pathogenix.com

The debilitating dengue fever is spread by mosquitoes.

Officials warn that the United States is not equipped to handle the spread of infectious diseases caused by climate change; little investment or progress has been made in bolstering disease detection and response capabilities in the United States, despite warnings from intelligence agencies; increased heat, humidity, and rainfall have caused the spread of mosquitoes and other bugs which carry deadly tropical diseases to new areas where people have yet build up a resistance; the United States is now experiencing outbreaks of dengue fever and West Nile virus; in 2010 the CDC reported 110 deaths and 1,356 cases of West Nile virus in the United States; intelligence agencies also worry about the potential for the spread of these diseases to destabilize fragile nations across Asia and Africa.

Read the full article here:

http://homelandsecuritynewswire.com/us-unprepared-climate-induced-disease-outbreaks

Photo Credit: athirday.info

While the monitoring of new and emerging infectious diseases has greatly improved over the past fifteen or so years mainly due to concerns related to possible bioterrorism events, the U.S. government (and governments around the world) still need to increase the scope of such surveillance and to better coordinate possible response programs.  Such programs are being worked upon but I am afraid that due to budget cuts such surveillance and response programs are going to result in less than adequate measures. These diseases will occur and they will spread especially with the coming environmental alterations due to climate change which will only encourage their development and spread. This is not a concern to be taken lightly. On the contrary, it is a concern that needs to be made clear to our government representatives by us as citizens expressing our concern. This is not a concern to leave up to the government to deal with when they think they are willing to include it into some pork barrel budget loop. This is a concern that we, as a people may feel, literally, in our gut and a concern we need to make clear to Congress that it needs to be funded. – Editor.

Livestock diseases present a growing threat to the food security.

Seed Daily

http://www.seeddaily.com/

by Staff Writers

New Delhi, India (SPX) Feb 14, 2011

Increasing numbers of domestic livestock and more resource-intensive production methods are encouraging animal epidemics around the world, a problem that is particularly acute in developing countries, where livestock diseases present a growing threat to the food security of already vulnerable populations, according to new assessments reported at the International Conference on Leveraging Agriculture for Improving Nutrition and Health.

“Wealthy countries are effectively dealing with livestock diseases, but in Africa and Asia, the capacity of veterinary services to track and control outbreaks is lagging dangerously behind livestock intensification,“ said John McDermott, deputy director general for research at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), which spearheaded the work.

“This lack of capacity is particularly dangerous because many poor people in the world still rely on farm animals to feed their families, while rising demand for meat, milk and eggs among urban consumers in the developing world is fueling a rapid intensification of livestock production.”

The global conference, organized by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), brings together leading agriculture, nutrition and health experts to assess ways to increase agriculture’s contribution to better nutrition and health for the world’s most vulnerable people.

The new assessments from ILRI spell out how livestock diseases present “double trouble” in poor countries.

First, livestock diseases imperil food security in the developing world (where some 700 million people keep farm animals and up to 40 percent of household income depends on them) by reducing the availability of a critical source of protein.

Second, animal diseases also threaten human health directly when viruses such as the bird flu (H5N1), SARS and Nipah viruses “jump” from their livestock hosts into human populations.

Read Full Article Here:

http://www.seeddaily.com/reports/Livestock_Boom_Risks_Aggravating_Animal_Plagues_999.html

The call for better and more effective animal disease (zoonotic) surveillance has been called for for a number of years now and especially since the emergence of A/H1N1 so-called Swine flu which emerged out of Mexico in April of 2009. It is now know that this strain of influenza virus was circulating through pig production facilities globally for an number of years prior to its emergence in a human population and is now the dominant flu strain being seen in the U.S. this year. Better monitoring of zoonotic diseases would greatly enhance our abilities to predict and counter future occurrences of these diseases not only in animal populations both wild and domestic but human populations as well.  Editor.

Human-driven changes in the earth’s atmospheric composition are likely to alter plant diseases of the future. Researchers predict carbon dioxide will reach levels double those of the preindustrial era by the year 2050, complicating agriculture’s need to produce enough food for a rapidly growing population.

Septoria brown spot

University of Illinois researchers are studying the impact of elevated carbon dioxide, elevated ozone and higher atmospheric temperatures on plant diseases that could challenge crops in these changing conditions.

Darin Eastburn, U of I associate professor of crop sciences, evaluated the effects of elevated carbon dioxide and ozone on three economically important soybean diseases under natural field conditions at the soybean-free air-concentrating enrichment (SoyFACE) facility in Urbana.

The diseases downy mildew, Septoria brown spot, and sudden death syndrome were observed from 2005 to 2007 using visual surveys and digital image analysis. While changes in atmospheric composition altered disease expression, the responses of the three pathosystems varied considerably, Eastburn said.

Elevated carbon dioxide levels are more likely to have a direct effect on plant diseases through changes to the plant hosts rather than the plant pathogens.

Dr. Darin Eastburn

“In some cases, changes of only a few degrees have allowed plant diseases to become established earlier in the season, resulting in more severe disease epidemics,” Eastburn said. “The ranges of some diseases are expanding as rising temperatures are allowing pathogens to overwinter in regions that were previously too cold for them.”

“Information derived from climate change studies will help us prepare for the changes ahead by knowing which diseases are most likely to become more problematic,” he said. “Now is the time for plant pathologists, plant breeders, agronomists and horticulturalists to adapt disease management strategies to the changing environment.”

Eastburn will share his latest research on global climate change and the implications for future plant disease epidemics at the 2010 U of I Agronomy Day on Thursday, Aug. 19. For more information on Agronomy Day, go to http://agronomyday.cropsci.illinois.edu/.

This very interesting article on the adaptation of plant host vs. plant disease can been read here: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-06/uoic-ccc062410.php

The SoyFACE facility

Public release date: 24-Jun-2010

Contact: Jennifer Shike

jshike@illinois.edu

217-244-0888

University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences

http://aces.illinois.edu/

Source: EurekaAlert!

Photo credits: University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences

Deforestation and Malaria in Mâncio Lima County, Brazil

Sarah H. Olson, Ronald Gangnon, Guilherme Abbad Silveira, and Jonathan A. Patz

Abstract: Malaria is the most prevalent vector-borne disease in the Amazon. The authors used malaria reports for health districts collected in 2006 by the Programa Nacional de Controle da Malária to determine whether deforestation is associated with malaria incidence in the county (município) of Mâncio Lima, Acre State, Brazil. Cumulative percent deforestation was calculated for the spatial catchment area of each health district by using 60 × 60–meter, resolution-classified imagery. Statistical associations were identified with univariate and multivariate general additive negative binomial models adjusted for spatial effects. The cross-sectional study shows malaria incidence across health districts in 2006 is positively associated with greater changes in percentage of cumulative deforestation within respective health districts. After adjusting for access to care, health district size, and spatial trends, the authors show that a 4.3%, or 1 SD, change in deforestation from August 1997 through August 2000 is associated with a 48% increase of malaria incidence.

Deforestation and Malaria in Mâncio Lima County, Brazil

Sarah H. Olson, Ronald Gangnon, Guilherme Abbad Silveira, and Jonathan A. Patz

Published ahead of print in CDC/Emerging Infection Diseases, July 2010

http://www.cdc.gov/eid/content/16/7/pdfs/09-1785.pdf

Photo credit: Public Health Image Library

Related topic: Growth in Amazon Cropland May Impact Climate and Deforestation Patterns – 09.19.2006

Photo Credit: NASA LBA-ECO Project

Mutating and migrating stem rust pathogen could soon spread across the world. Two new forms of a devastating wheat fungus, known as Ug99 stem rust, have shown up in South Africa, a study has found.

Close-up of stem rust fungus Ug99 on wheat.

The two South African forms are able to overcome the effects of two resistance genes in wheat that normally prevent stem rust from taking hold. The genes cause plant cells around the infection site to die, stopping the fungus from further infecting the plant. The discovery of the new forms marks the first time that the stem rust fungus with virulence against key genetic resistance has moved south of its origins in Uganda, east Africa, the research says.

The presence of new forms of Ug99 in South Africa makes wheat crops in areas including the Middle East and south Asia vulnerable as the fungus can now migrate using different wind trajectories, says Zacharias Pretorius, a wheat pathologist at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, South Africa, and one of the authors of the study.

“It’s mutating and migrating,” says Pretorius. “The concern is that other wheat-growing countries will become vulnerable to infection.”

“Eventually it will reach North America and Europe,” says Ronnie Coffman, a plant-breeding scientist at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He warns that in the next few years, farmers across the world will need to replace up to 90% of the current wheat varieties with new, resistant varieties to ensure crops are protected against the fungus.

The full text on this topic can be read here:

Published online 26 May 2010 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2010.265

Natasha Gilbert

Photo credit: Cereal Disease Lab / USDA

Questions:

What has been the role of shifting climate patterns in the evolution and emergence of this plant pathogen?

What will be the role of sifting climate patterns, especially in regards to upper level winds, in the potential global spread of this wheat rust a plant disease in such an important global food crop?