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Story Bank Pests & Diseases
Charcoal rot is a soilborne disease caused by a fungus (Macrophomina phaseolina) that results in significant crop losses. At Kansas State University, a team of researchers quantified the...
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The perfect deli sandwich starts with optimal living conditions for turkeys everywhere. Temperature stress right before processing turkey directly impacts the quality of turkey meat that...
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The Florida blueberry industry got its start in the 1970s when the University of Florida (UF) Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences developed the first Southern Highbush blueberry...
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The boll weevil is a pest that devastates cotton plants by feeding on its buds and flowers. Native to Central Mexico, the beetle spread throughout the southwest by the 1920s and nearly...
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Dr. Bart Weimer and his team at UC Davis, School of Veterinary Medicine, are creating a massive database of genome signatures— collecting the “fingerprints” of 65,000 strains of...
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Dr. Carrie Lapaire Harmon’s lab, Florida’s Plant Diagnostic Center, serves as the state’s early detection system. Her lab is equipped to quickly test and diagnose numerous plant diseases,...
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When caterpillars attack tomato plants, proteins in the insect saliva disarm the tomato defenses. Dr. Felton and his colleagues have identified another set of proteins in caterpillar...
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Chang-Won Lee, PhD, and his colleagues worry about more than the avian flu. They focus expansively on more than a single respiratory disease. While scientists may be able to generate...
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Insect pollinators are essential to U.S. growers of fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. Honey bees are the premier managed pollinators of most crops, accounting for $11.7 billion of the...
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Bovine Respiratory Disease (BRD) is a combination of viral and bacterial cattle infections made worse by the stress of transportation to the feedlot. This project plans to breed enough...
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Phytophthora sojae is one of the most disruptive pathogens in soybean fields across the U.S. These scientists used information from P. sojae genomes to develop new diagnostic tools and to...
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Biosecurity protocols and vaccinations help prevent or reduce disease in pigs, but some animals will still get sick. To address this, Dr. Dekkers and his international team utilized the...
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The rice blast fungus is a feared pathogen, even after genetic research discovered how to introduce resistance in rice plants. Dr. Barbara Valent took on the blast-fungus challenge....
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Through cutting-edge genome editing, scientists are working to help the swine (pig) industry produce healthier, more resilient animals. Genome editors are enzymes that allow scientists to...
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Farmers in Asia and Europe have struggled with Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus (PEDv) outbreaks for decades. Dr. Jason Woodworth and his team first confirmed pig feed as a path of...
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The barber pole worm poses a great threat to the small ruminant (sheep and goat) industry. These harmful miniature predators cause irreversible damage to sheep and goats, including...
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At University of Florida, researchers are working to save Florida’s citrus industry by applying a new gene-editing technique to combat citrus greening disease.
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The total value of the U.S. soybean crop was $41 billion in 2016 according to the American Soybean Association. Soybean is heavily impacted by root and stem rot diseases caused by...
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The leading natural cause of death in beef and dairy cattle is Bovine Respiratory Disease (BRD), a combination of viral and bacterial infections. The disease causes losses of more than a...
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A highly successful example of public research for animal health began in the 1950s in the fight to eradicate the New World Screwworm. The screwworm is a maggot that feeds off the flesh...
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The Florida citrus industry, directly and indirectly, generates approximately 45,000 full-time jobs with a total economic impact of approximately $8.6 billion per year in the state....
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Dr. Rodolphe Barrangou is using a new technology known as CRISPR, which dramatically speeds up the editing of bacterial genetics, to examine the pathogen’s DNA and determine its origin...
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