Researchers from the University of Warwick’s Department of Biological Sciences have found evidence that bovine tuberculosis remains in fields for up to 4 months. This means that long after an outbreak of bovine TB on a farm healthy cattle may still be exposed to the disease from pasture that had been used by infected cows any time in the previous 4 months.
University of Warwick researchers Professor Elizabeth Wellington and Jamie Young tested soil samples that they had exposed to bovine TB.
Research aimed at finding new diagnostic tests for BSE is gathering momentum at the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research (IGER), where scientists have won a major research contract worth over £500,000 from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).
`The new contract will help us expand our search for biochemical markers associated with BSE and scrapie,` said Professor Mike Theodorou, one of the leaders of the four-year programme. His colleague, Dr Gordon All
Tracing the source of a campylobacter food poisoning outbreak can be very difficult even with modern DNA fingerprinting methods. There is now evidence that campylobacters can rearrange their DNA, disguising their fingerprint, and confusing such detective work, scientists heard today (Tuesday 09 April 2002) at the spring meeting of the Society for General Microbiology at the University of Warwick.
Professor Diane Newell and her colleague Dr Anne Ridley of the Veterinary Laboratories Agency sa
Broccoli is one of western Europe`s most popular and widely consumed vegetables. However, its shelf life is restricted to about 5 days at room temperature, making distribution and storage of the product difficult. Recent research presented today at the Society for Experimental Biology conference in Swansea could help us understand the genetics of this situation and may even lead to `supervarieties` of broccoli.
The popularity of broccoli is on the increase and it is used increasingly in valu
Scots scientists are playing a key role in a major new research effort which could save Britain’s farmers millions of pounds a year through reductions in fertiliser and pesticide use.
Biotechnology experts at the University of Abertay Dundee, in partnership with two organisations in England, have been awarded £471,000 by the BBSRC (Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council) for a three-year study into the relationship between white clover and a tiny insect.
White clove
Officials of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources went fishing last August to collect samples. They caught largemouth bass at four lakes and two fish hatcheries, but shared no smiles. The bass in all six locations, says a University of Illinois scientist, were infected with a virus they were seeking but didn’t expect to find. The virus — now confirmed in 17 states — is called the largemouth bass virus (LMBV) because only this species is dying from it. That no fish kills
In recent years, new food packaging concepts have been developed to respond on consumption trends towards mildly preserved, fresh convenient food products. Fresh-cut vegetables are an example of fresh-like, healthy convenience foods, developed in the ‘80s in the UK. Their market is yearly increasing with 25% in West Europe.
Packaging fresh-cut vegetables under an Equilibrium Modified Atmosphere (EMA) is one of the new applied food packaging technologies offering a prolonged shelf-life of re
Fruit’s hidden colour reveals whether it will ripen.
Some green tomatoes have a rosy future; others do not. A sensor that picks up subtle differences in the light the fruits reflect could sort future salads from greens.
Many tomatoes are picked green and bathed in ripening gas ethylene. Fruit picked too early will never ripen. Discerning consumers avoid them and growers lose out.
A scanner that analyses the wavelengths green tomatoes bounce back can predict th
Food quality will fall, food costs will rise and stored food will be damaged. Historical relics may be lost to insect attack, rodent and insect infestations on public transport will swell, and fungal contamination of stored food will increase. According to a recent meeting of the Society of Chemical Industry (SCI) Pest Management Group, these may be the consequences of a worldwide phasing out of the crop protectant methyl bromide (MB).
The SCI Pest Management Group invited acclaimed speaker
These days our supermarket shelves are filled with more and more so-called “functional foods” foods with special health-promoting properties. These products often represent a “high-tech” product line, in the twilight zone between food and medicine. Agricultural researcher Cecilia Mark-Herbert from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SLU, has now studied the market for these products. Her doctoral dissertation shows that developing these foods requires not only new products, but also new
Common or garden straw could be a rich source of raw materials for a range of industries, from the health foods and cosmetics sectors to packaging and fabrics.
Researchers at the University of Wales, Bangor are developing environmentally friendly ways of processing wheat and other cereal straws to extract valuable products for industry.
The work is being carried out through the Government’s LINK scheme, with funding from the Swindon based Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Coun
Researchers at Plant Research International in the Netherlands have achieved a breakthrough in the development of chrysanthemums with resistance to thrips, bringing the ecological cultivation of chrysanthemums a step closer. This is the conclusion of the thesis with which Seetharam Annadana, a Plant Research International guest member of staff from India, recently obtained his doctorate at Wageningen University. Annadana developed new techniques which make possible the genetic modification of two th
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