- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
Dear Colleagues,
I am pleased to announce the 2013-14 recipients of the ANR Distinguished Service Awards, which are given biennially for outstanding contributions to the teaching, research and public service mission of the Division.
Awards were given in six areas:
- Outstanding Extension – Eric Mussen, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the Department of Entomology and Nematology at UC Davis for bees.
- Outstanding Research – Mark Battany, UC Cooperative Extension advisor in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara countiesfor viticulture.
- Outstanding New Academic – David Doll, UC Cooperative Extension advisor in Merced County for nut crops
- Outstanding Team – Ken Tate, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis, and Rob Atwill, director of Veterinary Medicine Extension at UC Davis, are the recipients of the Outstanding Team Award. Since 1994, Tate and Atwill have collaborated on a series of projects assessing the potential risk to rangeland surface-water quality and human health from livestock associated pollutants.
- Outstanding Leader – Pamela Geisel, former director of the statewide UC Master Gardener Program. Although Pam retired recently, since this nomination package was very strong, I believe it's appropriate and important to give Pam this much-deserved award.
- Outstanding Staff – Michael Yang, UCCE agricultural assistant in Fresno County for small farms.
Each of the recipients will receive $2,000 and a certificate, except for the team award recipients, who will receive individual certificates and share $5,000.
The DSA nominations were reviewed by the Academic Assembly Council Program Committee, which gave me its recommendations. The committee was chaired by Joe Grant and included Rachel Surls, Becky Westerdahl, Scott Oneto and Jennifer Heguy.
On behalf of ANR, I thank the DSA recipients for providing excellent service to the people of California. I hope you will join me in congratulating them on this well-deserved recognition.
Barbara Allen-Diaz
Vice President
View or leave comments for ANR Leadership at http://ucanr.edu/sites/ANRUpdate/Comments.
This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.
- Author: Norma De la Vega
Hace cuatro años, un brote de E. coli 0157: H7 en espinacas frescas asoló la nación. Alrededor de 200 personas en 26 estados se enfermaron; dos ancianas y un niño de 2 años de edad murieron.
El brote fue también devastador para la industria. La espinaca contaminada fue rastreada a la región del centro de California, donde los agricultores producen el 80 por ciento de las verduras de hoja verde en toda la nación. Científicos, agricultores y reguladores trabajaron juntos para restaurar la confianza del público en productos que son ampliamente considerados parte de una alimentación saludable. Los reguladores y productores crearon el California Leafy Green Marketing Agreement (Acuerdo de Mercadeo de Verduras de Hoja Verde en California), con el propósito de establecer una cultura de seguridad alimentaria en las granjas que producen verduras de hoja verde; por su parte, los investigadores aplicaron el conocimiento científico para detectar el origen del E. coli 0157:H7 en la región.
En el 2006, la Universidad de California y el Departamento de Agricultura de los Estados Unidos estaban diseñando un estudio de cuatro años para averiguar las posibles fuentes de E. coli 0157: H7, cerca de los campos de frutas y verduras en la región Central de California cuando el brote en la espinacas ocurrió. En este mes llega a su fin la etapa de recopilación de información de muestras en terrenos de pastoreo, campos de cultivo, arroyos y canales de riego. Ahora el equipo de científicos está analizando la información para obtener las conclusiones que ayudarán a prevenir contaminación de alimentos en el futuro.
De acuerdo a Edward (Rob) Atwill, investigador especializado en enfermedades transmitidas por agua contaminada en la escuela de Medicina Veterinaria de UC Davis, y uno de los investigadores principales del estudio, los resultados preliminares muestran una variedad de portadores de E.coli 0157: cerca de granjas en la zona central costera. En un principio, se implicó a cerdos ferales asilvestrados como portadores de la bacteria mortal. Sin embargo se ignoraba si había otras fuentes de contaminación en el medio ambiente. De manera que los investigadores recopilaron 1,233 muestras de excremento de animales silvestres y ferales de 38 ranchos de ganado y granjas productoras de verduras de hoja verde cercanas a hábitats de bosques ribereños, praderas y bosques de robles; se encontraron dieciocho muestras contaminadas con E. coli 0157:H7.
Los científicos encontraron la bacteria en:
3 de 60 pájaros tordos
5 de 93 cuervos americanos
2 de 95 coyotes
1 de 72 ratones de bosque
10 de 200 puercos salvajes
No se encontró el E. coli 0157:H7 en los excrementos de venado, zorros, mapaches, zorrillos, zarigüellas, ardillas de tierra y otras especies de pájaros y ratones.
“Nuestra meta para los próximos nueve meses es terminar de analizar todos los datos recopilados, que son bastante amplios y exhaustivos, e identificar varias prácticas agrícolas buenas que ayuden a reducir el riesgo de patógenos contaminantes en los alimentos para el sector de frutas y verduras frescas”, dijo Atwill.
La investigación ayuda a prevenir la contaminación de verduras frescas de hoja verde.
Preparado por Jeannette E. Warnert
Adaptado al español por Norma De la Vega
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Four years ago, a multi-state outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 in fresh baby spinach gripped the nation. Nearly 200 people in 26 states came down with the disease. Two elderly women and a 2-year-old boy died.
The outbreak was also devastating for the industry. The contaminated spinach was traced back to Central California, where growers produce 80 percent of the nation’s leafy greens. Scientists, farmers and regulators worked together to restore public confidence in products that are widely considered part of a healthy diet. Regulators and farmers created the California Leafy Green Marketing Agreement to establish a culture of food safety on leafy greens farms and researchers worked to close gaps in the body of scientific knowledge about the sources of E. coli O157:H7 in the region.
In 2006, UC and USDA researchers were already designing a four-year study of the possible sources of E. coli O157:H7 near Central California fresh produce fields when the high-profile spinach outbreak occurred. This month, data collection from rangeland and farmland, steams and irrigation canals comes to a close. The team of scientists is now analyzing the data to reach conclusions that will help prevent future food contamination.
Preliminary results reflect a diversity of E. coli O157:H7 carriers near Central Coast farms, according to Edward (Rob) Atwill, a UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine specialist in waterborne infectious diseases and co-principal investigator of the study. Early on, free-ranging feral swine were implicated as carriers of the deadly bacteria, but it wasn’t known whether there were other sources in the environment. The researchers collected 1,233 samples of wild and feral animal scat from 38 Central Coast cattle ranches and leafy greens farms that were adjacent to riparian, annual grassland and oak woodland habitat. Eighteen of the samples were found to contain E. coli O157:H7.
The scientists found the bacteria in
- 3 of 60 brown-headed cowbirds
- 5 of 93 American crows
- 2 of 95 coyotes
- 1 of 72 deer mice
- 10 of 200 feral swine
E. coli O157:H7 was not found in scat samples from deer, opossums, raccoons, skunks, ground squirrels, or other bird and mouse species.
“Our goal over the next nine months is to finish analyzing this very large and comprehensive dataset and to identify various good agricultural practices that reduce the risk of foodborne pathogens for the produce industry,” Atwill said.
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
UC Davis Cooperative Extension watershed specialist Ken Tate and interim director of the Western Institute for Food Safety and Security at UC Davis Rob Atwill will design and conduct the study. The first samples have already been collected.
In the story, writer Ashley Archibald reported that the scientists are seeking to fix problems, not just document them.
“It’s good to focus on what are the practices that can move us forward so everyone can enjoy the national forest since it has a multiple use mandate and is a resource for the public, and the public is pretty diverse," Atwill was quoted.
Scott Oneto, the director and farm advisor for the UC Cooperative Extension in Calaveras and Tuolumne counties, said the scientists are still looking for input on how to build a comprehensive study.
The California Farm Bureau Federation's weekly publication AgAlert
also weighed in on the new study. The paper said the scientists held a briefing for ranchers in Sonora where they explained their desire to acquire data to demonstrate the relationship between grazing on public lands and water quality requirements.
The article - written by AgAlert editor Kate Campbell - noted that the scientists will take multiple water samples from 48 different sites in the High Sierra over the next several months, with preliminary results available by the end of this year. Sites will include areas used for grazing and recreation.
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
UC Davis Cooperative Extension researchers Ken Tate and Rob Atwill responded to a story about High Sierra grazing published last month in the Sacramento Bee in the California Farm Bureau Federation's newspaper AgAlert.
The Sacramento Bee story suggested that cattle grazing in high-elevation areas of the Sierra Nevada causes water contamination. Following is an opening excerpt of Atwill and Tate's commentary. See the AgAlert link for the complete 600-word response:
"Our shared challenge is to continue to identify and enact grazing practices which reduce pollution risks, enhance watershed health and sustain agricultural enterprises.
"All of our local communities are reeling from budget blows and decreasing revenues. Our local rural communities depend on livestock grazing and associated businesses for a stable economy.
"Sustainable food production and natural resources are crucial to our state, country and world. We all depend upon healthy watersheds."