Toxic beans normally used in cattle feed could form the basis of the perfect scoop for curry, the nation’s favourite food. Scientists have discovered the best way to treat these beans for use in food stuffs.
Scientists in Pakistan used vetch flour, made using treated beans, to create a protein-enriched chapatti with the perfect characteristics for scooping up curry. By supplementing chapatti dough with vetch flour they produced a bread that is tearable and pliable enough to fo
The biologist Gorka Erice Soreasu, a researcher in the Department of Plant Biology of the University of Navarra, has studied the effects of climate change on the physiology of alfalfa. This study, which forms part of his doctoral thesis, demonstrates that this plant, frequently used as feed for farm animals, adapts to increases in carbon dioxide (CO2), temperature and dryness, protecting itself in this way from the effects of climate change.
His research, which focused on the regrowth o
Forensic fingerprinting of plant DNA is being investigated as a way to identify offending poisonous plants – a major cause of death in livestock in countries such as Ghana. Dr Domozoro will describe how he uses plant DNA from the animal’s stomach for forensic fingerprinting on Thursday 6th April at the Society for Experimental Biology’s Annual Main Meeting, Canterbury [session P6]. “Knowing the offending plants will help us to manage the poisoning outbreak by targeting specific treatment rout
Green fingered amateur gardeners often talk to their plants; now the plants can talk back. Scientists have developed a system that picks up the subtle cues of plant communication helping plant growers to monitor the crop’s state of health and will result in optimal environmentally-friendly growing conditions.
The scientists, working together in a project called PLANTS, sought to develop a unique system that linked plants, technology and people to continuously assess the state o
Sample sizes were small, but eyebrow-raising results from a study on a western Illinois farm have researchers and veterinarians taking a broader look at how swine producers battle an endemic viral disease that adds to their costs and threatens reproduction in their herds.
A new approach (acclimatization) has producers inoculating newly arrived pigs with the wild-type strain of the porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRS) already existing on a farm. The hope is that
Scientists studying the potentially devastating animal disease, bluetongue, are calling for the assistance of farmers to help them understand the distribution of the potential carriers, certain species of Culicoides biting midges, across the UK.
Although bluetongue has not been recorded in the UK, the last eight years have seen it spread throughout much of southern and eastern Europe and climate change is allowing it to extend into more northerly areas than ever before. Recent outbreaks ha
Mango is one of the most widely grown fruit trees in Burkina Faso, with national output running at around 50 000 tonnes/year. Fresh Burkinese mangoes face strong competition on the export market from mangoes from Mali and Ivory Coast. To use up the resulting production surplus, cut fruit losses and gain access to new markets, the first drying units were set up in Burkina Faso in 1980, with the support of the authorities and NGOs. The country’s dried mango sector now concerns around fifty small
Let us suppose that a new fruit fly species is observed on an island in the southwestern Indian Ocean. As soon as the information is confirmed, it is released on the Internet. This type of alert can now be issued from five Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) islands – Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Réunion, Seychelles – involved in the regional crop protection programme (PRPV). This is thanks to a website, www.prpv.org, to which crop protection professionals now have access.
The programm
A single nutrient found in soy products elicits changes in gene behavior that permanently reduce an embryo’s risk of becoming obese later in life, according to an animal study at Duke University Medical Center.
The findings, yet to be confirmed in humans, could explain why Asians have lower rates of obesity and cancer, said the Duke researchers. Asians consume large amounts of soy, which has been linked to lower rates of breast, endometrial and prostate cancer, among other
The EUREKA E! 2587 VI-TIS project has developed new instrumentation and devised modelling software to boost the quality of European wine while reducing overall production costs.
Close co-operation between French and Spanish equipment, wine-making and agricultural research partners has resulted in the development of highly automated precision farming technology aimed at helping wine growers around the world to improve the quality of their output and better control their prod
Human serum albumin (HSA) is the intravenous protein most commonly used in the world for therapeutic ends. It is employed to stabilise blood volume and to avoid risk of a heart attack, its administration in operating theatres being almost a daily occurrence. It is used for haemorrhages, burns, surgical operations or when the patient shows symptoms of malnutrition or dehydration, chronic infections and renal or liver illnesses. The annual consumption in Spain is about 10 tons but, at a worldwid
If the near-starving grasshopper from the childhood fable, the Ant and the Grasshopper, had been given a piece of corn by one of the well-prepared ants, the grasshopper probably would have developed a preference for corn that would have persisted even when he was well-fed.
Based on a joint study between Dr. Spencer Behmer, a Texas A&M University assistant professor of entomology, and researchers at the University of Oxford, the United Kingdom, the grasshopper would likely have dev
By joining forces under the Cottonstress project, CIRAD and Evogene set out to improve cotton tree resistance to abiotic stress, ie drought and salinity. This is a major challenge that CIRAD is keen to take up in order to stimulate economic development in tropical zones with low rainfall. Breeding resistant cotton varieties would discourage African farmers from abandoning their land in the event of drought.
For ten years, now, CIRAD had been studying cotton growing in the arid land
Scientists at the University of the West of England have discovered how bacteria involved in crop disease can evolve to avoid the natural defences of the plant. This discovery is crucial to the understanding of how disease can spread fast even when plants can naturally defend themselves.
The research team found that the bacterial colony changes to one lacking the gene that normally triggers a defence mechanism from the plant. In effect the bacteria disguise themselves to ensure the
Scientists from Uppsala University, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, and the US have identified a genetic mechanism that regulates growth in chickens. The study is based on two chicken selection lines, where one is bred for high growth and the other one for low. The researchers show that a network of four interacting genes explains half of the difference in body weight between the lines. The results may be of great significance for genetic studies of complex diseases such as obesity
Growing bamboo on their land could help African farmers to improve the safety of their food crops and generate precious additional income, researchers at the University of Nottingham believe.
Academics in the University’s School of Biosciences are working with colleagues in Kenya to examine whether bamboo could be used to remove potentially harmful contaminants from soil and provide extra income for subsistence farmers.
Training in how to grow bamboo and new skills such as
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