Animal And Plant Health Inspection Service Research Articles

Status of APHIS vertebrate pesticides and drugs

The Wildlife Services (WS) Program manages wildlife/human conflicts by using an integrated approach employing some vertebrate pesticides. These are used in such small quantities that private industry cannot afford to register and produce them profitably. On behalf of WS, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) maintains about 30 federal and state pesticide registrations, containing seven active ingredients, with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). These include: the Compound 1080 Livestock Protection Collar, DRC-1339 Concentrates (Starlicide), Gas Cartridges (carbon and sodium nitrate), the M-44 (sodium cyanide), and a number of baits and concentrates containing Strychnine Alkaloid and Zinc Phosphide. In 1988 Congress amended the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, requiring reregistration of almost all older pesticides. Reregistration had an extensive impact on the WS Program. Over 400 studies, with an estimated cost of about $14 million, were requested by EPA for APHIS products. Through negotiations with EPA, repackaging of old data, and obtaining data waivers for inappropriate studies, National Wildlife Research Center (NWRC) and APHIS personnel reduced the data requirements to about 250 studies costing $3 million. In addition, the NWRC managed three Consortia that generated funds and data to maintain Starlicide, strychnine and zinc phosphide products held by APHIS, private industry, and state agencies. APHIS is now entering the fmal stages of reregistration. Carbon, sodium nitrate, sodium cyanide, Compound 1080, and Starlicide have been reregistered. The Reregistration Eligibility Decision (RED), with an appended product-specific data call-in notice, was received for strychnine in March 1997 and the remaining data are being generated. Reregistration of zinc phosphide is expected sometime in 1998. In addition, APHIS now maintains four products for the WS Program with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under Investigational New Animal Drug (INAD) permits. These include alpha-chloralose (a capturing agent), the Tranquilizer Trap Device (TTD) containing propiopromazine HCl (to sedate animals held in leghold traps and snares), and two immunocontraceptive vaccines, porcine zona pellucida (Zonacon), and gonadotrophin releasing hormone (Gonacon) for contracepting deer and other wild animals.

Susceptibility ofCarduus, Cirsium,andCynaraSpecies Artificially Inoculated withPuccinia carduorumfrom Musk Thistle

Abstract Puccinia carduorum from Turkey was evaluated for biological control of Carduus thoermeri under controlled greenhouse and field conditions. We measured the susceptibility of 16 accessions of C. thoermeri (the target weed), 10 accessions of related weedy Carduus spp., 22 native and 2 weedy Cirsium species, and Cynara scolymus (artichoke). All collections (including 99.2% of the individuals) of C. thoermeri were very susceptible, as were collections of putative hybrids between C. thoermeri and other large-flowered Carduus spp. Disease incidence on Carduus nutans or Carduus macrocephalus was between 0 to 5% of plants inoculated. Of the 454 individual Cirsium thistles inoculated, 83% did not develop symptoms (= immune) at any stage of growth, including all individuals in 11 species. For the Cirsium species in which symptoms were observed, 75% were immune when inoculated 4–5 weeks after planting, and no susceptible reactions developed after reinoculation of these individuals 2 weeks later. A similar effect of plant age and susceptibility was noted for Cy. scolymus. Results similar to those in the greenhouse occurred also from field inoculations of eight selected Cirsium spp., two Cynara spp., and three Carduus spp. in Switzerland. All individuals of C. thoermeri were susceptible; ratings for disease severity were between “2” and “4” (the maximum rating). For the remainder of the species, the highest rating was “1” for Cirsium and Cynara spp. and “2” for the other Carduus spp. Despite the symptoms on species other than C. thoermeri, P. carduorum was considered low risk because infections on these species were weak and the pathogen could not be maintained on any nontarget species under optimal greenhouse conditions. Data from these experiments were part of a proposal to the USDA, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), for use of P. carduorum in the United States for biological control. Permission was granted by APHIS and the Virginia Department of Agriculture in 1987 to conduct a field study of P. carduorum near Blacksburg, Virginia.

Plant pest risk information system (PPRIS) for USDA‐APHIS: design of a functional prototype

The Plant Pest Risk Information System (PPRIS) is a computerized decision‐support system for plant pest risk assessment in the USA, being developed for use by personnel of the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Plant Protection and Quarantine, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). PPRIS is being designed to retrieve information from such diverse sources as: EPPO PQ database, USDA‐Agricultural Research Service's (ARS) Fungi on Plants and Plant Products database, bibliographic databases on compact disc media, on‐line INTERNET databases and risk assessment documents. PPRIS will offer access to a wide variety of risk assessment processes. A PPRIS evaluation prototype was created in Visual Basic ver. 3.0 operating in a Windows 3.1 environment. EPPO‐PQ and ARS‐Fungi databases were imported and stored in ORACLE ver. 6.0. Query functionality of the prototype was tested by retrieving information from the two internal ORACLE databases. The PPRIS evaluation prototype provides interfaces to the CABPEST bibliographic compact disc and to communication software for on‐line database searches. Three risk assessment processes were incorporated into the evaluation prototype: the decision sheet, generic risk assessment and enhanced hazard identification. The evaluation prototype also includes access to Wordperfect for Windows through the Windows Program Manager for storage and retrieval of risk assessment documents.

Assessing weediness of transgenic crops: industry plays plant ecologist

After years of experimentation and limited field testing of genetically modified crop plants, biotechnology companies in many countries are now beginning to commercialize their transgenic products. This development has shifted the focus of public concern to the procedures that governments employ in determining that a particular transgenic crop poses no risk to the environment. In this article we discuss the Information required by the US Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) in making this determination, and compare this with the data that have been called for by ecologists and the data presented by companies in their petitions for nonregulated status.

One agency's use of risk assessment and risk communication.

Few organizations have the courage to evaluate their own use of risk assessment (identifying hazards and estimating their probability and magnitude) and risk communication (interacting with internal and external stakeholder groups about risks). The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) wants to enhance its overall risk analysis process for managing a wide range of risks to animals, plants, and human health. We gathered survey data for a baseline of APHIS professionals' understanding and use of risk assessment and risk communication. APHIS professionals spend a surprisingly large share of their time communicating about risks. They perceive that risk estimates influence decisions, but that risk estimates should have more influence. Respondents reported little opposition to APHIS risk management decisions, and little use of channels such as USDA Extension Service for disseminating risk messages. Substantial variance across responses is explained mostly by differences in the roles of the 11 work units (now 10) within the agency. Location also contributes to the variance. Demographic variables seem less important.

USDA opens way to marketing biotech tomato

The Department of Agriculture has ruled it need longer regulate Calgene's Flavr Savr tomato, opening the way for marketing of the first genetically engineered tomato. This decision will allow the Davis, Calif.- based agricultural biotechnology company to grow and ship the tomatoes without further USDA permits. Calgene also is seeking a Food & Drug Administration advisory opinion that the tomato can be classified as food and can be considered safe, despite the insertion of foreign genetic material. The tomato contains a marker gene, and an antisense polygalacturonase (PG) gene that blocks production of the PG enzyme so as to slow fruit softening. The tomato was regulated by USDA because the marker gene is derived from plant pathogens. However, responding to a petition for review filed by Calgene and to public comments, scientific literature, and expert opinion, USDA's Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) finds no need to treat the 'Flavr Savr' tomato any ...

USDA pest risk assessment of biological control organisms1

Today, as managers of plant pest control programs seek more and more alternatives to chemical pesticides, the demand for biological control organisms in the USA has increased significantly in volume and variety. There is a corresponding increase in the numbers of permit requests for biological control agents from foreign sources. Environmentalists, Federal and State plant regulatory agencies in the USA are concerned over the long‐term effects of these ‘beneficials’ on the target hosts, non‐target organisms, codependency of flora and fauna, and on the general environment. Within the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) of USDA, Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) protects US agriculture from the introduction and dispersal of harmful plant pests. It does this with the help of a network of Plant Quarantine Officers. PPQ strongly supports biological control strategies and the importation of more effective agents by accommodating the needs of agribusiness under appropriate safeguards. Although most biological control organisms are not plant pests, certain precautions are in order prior to release since shipments may contain unwanted pests, other contaminants and prohibited plant material.

Surveillance for lesions of bovine spongiform encephalopathy in US cattle.

In October 1987, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was described in Great Britain as a novel disease of cattle with neurologic lesions comparable to those of scrapie in sheep and other spongiform encephalopathies of animals and humans. Cases in adult cattle occurred with increasing frequency primarily in southern England during the next several months, and there are approximately 600 new cases each week in Great Britain? Epidemiologic studies incriminated the feeding of rations containing ruminant-derived protein, especially to calves. The prolonged incubation period was similar to that observed in scrapie. The presence in the United States of scrapie and other animal spongiform encephalopathies (transmissible mink encephalopathy and chronic wasting disease of mule deer and elk) provided impetus to survey US cattle for lesions of BSE. A cooperative project between the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), Science and Technology, National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL), and the Iowa State University, Department of Veterinary Pathology, was initiated in May 1990 with the goal of examining brain specimens from 250 suspect cattle. Beginning in May 1990, formalin-fixed brain specimens or microscope slides from BSE-suspect cattle were requested, and in April 1991, the project was expanded to include referred cases submitted for rabies examination and found not to be rabies. The criteria used to classify cases as BSE suspects are cattle that (1) are ≥2 years old, (2) have documented signs of neurologic disease, and (3) have received protein supplement as a substantial part of the ration. Specimens are shipped to the NVSL, Ames, Iowa, in standard cartons via US Postal Service or commercial transport systems. Fixed brain specimens are referred to the Iowa State University, Department of Veterinary Pathology, for further processing. Blocks of tissue from 12 areas, if available, are selected as follows: frontal cortex, corpus striatum, temporal cortex, optic chiasm, occipital cortex with hippocampus, thalamus, mesencephalon, pons, cerebellum, rostra1 medulla, obex, and caudal medulla. Tissue blocks are processed by routine methods, embedded in paraffin, sectioned at 8 μm, mounted on glass microscope slides, and stained with hematoxylin and eosin. Special stains, such as Brown-Hopps Gram stain, luxol fast blue-cresyl echt violet, and glial fibrillary acidic protein, are used as needed. Evaluation of the morphology is based on light microscopy.

Richard L. Cowden

Richard L. Cowden, a senior staff officer with USDA's Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), died 11 September 1986 in Frederick, Md. Cowden attended Muskingum College, New Concord, Ohio, from 1949 to 1951, then Ohio University in Athens, from which he received a B.S. in botany and an M.S. in ecology. He served in the U.S. Army's Bacterial Warfare Section at Dugway Proving Ground.

Stoneville Research Quarantine Facility: A National Center for Support of Research on Biological Control of Arthropod and Weed Pests

Organisms for biological control shipped to the United States from foreign countries must be processed through a quarantine facility that has been inspected and approved by USDA, Animal Plant Health Inspection Service, Plant Protection and Quarantine (APHIS, PRQ) for receiving the kind of material being imported. There are currently 20 state and federal facilities acting as quarantine receiving centers for exotic beneficial organisms in the United States. Their size, mission and types of organisms each handles varies widely and recently have been described by Knutson et al. (1982). None previously existed that could conveniently provide adequate services for programs involving the importation of exotic natural enemies of pests in the mid-South region of the United States.

An Economic Impact Evaluation of Government Programs: The Case of Brucellosis Control in the United States

Public spending in government programs to control animal and plant diseases, parasites, and other pests that reduce agricultural production amounts to more than $150 million annually [3]. These programs and activities are administered by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), U.S. Department of Agriculture. In recent years, program costs have increased rapidly and USDA officials have been asked many questions by the Congress, the Office of Management and Budget, and others about the need for certain programs. Because of steadily increasing pressure to reduce federal spending, public decision makers urgently need reliable aggregate measures of the performance of their programs.

Pink Bollworm: Response of Released APHIS Strain and Native Moths to Ratios of Z,Z and Z,E Isomers of Gossyplure in the Field123

Native male Pectinophora gossypiella (Saunders) showed a statistically significant preference for bait containing 60% of the Z,Z isomer of gossyplure and 40% of Z,E isomer early and late (May and Oct., respectively) in the 1977 cotton-growing season in Phoenix, AZ. The same preference was shown by released irradiated moths produced by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), USDA (same production released in the San Joaquin Valley of California during the 1977 season). During the intervening months, the 50% baits caught as many or more of both types of moths than the 60% baits. Early in the season, the 50 and 60% baits accounted for 78% of the total catches of native males; in Aug., the comparable catch was 34%, indicating an increased acceptance of less than optimum ratios during mid-season. Recovery of APHIS moths ranged from 0–29% during the season; lowest recoveries occurred in Aug. and Sept. when native populations were greatest.

Screwworm Research and Eradication

At a former air base converted to an insectary, fly sterilization and dispersal center, near Mission, Texas, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) of the USDA is producing and distributing approximately 200 million sterile screwworm flies, Cochliomyia hominivorax (Coquerel), per week. Meanwhile, there is under construction another screwworm plant near Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas, Mexico. This facility belongs to the Mexico-United States Commission for the Eradication of Screwworms. The new insectary is planned to begin producing 300 million flies weekly about a year from now.