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Network News |
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May 31, 2006 |
Volume 3, Number 5 |
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One-stop shopping for tracking, forecasting, and more at http://www.usda.gov/soybeanrust/
Phone: (352) 392-3631 ext
254 Fax: (352)
392-6532 E-mail: We’re on the
Web! Published by the Southern Plant Diagnostic Network (SPDN) All Rights Reserved
Editor: Carrie L. Harmon
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Online
Offerings New The NPDN Training & Education site is undergoing major changes in the next couple months. We are in the process of transitioning the old learning material into a new learning management based system. Our new website is under construction but will be available to you in the next month. We will have several new features that will promote advertisement of upcoming training sessions. You will still be able to link to training materials through the SPDN website. Please direct further questions to Amanda Hodges at achodges@ufl.edu New EDEN Plant Biosecurity Course, 2006 Edition The course is available on the EDEN Web site at http://www.eden.lsu.edu/LearningOps/PlantBio/. This new edition provides updated and timely resources preventative activities and current response efforts for Soybean Rust. Extension professionals play a vital role in plant and crop biosecurity education. An EDEN survey showed that 80 percent of agricultural and horticultural producers would first turn to Extension if they suspected something abnormal in their crops. This course was designed for Extension professionals who understand the urgency of plant protection and will have the opportunity to teach plant biosecurity management to those involved in the U.S. agricultural sector. By taking this course, Extension professionals in your state will be equipped to teach others at the community level how to prepare for, respond to, and recover from a plant biosecurity event, as well as how to reduce the effects of future plant biosecurity events. As it is an interactive, online course, it provides a user with ready-to-use presentations, applied activities, and handouts for producer workshops and/or community awareness presentations. New Looking for a diagnostic lab? Al l five regions of the NPDN list lab contacts on their regional websites. Follow the links and bookmark these pages for future use: SPDN, NEPDN, GPDN, NCPDN, WPDN. New USDA Launches New PIPE Website The USDA public soybean rust website has undergone some changes including a new name change. It is now called the USDA Public PIPE Mapping Website. PIPE stands for Pest Information Platform for Extension and Education. Although the site will continue to provide information on soybean rust tracking efforts, it has been expanded to also provide information on soybean aphid scouting across the U.S. Maps of either soybean rust or soybean aphid scouting data can be viewed by simply making a selection from a drop down menu. Other new additions to the website include:• State Zoom Tool: Now it is easier to zoom in on a particular state. In the past users had to highlight a state with on the U.S. map in order to read a particular state’s commentary. The new “State Zoom Tool” allows users to choose a state from a drop down menu and immediately view that state’s commentary.• State Commentary Chronology: If you need a particular state’s commentary for specific dates or a range of dates, this tool is very useful. By clicking on the “Commentary Chron” link in the Management Toolbox, a user can pick a state or states and a single date or a range of dates and get all of the commentary for their particular query. The commentary page also offers a print option making it easier to print the information for your records.• Good Farming Practice Tool: This tool provides growers with an interactive report that can be used to document both the state recommendations and the control measures that they have employed in a particular field against rust or aphids. Since this is a web based form, the information that is entered by the grower is saved in an online database.• “Insurance Docs”: This link provides growers with 11 different documents important for substantiating and preparing claims. The USDA Public PIPE Mapping Website can be found on the web at: www.sbrusa.net.Training Opportunities The Florida Entomological Society (FES) will be hosting their 89th Annual Meeting on July 23-26, 2006 at the Jupiter Beach Resort & Spa in Jupiter Beach, FL. More information concerning the FES annual meeting will be available soon at: http://www.flaentsoc.org/. In conjunction with the FES annual meeting, a Household Invaders Pest Identification Workshop will be held at a cost of $60 (incl. workshop notebook and lunch). Some reference specimens will also be provided to participants. The training will consist of lectures and hands-on examination of spiders, scorpions, mites, ticks, bed bugs, stored product pests, plaster beetles, carpet and fungus beetles, blind snakes, and lizards. Workshop space is limited to 30 participants. Please contact Dr. Brian Cabrera bcabrera@ufl.edu or (954) 577-6363 for more information. Virus Inclusion Workshop, Gainesville, Florida 5/8/06 - 5/10/06 The workshop was a success, bringing 11 participants together from across the country to learn to identify viruses by inclusion bodies. Pictures from the workshop can be found here. New First Detector Update from the GPDN: Gary Franc, professor and research and extension plant pathologist at the University of Wyoming, reports that their staff recently completed the training of the 2006 SOD inspectors from the Wyoming Department of Agriculture. Five to seven inspectors are trained each year on disease recognition in compliance with the SOD National Survey protocol. Additionally, these inspectors receive first detector training pertaining to plant pathology, since they are often the first to observe plants with unusual symptoms. Fortunately, SOD has not been detected in Wyoming during prior survey periods. Sample collection for the 2006 SOD survey will be initiated in Wyoming during the third week of June. Pest and Pathogen News
Correction Alert:
Planococcus
minor, the passionvine mealybug, NOT in continental
United States
On April 18, 2006 the PAS posted an alert about the
detection of the passionvine mealybug,
Planococcus minor, in a
California greenhouse. On May 15, 2006 the USDA’s Systematic
Entomology Laboratory reported that molecular diagnostic work on the
initial California greenhouse sample and subsequent suspect samples
from the surrounding areas all came back as
Planococcus citri.
This misdiagnosis is a testament to the close morphological
similarities these pests share. The USDA’s Center for Plant Health
Science and Technology will work on identifying and refining the
morphological differentiation of
P. citri and P.
minor.
References: USDA’s
Systematic Entomology Laboratory.
http://www.ars.usda.gov/Main/site_main.htm?modecode=12-75-41-00
San Luis Obispo
Tribune. 14 April 2006. Discovery of rare pest shuts down Cal Poly
greenhouses.
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/14345237.htm
For more information about hosts and the distribution of
P. minor go to the Systematic
Entomology Laboratory’s Scalenet website at:
http://www.sel.barc.usda.gov/catalogs/pseudoco/Planococcusminor.htm
New Soybean rust confirmed in Mexico Find more information at http://www.agriculture.com/ag/story.jhtml?storyid=/templatedata/ag/story/data/1148574163981.xml&catref=ag1001 |
