Pires Lab

The Farm Animal Risk Mitigation Prepare Prevent Evaluate (FARM PPE) Project is done in collaboration with Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine and Colorado State University College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. Its goal is to develop and improve biosecurity measures on livestock and poultry operations of various scales, including alternative agricultural systems (i.e., small-scale, diversified, and backyard farms).
As part of this project, we organized a series of eight webinars, on animal health and biosecurity. All recordings are now available on the FARM PPE website. Additional webinars, more specifically targeted to alternative farmers, will be offered this year, so stay tuned! 

Integrated crop livestock farming uses winter cover crops and animals to benefit growers and the environment. Winter cover crops enhance soil fertility, structure, water filtration and storage and reduced nitrogen leaching. Livestock grazing of cover-cropped fields increase carbon inputs and nutrient cycling. However, recent concerns about microbial food safety are limiting expansion of this practice because it may introduce fecal-borne pathogens into soil with a potential for transfer to harvested produce. Thus, the goals of this project are to determine food pathogen persistence/survival in soil and transfer to vegetable crops, and to determine the relationship between soil health properties, environmental factors, and pathogen survival in grazed cover-vegetable production in three states (California, Minnesota, and Maryland). Using sheep as a grazing animal, this project has been started from May 2020 in collaboration with Agroecology Lab in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of California, Davis, USDA-ARS, the University of Minnesota department of Soil, Water, and Climate, the University Maryland Eastern Shore Department of Agriculture, Food and Resource Sciences, and The
Organic Center. Results of this project regarding the benefits of grazing and food safety impacts will be communicated via online webinar, outreach events, and conference presentations.

Click here to learn more about the Multistate Integrated Crop-Livestock Project.

Many certified organic producers and small-scale farms rely on the use animal-based soil amendments (i.e., manure, compost) to improve soil fertility and quality. To reduce the microbial contamination of produce, a minimum waiting time is required between the use of soil amendments and crop harvest. One of the goals of our research is to characterize and identify risk mitigation strategies to reduce the risk of microbial contamination from foodborne pathogens commonly associated with human illness in fresh produce organically grown with animal-based soil amendments. Our ongoing projects are collaborative and involve the participation of the farmers, organic industry members, farm advisors (UC ANR CE), non-profit organizations (e.g. The Organic Center, Organic Trade Association), extension educators, researchers (University of Minnesota, University of Maine Extension, Cornell University, UC Davis (SVM, WCFS)), and state and national governmental agencies (e.g. USDA-ARS, USDA-ERS). The results of the data collected from our research directly benefits organic farmers and consumers by creating strategies to continue utilizing raw manure while limiting food safety risks. Moreover, our research will provide science-based recommendations to create new metrics for appropriate time-intervals used between untreated manure and harvest, and will inform ongoing FDA risk assessments and the organic and fresh produce industries.

Click here to learn more about the Multi-Regional Risk Analysis of Farm Manure Use.