http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/04/18/DD5N1N8AHQ.DTL

Laramie Treviño

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Say your grandmother in Florida wants to share her citrus harvest and mails you a box of juicy fruit in a package with no hint of its contents. Or relatives in San Antonio pack up holiday season pecans from their tree for overland delivery to the Golden State.

Good luck getting those backyard crops past the sniffing sentinels of the conveyor belt. With a dainty prod of a paw or a vigorous scratch punctuated with a growl and a pounce, these canine inspectors are no slouches on their beat. “They all have different styles,” says Tino Menchaca, handler for Hawkeye, Santa Clara County’s tan Labrador/hound mix who, like his six canine colleagues, makes the rounds of shipping-distribution centers in Northern California.

On the clock at United Parcel Service, Federal Express, OnTrac and San Jose’s main post office, seven Bay Area dog/handler teams of the California Department of Food and Agriculture enhance inspection and surveillance efforts involving packages containing fruit and plant materials that enter the state through parcel delivery sites. While agricultural products may look healthy, they could carry eggs, maggots, insects, diseases, invasive weeds, and other threats to state plants and wildlife. The CDFA estimates that each year insects and disease take a $3 billion bite out of the state’s $37.5 billion agriculture industry.

Unmarked boxes’ fate

The unmarked parcel is at very high risk of being intercepted to ensure harmful stowaways don’t go on to wreak agricultural havoc (see “Shipping tips”). Rejected packages are destroyed in many instances and can be returned at the shipper’s expense.

And if this season reflects last year’s activity, a peak period is upon us. California teams found the highest number of unmarked parcels containing agricultural products during March 2011, when statewide 300 were found.

Alameda, Marin, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Contra Costa and Santa Clara are the Northern California counties with canine/handler duos that along with six Southern California canine inspection teams, alerted on 51,000 parcels from July 1, 2010, to June 30, 2011, according to the program’s annual report.

“Citrus is very popular, especially this time of year, ” says Michelle Thom, deputy agricultural commissioner for Santa Clara County. However, soil, flowers, mushrooms, plant cuttings and insects are common finds. California’s parcel inspection teams are assisted by a biologist who follows up on packages tapped by dogs. The CDFA prefers no backyard-grown produce is sent. And when shipping commercially grown plant items, check California’s quarantines (see “Shipping tips”).

Started in 2006, the dog teams are a cooperative effort between the U.S. Department of Agriculture, CDFA and the County Agricultural Commissioners and Sealers Association. There is no breeding program for inspection dogs; most are rescues screened for high-food drive, intelligence, sociability, low-anxiety levels, physical agility, and other favorable traits. Dog/handler teams complete up to three months of training at the USDA National Detector Dog Training Center in Newnan, Ga. Dogs must be 1 to 3 years old when they start, retire at 9, and are often adopted by their handlers. Estimated value of a working dog is $60,000.

While dogs are trained to detect five specific odors – citrus, apple, mango, guava and stone fruit – they swiftly build their range to include cuttings, flowers, bulbs, seeds and bugs. “They learn rapidly that insects are worth a cookie (dog treat),” says Cecilie Siegel, who along with partner Bella, are among two Contra Costa County canine inspection teams.

Sniffing out bug

Last year, Bella nabbed an unmarked parcel containing unshelled pecans from Texas that came with a bonus: some suspicious larvae and saw-toothed grain beetles, a pest not believed to be established in California. Bart, Bella’s Contra Costa canine colleague and reformed chicken chaser, still carries buckshot in his hind end picked up in his youth. Dozer, a 3-year-old Labrador retriever mix, joined the California Agriculture Detector Dog Program in Sacramento earlier this year. She replaces the retired Tassie, who once intercepted a package infested with the Asian citrus psyllid, a major industry menace.

During warm seasons, longans – an Asian fruit associated with lychee – send up red flags. “We see a lot of those coming through during the summer,” Thom says, adding that they often come from Florida, attached to the branch. They can harbor fruit flies as well as a scale insect alien to California.

Senders and receivers contacted about a tagged package generally are agreeable, Thom says. “The majority of the people will understand.”

Still, sob stories abound concerning packages tossed, such as the South Bay-bound Hawaiian leis that failed to reach their 80-year-old birthday recipient. “Much pleading and crying was involved (from shipper and receiver),” according to the program’s annual report. Laboratory tests determined the blooms carried ants thought to be destructive. Before disposing of the package, county staff photographed the leis so the mother could see the aloha gifts sent by her daughters.

Shipping tips

To find out about restrictions or quarantines in place, call the agricultural commissioner’s office in the county of your package’s destination and speak to the biologist on duty. For more information, go to cdfa.ca.gov and type “quarantine manual” in the search link.

After labeling a package in the standard manner with sender’s name and address on upper left-hand side and receiver’s name and address on middle of package include:

— Name of the plant, fruit or vegetable

— Name of the country, territory or state of origin of produce/plant material

— “OK to open for ag inspection”

Monterey County writer Laramie Treviño is a master gardener with the University of California Cooperative Extension. home@sfchronicle.com

Learn more about the parcel inspection dogs at CDFA’s web site.

Please see this link to view the USDA web page on BSE, including frequently asked questions and answers, which are also provided below:

Q. What is Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy?

A. Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), sometimes referred to as “mad cow disease”, is a chronic degenerative disease affecting the central nervous system of cattle. The disease belongs to the group of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, which also includes scrapie of sheep and goats and chronic wasting disease (CWD) of elk and deer.

Q. What are signs of BSE in cattle?

A. Cattle affected by BSE experience progressive degeneration of the nervous system. Affected animals may display changes in temperament (nervousness or aggression), abnormal posture, incoordination and difficulty in rising, decreased milk production, or loss of condition without noticeable loss of appetite. The causative agent of the disease is not completely characterized, and there is neither any treatment nor a vaccine to prevent the disease. The incubation period is from 2 to 8 years. Following the onset of clinical signs, the animal’s condition deteriorates. This process usually takes from 2 weeks to 6 months.

Q. Is the U.S. food supply safe from BSE?

A. Yes. A system of strong interlocking safeguards protects human and animal health, as well as food safety, in the United States. These safeguards include the removal of specified risk materials (SRMs) – those tissues that may contain the BSE agent in an infected animal – from the human food chain.

Inspectors from USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service also prevent non-ambulatory disabled cattle from entering the human food supply. In addition, they prevent certain slaughter practices that might present a risk of transmission of BSE. FSIS inspectors also condemn any cattle that display clinical signs of neurological disease or central nervous system disorders. To prevent the disease’s transmission to people, the single most important food safety measure is to avoid human consumption of SRMs. Inspectors in every slaughterhouse in the United States work to ensure these and other food safety standards are met.

Q. Is cow’s milk a source of BSE?

A. No. Scientific research indicates that BSE cannot be transmitted in cow’s milk, even if the milk comes from a cow with BSE.

Q. Are milk and milk products BSE-safe?

A. Yes. The World Health Organization (W HO) has stated that tests on milk from BSE- infected animals have not shown any BSE infectivity. Milk and milk products, are, therefore considered safe.

Q. What is being done to protect animal health?

A. The primary animal-health protective measure is a feed ban. In 1997, the FDA implemented regulations that prohibit the feeding of most mammalian proteins to ruminants, including cattle. This feed ban is the most important measure to prevent the transmission of the disease to cattle. The feed ban was strengthened in 2008, by additional prohibitions on those tissues that have the highest risk of transmitting BSE. These additions to the feed ban prohibit the use of brain and spinal cord from cattle 30 months of age and older for use in any animal feed.

Q. How effective are the safeguards against BSE?

A. Evidence shows that our systems and safeguards to prevent BSE are very effective, as are similar actions taken by countries around the world. In 2011, there were only 29 worldwide cases of BSE, a dramatic decline and 99 percent reduction since the peak in 1992 of 37,311 cases. This is directly attributable to the impact and effectiveness of feed bans as a primary control measure for the disease.

Q. When did BSE first emerge?

A. BSE was first diagnosed in 1986 in Great Britain. Since that time, more than 190,000 cases have been confirmed world-wide. The number of cases peaked in 1992, and has declined continuously since that time, with only 29 cases worldwide in 2011.

Q. How did BSE emerge?

A. There are different scientific hypotheses concerning the origins of BSE. The disease may have been caused by feeding cattle rendered protein produced from the carcasses of scrapie-infected sheep or cattle with a previously unidentified transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE).

Q. What is the agent that causes BSE?

A. BSE is a progressive neurological disorder of cattle that research suggests is caused by a pathogenic form of a normally occurring protein known as a prion (PrP.) BSE belongs to a family of diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs). In addition to BSE, the TSEs include, among others, scrapie in sheep and goats, chronic wasting disease in deer and elk, transmissible mink encephalopathy, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans.

The pathogenic form of the prion protein (PrPSc) is extremely resistant to heat and to normal sterilization processes, making it difficult to inactivate with standard methods used to process human food and animal feed. Although rendering and other processes can partially inactivate PrPSc, the risk mitigation strategies (for meat and meat products) rely mainly on the elimination of tissues and organs known to harbor BSE infectivity in infected animals, which are known as specified risk materials (SRM).

Q. What is a prion?

A. Prions (pronounced pree-ons) are the only non-DNA-based agent capable of infecting and reproducing themselves in a living host. Proteins similar to prions already exist in the nervous tissue cell membrane in normal animals, but in a harmless form. After an incubation period of many years, prions in an infected host reproduce by recruiting the host’s similar, harmless protein and changing its shape to that of the prion.

Q. Are there any known tests to detect the disease in cattle?

A. Currently, there is no test to detect the disease in a live animal. BSE is confirmed by either histopathological examination of brain tissue or by the detection of the abnormal form of the prion protein via one of several methods, also requiring brain tissue.

Q. What are specified risk materials?

A. Specified risk materials, or SRMs, are the parts of cattle that could potentially harbor the BSE agent in an infected animal. Research has demonstrated infectivity in the following tissues, at different times in an infected animal’s life: brain, spinal cord, retina, distal ileum, dorsal root ganglion, trigeminal ganglion and tonsil. In U.S. regulations, SRMs are defined as the brain, skull, eyes trigeminal ganglia, spinal cord, vertebral column (excluding the vertebrae of the tail, the transverse processes of the thoracic and lumbar vertebrae, and the wings of the sacrum) and dorsal root ganglia of cattle 30 months of age and older. SRMs also include the tonsils and distal ileum of all cattle.

Q. Why can’t we test all beef for BSE safety?

A. BSE tests are not conducted on cuts of meat, but involve taking samples from the brain of a dead animal to see if the infectious agent is present. We know that the earliest point at which current tests can accurately detect BSE is 2-to-3 months before the animal begins to show symptoms. The time between initial infection and the appearance of symptoms is about 5 years. Since most cattle that go to slaughter in the United States are both young and clinically normal, testing all slaughter cattle for BSE might offer misleading assurances of safety to the public.

The BSE surveillance program is not for the purposes of determining food safety. Rather, it is an animal health surveillance program. USDA’s BSE surveillance program allows USDA to detect the disease if it exists at very low levels in the U.S. cattle population and provides assurances to consumers and our international trading partners that the interlocking system of safeguards in place to prevent BSE are working.

Q. How does USDA conduct surveillance for BSE in the U.S.?

A. USDA has an ongoing, comprehensive, interagency surveillance program to detect signs of BSE in the United States. USDA’s BSE surveillance program samples approximately 40,000 animals each year and targets cattle populations where the disease is most likely to be found. The targeted population for ongoing surveillance focuses on cattle exhibiting signs of central nervous disorders or any other signs that may be associated with BSE, including emaciation or injury, and dead cattle, as well as non-ambulatory animals. Samples from the targeted population are taken at farms, veterinary diagnostic laboratories, public health laboratories, slaughter facilities, veterinary clinics, and livestock markets. In addition, approximately 5,000 samples each year are collected from renderers and similar salvage facilities.

USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL) in Ames, IA, along with contracted veterinary diagnostic laboratories, use rapid screening tests as the initial screening method on all samples. Any inconclusive samples are sent to NVSL for further testing and analysis.

Q. What is USDA doing to prevent the introduction of BSE into the United States?

A. Since 1989, APHIS has restricted imports of ruminants and certain ruminant products that could present a risk of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE. Although these regulations have evolved since that time, we continue to have a strong system in place to prevent the entry of animals infected with BSE into the United States. Today, APHIS has a system of categorizing countries based on risk and establishing appropriate import prohibitions and restrictions based on that risk classification.

Q. Have there been any detections of BSE in the United States in the past?

A. Yes. On April 24, 2012 USDA announced that it had confirmed a case of BSE in a dairy cow in California. Before this latest detection, USDA had diagnosed three cases of BSE in the United States – the first in December 2003 in a cow imported from Canada to Washington State, and two subsequent cases with cows born and raised in the United States – one in Texas and one in Alabama. USDA scientists have identified and characterized all three of the BSE cases, using various laboratory diagnostic methods. These include internationally accepted procedures for histopathology, immunohistochemistry, and the Western blot.

Q. Where can I find more information on BSE and its most recent detection in the United States?

A. USDA will continue to communicate findings in a timely and transparent manner. To find up-to-date information, visit our website at http://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_health/animal_diseases/bse/index.shtml

http://www.modbee.com/2012/04/16/2159439/troops-in-fresno-for-farming-lesson.html

When Sgt. 1st Class Darrell Rowe’s Army bosses told him they were sending him for a week of beekeeping and tree pruning here in the San Joaquin Valley, he was irked.

“My first reaction was, what the hell would I be doing with agriculture?” said Rowe, 32. “What does a combat man have to do with crops?”

After all, Rowe has served two tours of duty in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. This week, he is scheduled to leave Joint Base Lewis-McChord, near Tacoma, Wash., for a nine-month stint in Afghanistan.

But it is one thing to have seen the land and another to know how to work it.

Familiarizing soon-to-be deployed service members such as Rowe with basic information about Afghanistan’s crops and farming traditions is precisely the point of a one-week training program developed by the U.S. Agriculture Department.

This is boot camp where soldiers are more likely to learn about manure than about M-4 rifles with grenade launchers.

Military officials send recruits from across the country to Central California because it shares many agroclimatic characteristics with Afghanistan — fertile valleys, semi-arid plains and mountains — and can serve as a kind of geographical laboratory.

“We can replicate on our demonstration farm exactly the types of conditions these troops will find on the ground,” said Bill Erysian, director of Agricultural Development for Afghanistan Pre-Deployment Training, or Adapt, a program based at California State University, Fresno.

And, with the exception of Afghanistan’s opium poppy production, the two locales grow nearly all the same crops.

“The first time my plane landed here it felt familiar,” said Navid Sediqi, an agronomist from Afghanistan and one of the course instructors. “I saw pistachios, almonds, wheat, pomegranates, grapes. These are the same things we grow back home.”

Looking for opium alternatives

Since 2002, the United States has spent more than $1 billion on Afghanistan’s agricultural sector, in part to create markets and options for farmers other than growing opium poppies. Financed by a $2.9 million grant from the Agriculture Department, the Adapt training codifies what had been ad hoc efforts by various branches of the U.S. military to train recruits in agriculture. Some of that earlier training occurred in locations bearing less likeness to Afghanistan, such as Wisconsin.

The grant is one of several the Agriculture Department has made to land-grant colleges in the Central Valley in recent years, tapping into the region’s farming expertise. The department gave more than $16 million to a consortium of universities led by the University of California at Davis to help build up Afghanistan’s agricultural extension system and create an online repository and smart phone application called e-Afghan Ag. The site and app provide information for civilians and combat troops trying to find solutions to agricultural problems they encounter in Afghanistan.

In late March, about 25 recruits from across the military — including members of the National Guard, Army Reserve and Army Civil Affairs — spent a week here learning the basics of subsistence agriculture, such as how to keep vegetables from spoiling without refrigeration and how to transplant grape cuttings.

An afternoon demonstration on how Afghan farmers dig irrigation ditches with shovels left Rowe in a reflective mood.

“If we see a guy out at night digging with shovels, that is a threat to us, he might not be alive in the morning,” he said, explaining that insurgents also use shovels to bury improvised explosive devices along paths and roads.

Showing why farming is important

For many of the trainees who had previously been deployed to Afghanistan, a lesson on pruning pomegranate trees brought memories not of ruby-colored clusters of fruit but of overgrown orchards with communication antennas strung high on bushy branches by insurgents.

“Pomegranates,” one groaned.

“We’re not going to make anyone a farmer in five days,” said Ryan Brewster, the Agriculture Department’s Afghanistan desk officer. “But what we can do is teach them about agriculture, and why it’s important to the average Afghan.”

As much as 80 percent of Afghanistan’s population relies on subsistence agriculture. Until the early 1970s, the country’s farmers produced grain, fruits and nuts for domestic consumption and export. But in the more than 30 years of conflict since the Soviet invasion in 1979, much of that agricultural know-how and basic infrastructure has been lost or destroyed.

Much of the financing for agricultural projects began streaming into the country after 2009, when Richard Holbrooke, then the U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, announced a shift away from poppy eradication efforts. Those efforts, he would later say, had “pushed poor farmers into the Taliban’s hands.” Instead, the United States would emphasize building roads and fostering market-based alternatives to opium poppies, such as exporting raisins and pomegranate juice.

About 50 Agriculture Department extension agents are in Afghanistan, but some experts feel the emphasis on agricultural development and farming literacy came too little, too late.

“Until 2008, we were not funding the war in Afghanistan,” said Anthony Cordesman, a defense expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies who has advised the U.S. military on its Afghan strategy. “It takes 12 to 18 months for the money to flow into the country. We basically did not have the surplus ability or assets to handle agriculture.”

Many of the trainees here learning to subdue honeybees with smoke and to seed a field with wheat berries had modest but sincere hopes for the week.

“This training gives us the knowledge to at least not mess things up,” said Capt. Christopher Kennedy, of an Army Civil Affairs battalion out of Webster, N.Y., “when what we’re trying to do is help.”

Expanding export opportunities for California’s farmers, ranchers and food processors is a priority for me as I visit Singapore and South Korea as part of a U.S. trade delegation focusing on trade, market access and promotions.

During my time in Singapore, I have had the opportunity to meet with foreign trade associations, companies and media promoting California as a supplier of high value and quality food products and as a spectacular tourism destination with a diversity of food and wine experiences. California is uniquely positioned to meet Singapore’s growing demand for innovative and quality products. As a nation with little domestic food production, Singapore relies on foreign imports and is an important hub for all of southeast Asia.

More than 10 California companies are participating in the Food and Hotel Asia trade show this week which will draw more than 50,000 attendees from southeast Asia. A wide range of California products including lamb, olives, and dried plums is represented. The California Milk Advisory Board is also on hand to develop export sales within the food service sector through sampling, demonstrations and by connecting dairy farmers with interested foreign buyers.

At the opening day of the show I met with a new importing company from Thailand that has, within four short years, increased shipments of California table grapes from 15 to more than 200 containers per year. On a tour of food retailers, we learned about the good reputation our products enjoy, consumer awareness in Asia of food safety practices, and growing demand for organic produce and baby food. One specialty retailer offers only organic food and personal care products, receiving bi-weekly air freight shipments of high value organic milk. We also had a meeting with a fresh fruit and vegetable association whose members want more California products for the Singapore and southeast Asia markets.

With California’s agricultural diversity, quality and willingness to do business – Singapore and Southeast Asia represent great opportunities for California’s farmers, ranchers and food processors.

There is an exclusive website hosted just for California Fairs – to assist people in visiting the 78 local fairs in our great state. Fairs are unique, community institutions which maintain their local flavor and identity. Find a fair near you, mark down the dates, and pay it a visit to experience part of the heart and spirit of California.

http://www.fresnobee.com/2012/04/10/2794977/business-blog-new-app-to-track.html

By Robert Rodriguez – The Fresno Bee

Tuesday, Apr. 10, 2012 | 07:09 PM

What to do if you spot a bug on your backyard citrus tree that you suspect is the dreaded Asian citrus psyllid?

Well, there is now an app for that.

A new iPhone application called “Save Our Citrus” is available for free on iTunes.

The app was created by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as a way to provide the public with a quick and easy way to get more information about the psyllid and the disease it can carry, huanglongbing (HLB).

An application platform compatible with Android smart phones is expected to be released soon.

Federal and state agriculture officials have been on heightened alert after California’s first case of HLB was detected in Hacienda Heights on March 30.

The app allows a homeowner to upload pictures of their own citrus trees and compare it to pictures of infected trees.

People also can report suspicious insects and tree symptoms to the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

There is also a link to the Save Our Citrus website and YouTube channel where people can watch videos about the insect and tree disease.

“We are very excited about the outreach potential this application has,” said Joel Nelsen, president of California Citrus Mutual.

“Every informed citrus tree owner is a huge step toward preventing HLB from devastating the California citrus industry as it has in Brazil, Mexico and Florida.”

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Citrus-Quarantine-in-San-Gabriel-Valley-146744365.html

Nearly 100 Miles Sprayed to Stamp Out Citrus Killer

While fruit from infected trees are safe to eat, the root of the problem goes deeper than consumption

By John Cadiz Klemack

An invasive and deadly disease that attacks citrus trees was found in Hacienda Heights March 30, and now no fruits are allowed in or out of a 93-square-mile quarantine area for the next two years. This week, state agriculture workers are going door to door to spray trees in the Los Angeles suburb. Trees infected by Huanglongbing, or yellow dragon disease, will have to be removed. The disease is carried by the Asian citrus psyllid, a small flying insect. NBC4’s John Cadiz Klemack reports from Hacienda Heights.

Spraying is underway in the San Gabriel Valley to stop the spread of a disease that, if left unchecked, threatens to wipe out California’s $2 billion citrus industry.

The State Department of Food and Agriculture has 12 crews out in Hacienda Heights spraying citrus trees from top to bottom to kill the Asian Citrus Psyllid, a little bug that can carry a very big disease.

“I have an orange tree, grapefruit,” said Paul Limon, who grows citrus in his yard like a majority of SoCal homeowners.

Like anyone who might lose their family tree, Limon said he hopes what’s being done in his neighborhood saves it.

“Definitely good to get rid of them now before it becomes a huge problem,” he said.

Two types of quick-drying chemicals are being sprayed on the crops. Officials said sprayed fruit is still edible as long as it’s washed first.

The ground around the trees was treated with merit, also known as imidacloprid, to kill future infestations; the tree leaves and limbs were treated with tempo to kill potentially living Asian Citrus Psyllids.

The chemicals are not harmful to people or pets, although experts suggest keeping animals away from the treated area until it dries – which could take up to four hours.

Huanglongbing is spread through a process similar to pollination. While feeding, the tiny Psyllids grab the disease before moving on to pierce another tree.

A 93-square mile area is already under quarantine, meaning no fruits are allowed in or out for the next two years.

While fruit from infected trees are safe to eat for humans and pets, the root of the problem goes deeper than consumption — an infected tree will likely die within two years of contracting the disease.

“Huanglongbing is a fatal disease of citrus trees, there is no cure,” said Steve Lyle of the California Department of Food and Agriculture. “If we detect it, the tree must be removed to rid the disease.”

Inspectors are going door to door this week, spraying a half-mile radius around the single infected tree.

“Our objective is to manage the risk until researchers can find a cure to the disease,” Lyle said.

The first sign of the problem is the yellowing of the leaves. Fruits that looks like it’s ripening before reverting to green, or misshapen fruit or buds are also signs that the tree may have contracted the disease.

Those unsavory symptoms are signs that the tree isn’t getting the nutrients it needs, experts said.

They’re hoping to nip this problem in the bud, before California’s juicy citrus industry falls prey to a tiny bug that cost Florida billions.

Officials are urging the community to help track the disease using a mobile app, dubbed SAVE OUR CITRUS, the data from which is collected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The free application, available at iTunes, allows the user to send a photo of misshapen or discolored fruit to citrus experts, who will respond with a diagnosis.