by multiplying a few direct factors representing rainfall, soil type, cropping system, conservation practices and hillslope steepness and length.

    Experts have hailed the USLE as the most significant development in soil and water conservation in the 20th century.

    Number one on the list—the single most applied soil erosion model in the world—is an outgrowth of USLE, published by ARS as the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) in 1997. RUSLE was adapted for sophisticated computer interfaces including graphics, as well as given new weighting of some factors that made the model independent of land-use. This broadened RUSLE’s applicability.

    RUSLE has been revised several times since that first publication, each time adding new capabilities. For example, RUSLE2 treats land use as a continuum taking into account that previous use affects erosion under a new use. Other factors like the type of vegetative cover—crop, pasture, woodland, bare ground—also were added making the simulation more accurate.

    In the wake of these two big picture models—USLE and RUSLE—ARS researchers have developed specialized models, each meant to provide greater detail in a particular area of controlling erosion. The ARS Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) model was designed to provide more reliable modelling of waterflow and sedimentation movement in small water channels all the way up to giant watersheds.

    Other models/predictive technologies on the list focus on predicting the impact of land management practices on water, sediment and agricultural chemicals in large complex watersheds such as the Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), predicting the relationship between soil erosion and soil productivity such as the Erosion Productivity and Impact Calculator (EPIC) and predicting runoff and erosion rates on rangelands using Range Land Hydrology Models (RHEM).

    The goal of all the models that ARS scientists develop and continue to refine is to help preserve one of the most valuable resources there is: productive soil, for which there is no replacement.

    The study, published in Science of the Total Environment, was conducted by 67 soil erosion scientists from 25 countries.

    The Agricultural Research Service is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s chief scientific in-house research agency. Daily, ARS focuses on solutions to agricultural problems affecting America. Each dollar invested in agricultural research results in $17 of economic impact.

  • An Organic Alternative to Combatting Spotted Wing Drosophila

    Scientists from the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) are working to understand how something can be equally effective as both a government-approved food additive and as a pesticide.

    Methyl benzoate is a naturally occurring compound produced by plants. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration long ago approved methyl benzoate for human use; its fruity and floral aroma makes it a staple in perfumes and cosmetics and as a food additive. Nature employs it to attract pollinators.

    While many insects find methyl benzoate appealing, Aijun Zhang, research chemist at the ARS Invasive Insect Biocontrol and Behavior Laboratory in Beltsville, MD, is investigating why some insects and non-insect pests find it revolting.

    From left, research chemist Aijun Zhang, postdoctoral Nick Larson, and intern Lauryn Brooks demonstrated research into methyl benzoate uses as a pesticide in an ARS poster day demonstration.

    Zhang’s research has focused on methyl benzoate’s utility as a pesticide for human protection and crop protection. So far, Zhang has documented that the compound will kill or repel many insects in various stages of development, including mosquitoes, bed bugs, fire ants, ticks, flies, moths, and the brown marmorated stink bug. Perhaps most important, however, is its ability to repel and kill the spotted wing drosophila fly (SWD). “SWD is the most significant invasive insect pest of soft-skinned fruit crops in the USA,” Zhang said.

    Since SWD was first detected in California a little over a decade ago, the fly has become a key pest in blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, and cherries. These crops have a combined annual value of over $5.8 billion, and farmers lose about $718 million annually to SWD damage.

    Farmers fight SWD with synthetic insecticides, but at prices up to $1,200 per acre, that method is expensive. It is costly in other ways, too, Zhang said; the synthetic insecticide is harmful to the environment, contributes to pesticide resistance, and may be harmful to humans.

    Because methyl benzoate is an environmentally friendly, bio-based compound, Zhang thinks it has great potential to be used by people for human protection as an alternative to synthetic pesticides. It also costs much less than synthetic pesticide treatments.

    According to Zhang, methyl benzoate shares the same “chemical skeleton” as DEET, the gold standard in arthropod repellency, a detail that is leading future research efforts.

    “Understanding the structure-activity relationship will allow researchers to modify the chemical structure of the methyl benzoate molecule to develop pesticides that are more efficient at controlling arthropod pests,” he said. — By Scott Elliott, USDA-ARS Office of Communications.

  • Plant, Insect Viruses Work Together to Spread Disease

    In what may be a first for science, researchers with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) have found an example of plant and insect viruses working together to increase their spread.

    Molecular biologist Michelle Heck, of the ARS Emerging Pests and Pathogens Research Lab in Ithaca, NY, scouts for aphids (Photo by Jennifer Wilson, Cornell University).

    Michelle Heck, an ARS research molecular biologist, was leading research into poleroviruses, a type of plant virus spread by aphids, when she and Cornell University graduate students Jenny Wilson and Patricia Pinheiro made the surprising discovery. Heck is in ARS’s Emerging Pests and Pathogens Research Unit at the Boyce Thompson Institute, on the campus of Cornell University, in Ithaca, NY.

    “Poleroviruses produce a molecule, called P Zero (P0), which dampens the aphid’s immune system,” Heck said. “When the aphid immune’s system is turned down, it allows an aphid virus called a densovirus to infect the insect at very high levels.”

    Densoviruses have a curious effect on aphids: Aphids usually develop wings when the weather begins to cool, but densoviruses can induce the insects to sprout wings. When poleroviruses and densoviruses interact in this way, it allows them to carry the polerovirus farther and faster.

    “We think this is the result of evolution,” Heck said. “Both the plant virus and the insect virus have evolved to manipulate the aphid. Our work shows they are in cahoots to promote virus spread, though possibly at the aphid’s expense.”

    The research is vital to crop producers because aphids transmit more than 100 different viruses to peaches, tomatoes, potatoes, apples, cotton, cabbage, corn, and other plants. In particular, the potato leafroll virus can reduce the worldwide potato yield by more than 50 percent, causing the loss of 20 million tons of crop each year. There is a new and emerging polerovirus infecting cotton, cotton leafroll dwarf virus, that Heck and her team are now studying.

    “Aphids are resistant to many commonly used insecticides, so chemical treatment is not effective in killing them and blocking the spread of viruses,” Heck said. “By the time a farmer notices aphids in the field, it is too late to block the spread of these viruses by aphids.”

    Follow-on research includes a quest to understand how the polerovirus protein, P0, suppresses the aphid’s immune system at the molecular level. Heck is also looking at exactly how the densovirus triggers the aphid to grow wings.

    “We now know that poleroviruses can interfere with the aphid’s immune response to densoviruses,” she said. The question Heck hopes to answer is, can the densovirus infection be made so severe that it kills the aphids, and if so, could it be used as a biological control tool? – By Scott Elliott, ARS Office of Communications

  • First Meal is Vital for Calf Survival

    The first meal of their lives may well determine the fate of calves; if they don’t get what they need quickly, the newborns may not survive to weaning age, said two scientists with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS).

    Colostrum is a vital nutrient that mothers provide in the first feedings that newborn farm animals must have within 24 hours of birth. Calves are born without much of an immune system, and colostrum provides them with a rich dose of antibodies, or immunoglobulins.

    “It is very important for a calf to receive protective antibodies from its mother,” said Mike Clawson, research molecular biologist at the ARS Genetics, Breeding, and Animal Health Research Unit in Clay Center, NE.  “Those antibodies can protect the calf from the same pathogens its mother was exposed to long enough for its own immunity to develop.” Clawson’s research includes the genomic aspects regarding the failure of passive transfer of colostrum antibodies in cattle.

    A Hereford cow nurses her calf. Calves that do not receive enough colostrum face increased risk of disease and death (Photo by Bruce Fritz).

    Calves that do not receive antibodies from their mothers are at profound risk for disease and death. Before they are born, their mothers concentrate immunoglobulins in colostrum, which is essentially a first milk. Calves typically nurse shortly after birth, and the ingested antibodies are ultimately transported to their circulatory system.

    Timing is everything in this process because shortly after delivery, the mother’s production of immunoglobulin drops by 90 percent. In roughly that same time span, newborns lose the ability to take in the benefits of colostrum.

    “The newborn gut is permeable to large molecules at birth, but within 24 to 48 hours it becomes impermeable to them,” said Jeff Vallet, ARS national program leader for food animal production in Beltsville, MD. “Even if we were to provide colostrum to older newborns, absorption of the immunoglobulins is reduced or eliminated.”

    According to Clawson, colostrum deprivation is the greatest risk factor for a calf to become sick or die before weaning. “Calves that do not receive colostrum are 50 times or more likely to die in the first 3 weeks of life,” he said. Calves that do not receive adequate colostrum yet manage to survive past weaning are at elevated risk for developing disease later in their lives.

    Farmers, ranchers and veterinarians can determine the colostrum status of their newborn livestock through the simple immunocrit blood test. If the newborns lack immunoglobulins, they may be hand-fed commercially available colostrum replacements or supplements.

    A 2016 paper published in Europe studied the cost of colostrum antibody deficiency to calves. That study estimated a loss of about $68 and $91, respectively, for each dairy and beef calf. In the United States, over 20 percent of beef cattle calves and 19 percent of dairy calves suffer from colostrum deprivation. – by Scott Elliott, USDA-ARS Office of Communications

  • USDA ARS Moves Forward with Smoke Exposure Research

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is partnering with federal and state research institutions in California, Oregon and Washington on a collaborative $2 million research effort to address important wildfire issues affecting grape production areas.

    West Coast winegrowing associations involved in a task force, focused on wildfire smoke issues, led the effort to obtain federal funding for ARS to support grape smoke exposure research. ARS has committed those funds to a collaborative research effort involving the University of California-Davis, Oregon State University and Washington State University.

    The West Coast Smoke Task Force was formed by industry leaders and three West Coast winegrowing associations: California Association of Winegrape Growers, Oregon Wine Board and Washington Winegrowers. Four industry representatives – Alisa Jacobson, Joel Gott Wines; Patrick Rawn, Two Mountain Winery; Mike Testa, Central Coast Vineyard Care; and Gregg Hibbits, Mesa Vineyard Management – are working through these associations to coordinate industry efforts to address a range of industry and economic issues associated with smoke exposed grapes. Other groups involved in the effort include the Oregon Winegrowers Association and Wine Institute.

    Since 2011, increasingly frequent and severe wildfires in California, Oregon and Washington have caused significant disruption and economic losses for grape growers. The negative impacts of smoke exposure on wine quality is an industry-wide concern.

    Climate change models predict increased wildfire risks in the Western United States, which threatens the long-term sustainability of important winegrowing regions. To combat the increased risks of wildfire smoke to grape value and wine quality, researchers will focus on developing and proving new risk assessment tools, mitigation measures and management strategies for use in vineyards and wineries.

    ARS researchers, in collaboration with colleagues at the three land grant institutions, will address components of the yearly life cycle of wildfire impacts on winegrape production, including:

    • Smoke exposure in the vineyard
    • Chemical changes in grapes and wines
    • Consumer perception of smoke taint

    The $2 million in new ARS funds will be allocated as follows:

    • $700,000 to the USDA-ARS, Davis
    • $300,000 to UC Davis collaborator Anita Oberholster
    • $400,000 to USDA-ARS, Corvallis
    • $300,000 to OSU collaborator Elizabeth Tomasino
    • $300,000 to WSU collaborator Tom Collins

    Researchers will start using ARS funds for research this summer and they plan to provide regular updates to the industry.

    “Congress, the Agricultural Research Service and winegrowing organizations from the states most affected by wildfires really did a great job to obtain $2 million in research funding for smoke exposure issues,” said associate professor Elizabeth Tomasino, Oregon State University. “And, I know those efforts are ongoing. With more funding, I’m certain this collaborative research effort can deliver new tools and techniques to help growers and wineries reduce smoke exposure related losses.”