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White supremacist who planned to bomb Asians and blacks in Britain jailed indefinitely

September 10, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Sep. 9 (ANI): A white supremacist was given an indefinite jail term by a British court after being found guilty of planning a bomb attack on Asians and blacks.

Pro-Nazi Neil Lewington, 43, was branded as “a dangerous man who exhibits emotional coldness and detachment”, The Sun reports.

Racist fanatic Lewington will have to serve a minimum of six years before even being considered for release.

Judge Peter Thornton said: “I accept that in ordinary language, you are an oddball – eccentric, dysfunctional and sometimes immature. But I do not accept you are no more than a pest. My assessment is that you are a dangerous man.”

Lewington was on the verge of launching a bomb blitz on those he considered “non-Britons” when he was arrested by chance for being drunk on a railway station.

Cops found two homemade firebombs in the jobless electrician’s bag.

And when they searched the home he shared with his parents in Reading, Berks, they discovered a bomb factory in his bedroom and plans to make shrapnel grenades from tennis balls and nuts.

They also found a notebook entitled “Waffen SS UK members’ handbook”.

Lewington wrote a chapter in it headed “Targeting or attacking Pakis.”

Lewington’s bedroom contained fascist propaganda including videos of Right-wing terrorists such as London nail bomber David Copeland and Oklahoma fiend Timothy McVeigh.

He was found guilty of five terrorism and two explosives charges at an earlier Old Bailey trial.

His parents, who were present in court, revealed that he had not spoken to his father for a decade. (ANI)

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Caterpillars damage paddy crop in Jharkhand

September 1, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Palamu (Jharkhand), Aug 31(ANI): First it was drought and now it is swarming caterpillars, which are adding to the woes of the paddy farmers in Jharkhand’s Palamu district.

The farmers in the region are worried as the caterpillars are devouring the paddy plants and have spread across acres of paddy fields, and it is feared that almost 60 to 70 percent of the crop have been damaged.

“There has been drought, we were already thinking about fending for our living. And, now the caterpillars have destroyed the crop. We fear dying of hunger. We are facing a very tough situation,” said Manraj Singh, a farmer.

Out of the total 48,400 hectares of land under paddy in the region only 14.5 percent was sown due to the lack of water and now the caterpillar is eating up whatever was sown.

“Only 14.5 percent of the area has been sown this year. In Palamu district, the total area under paddy cultivation is almost 48,400 hectares, out of which only 14.5 has been sown. Firstly there was a water problem ad now the plants have been infested by a pest called swarming caterpillar,” said D.N Singh, an agriculture scientist.

The farmers also complain of Government lack of concern over the matter and feel they have no help from anywhere in such gloomy situation. By Girija Shankar Ojha (ANI)

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Guava cultivation in mango belt

June 23, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Malihabad (UP), May 23 (ANI): Poor production of mango has forced the mango growers in Malihabad region to take up guava cultivation.

Famous as the mango belt of the country, this region of Uttar Pradesh, is witnessing a sea change as more and more mango cultivators have switched over to growing guavas because the production of mango has not been good since last three years.

Considering the high investment that the mango growers have to make for growing mangoes, the losses incurred are too much to bear when the crop is not up to the expectations.

Faced with such a scenario, the mango growers have been forced to switch over to cultivating guavas.

“People are fed up with growing mangoes. So they are planning to cut their orchards and grow guavas, or even wheat, which also gets good money in the market, ” said Vijyendra Kumar, a mango grower.

Guava has caught the fancy of mango growers as it requires less investment, is less prone to diseases, needs less water and requires minimal care.ccording to estimates, around 25 percent of the mango growers in Malihabad are already in the process of taking up guava cultivation.

“This year, the production of mangoes was less, due to which the fruit growers incurred heavy losses and are now hard pressed for money. Also mango crop is more susceptible to pest attacks, whereas diseases do not infect guavas easily. All these factors are reason enough that mango growers are switching over to cultivating guavas, ” said Gautam Tripathi, another mango grower.

As against mango that gives yield once a year, the growers get better money from cultivating guavas, which yields fruit twice a year. By Kamna Hajela(ANI)

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Camphor-containing products may cause seizures in kids

May 7, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 7 (ANI): Improper use of camphor-containing products may lead to seizures in young children, according to a study.

Conducted by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, the study calls for efforts to educate communities about the hazards of camphor, and to crack down on illegally marketed camphor products.amphor is a naturally occurring waxy substance with a strong, aromatic odour and is found in many consumer products.

For a long time, scientists have known that camphor can cause serious health problems, including seizures and children are particularly prone to the toxic effects of camphor, which is easily absorbed through the skin and mucous membranes.

It is because of this reason that government agencies have limited the camphor content of common cold preparations, and asked for proper labelling of camphor-containing products.

Still, camphor products without proper or complete labelling are widely available and commonly used for medicinal, spiritual and aromatic purposes and for pest control, especially in the Hispanic community.

The Einstein researchers report on three cases of camphor-associated seizures in children seen in the emergency department of a single New York City hospital-Children’s Hospital at Montefiore in the Bronx-over a two-week period.

In the first case, a 15-month-old Hispanic boy accidentally ingested camphor cubes that his parents were using to ward off evil spirits. In the second case, a 22-month-old Hispanic boy ate a camphor-containing product that was placed around his apartment to control roaches.

In the third case, a three-year-old Hispanic girl had been heavily exposed to numerous camphor-containing products, including crushed tablets spread around the house to control roaches and an ointment that her mother had rubbed on her skin hourly for 10 hours before her seizures began.

All three children received drug treatment to terminate their seizures, and their parents were advised to stop using all camphor-containing products.

The children were found to be seizure-free when followed up 10 weeks later.

“With the exception of the first case, the information about camphor exposure became apparent only after we directly questioned the parents,” said study leader Hnin Khine.

Khine said that the above cases highlight the toxicity associated with camphor usage in the community, and indicate that inappropriate use of illegally sold camphor products is an important public health issue.

The study has been published in the journal Pediatrics. (ANI)

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Mexico City revives small pox rituals for modern flu

May 3, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Mexico City – The bells of Mexico City’s cathedral rang in prayer, and the figure of Our Father Jesus of Health was taken out onto the streets of the city’s historic centre Sunday for the first time in 150 years to ask God for protection.

As in the times of smallpox, Roman Catholics joined in prayer against the ongoing flu epidemic, including cases of swine flu, that has left 149 people dead in the country in less than a month.

They had good reason. The streets and metro system of the nation’s capital turned ghostly as residents donned face masks, handed out by the Mexican army. Football games were played in empty stadiums. Schools were closed until May 6 and other public gatherings were shut down.

Additional worry came from a 5.7-scale earthquake that shook the city to its bones Monday and sent masked workers fleeing from buildings. Fortunately for the city, it was spared the added insult of physical damage from the temblor.

But times are different from the 16th century Aztecs of the ancient Tenochtitlan who had to face the smallpox brought ashore by the Spaniards. They are different from the later devastating epidemics of measles, cholera or mumps.

In fact, residents of Mexico City have many better weapons against disease – face masks, anti-viral drugs, modern communications and an efficient government that can quarantine if need be.

But time-honoured methods still carry their weight in modern Mexico. That was clear on Sunday with the procession of Our Father Jesus of Health, and with the novena – usually a nine-day-long series of prayers – to Our Lady of Guadalupe being organized by the Archdiocese of Mexico City for the coming days.

“You who have rescued us from other plagues, entrust us to the mercy of He who healed us with His wounds and freed us from death with His Resurrection,” the devout are praying, at the request of Mexico’s Primate Cardinal Norberto Rivera.

On Sunday, most churches in the Mexican capital had cancelled all community masses until further notice, following last minute orders from church authorities. In the coming days, there will be no communal, large-scale first communions or confirmations and no large wedding masses.

When it comes to faith, something has changed with respect to the plagues of old. Earlier, churches would fill up to pray at times of epidemics, said Archdiocese spokesman Hugo Valdemar, whereas now – in the face of scientific progress – people know that concentrating in closed spaces can be worse. Viruses pass from person to person even in God’s house.

Some onlookers were incredulous late Sunday as the procession carrying Our Father Jesus of Health – a figure of Christ on the cross that had not been carried through the streets since 1850 – advanced, carried by men with blue face masks.

“That won’t do any good,” one person muttered.

However, Valdemar disagreed.

“It is a centenary tradition to take out Our Father Jesus of Health on people’s shoulders when a pest or epidemic attacks the population,” he noted.

Mexico has one of the largest numbers of Roman Catholic faithful in the world, second only to Brazil. Religion has deep roots among the population, particularly with the adoration of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

The Guadalupe basilica, which usually hosts many thousands of faithful every Sunday, is now holding masses only behind closed doors.

Cardinal Rivera invited all Catholics to pray at home, follow mass on the radio and on television and take part in the novena of prayer.

The goal is to ask the Virgin Mary “to free the city and the country from this threat that is hanging on their residents, as she prodigiously did in the past, especially in the pests that the same city suffered in the years 1554, 1695, 1736 and 1850.” (dpa)

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Forests could become source of warming: report

April 18, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The world’s forests are at risk of becoming a source of planet-warming emissions instead of soaking them up like a sponge unless greenhouse gases are controlled, scientists said.

Deforestation emits 20 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide when people cut and burn trees, but standing forests soak up 25 percent of the emissions.

If the Earth heats up 2.5 degrees Celsius (4.5 degrees F) or more, evaporation from the additional heat would lead to severe droughts and heat waves that could kill wide swaths of trees in the tropics of Africa, southern Asia and South America. And emissions from the rotting trees would make forests a source of global warming.

“If temperatures are growing at the current pace definitely this would happen at the end of this century or before,” said Risto Seppala, chair of a report by the International Union of Forest Research Organizations, a nonprofit network of scientists.

The IUFRO will present the report to the U.N.’s Forum on Forests in New York next week.

Not all areas of the world would suffer immediately and pine forests in northern parts of the world could benefit at first.

“In the beginning it would mean some very positive consequences,” for boreal forests such as those found in Northern Europe and Canada, said Seppala by telephone from his home in Finland north of the Arctic Circle. He said timber and paper industries in the North could prosper as warmer weather pushes growth of spruce and other trees.

Even forests found in more temperate parts of the world, such as the United States and Western Europe, could grow faster at first.

“Those who live in industrialized countries in the Northern Hemisphere won’t suffer too much at first,” he said.

People in many developing countries with forests tend to rely more on forests for food, clean water and other basic needs.

But eventually tree pests and parasites that until now have not appeared much in forests in colder parts of the world are likely to spread north as temperatures warm, the report said.

An example of pests already moving to the North is the pine beetle, which has devastated large parts of forests in British Columbia over the past decade and has moved into the province of Alberta. The pest can be killed by periods of extreme cold, but the 2007-2008 winter did not kill off the insects in Alberta.

Much depends on exactly how much temperatures will warm. A Reuters poll earlier this month of scientists showed that global warming is like to overshoot a 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 F) rise above pre-industrial levels seen by many countries as the maximum to avoid the worst of rising sea levels, floods, droughts and heat waves. Temperatures have already risen 0.7 Celsius.

Steps can be taken to protect forests and help them adapt to warmer temperatures, such as sustainable harvesting, the IUFRO report said. Perhaps even more important is cutting global emissions of greenhouse gases, said Seppala.

(Editing by Christian Wiessner)

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Termite Season Approaches: Tips for Homeowners

April 17, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

AUSTIN, Texas, April 15 /PRNewswire/ — With the arrival of late spring,
homeowners need to be on guard for an annual menace that threatens their
homes: termites. April and May are the height of termite season – the time
when the temperature is just right for termites to begin swarming out of their
nests to build new colonies in another location. These “swarmers” look a lot
like flying ants – but the damage they can do in the long run is much more
serious.

Homeowners who see flying termites in their area should be aware of the
following tips, courtesy of Killthetermites.com:

First, you need to find out if they came from your property. Termites commonly
live underground, but tunnel into your house to eat the wood as a food source.
Be on the lookout for tunnels on your home made of mud. If the swarmers seem
to be mostly indoors, it’s a good sign you’re already infested.

Second, turn off your lights at night if you see swarmers in your area. Like
most bugs, they’re attracted to the light, and will go straight for your home.

If you think the termites are coming from your property, you should get it
inspected by a professional. It’s very difficult to get rid of termites on
your own, and the damage they can do is severe.

If they’re coming over from the neighbor’s property, you need to take a
different approach. Make sure to warn your neighbor about it. If they won’t
call out the exterminator (or can’t afford to), you’re in a bind – your house
will be ground zero in both the spring and the fall. You’ll want to, at a
minimum, get annual inspections. Don’t panic – it can take years for termites
to actually do any serious damage. However, you should ask a local pest
control professional about installing a bait system in your yard. These
systems use wooden bait to serve as both a warning sign and a way to kill
termites. The exterminator can check the bait stations to see if there has
been any activity. Any termites that eat from them will also spread poison to
the budding colony.

Finally, it’s always a good idea to do a regular inspection on your own -
looking for mud tubes, sawdust, bubbles in the paint on your walls, or small
holes in exposed wood.

SOURCE Killthetermites.com

Killthetermites.com, +1-512-420-8407, kneukm03@gmail.com

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Germany to ban genetically modified maize

April 14, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Berlin – Germany has decided to ban genetically modified maize, Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner announced Tuesday. The decision affects MON 810 seeds produced by US agriculture giant Monsanto, which is the only genetically modified seed currently allowed on German soil.

Monsanto’s seed was due to be planted on 3600 hectares of German farm land this year, predominantly in the east of the country.

MON 810 includes a gene which protects it against a pest, the European corn borer butterfly. The seed has been approved for commercial use in the European Union since 1998.

Aigner had reviewed critical studies on the environmental consequences of planting the seed, as well as drawing on a report by Monsanto which had declared their product safe.

Some EU countries have already banned Monsanto’s genetically modified seeds over safety concerns.

The ban comes in the wake of political pressure from Bavaria in particular, where Aigner’s Christian Social Union (CSU) is based.

Germany’s Green and Left party have long called for a ban, alongside environmental campaign groups. (dpa)

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TERI, SPIB to host international conference on ‘Biopesticides: Stakeholders Perspective’

April 7, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Apr 7 (ANI/Business Wire India): The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in collaboration with the Society for Promotion and Innovation of Biopesticides (SPIB) will organise the Fifth International Conference from April 26-30 in New Delhi.

The conference will witness the presence of about 600 delegates from around the globe to deliberate on the advancement and promotion of biopesticides from the “stakeholders’ perspectives”.

The conference will have insightful sessions on sustainable agriculture, environmental protection, eco-restoration and climate change.

A special exhibition-BioFair 2009 will feature organizations and industrial companies involved in the field of biopesticides and related topics.

Enthused by the opportunity that ICOB will be held in India, Dr Seema Wahab, Advisor, Dept of Biotechnology, Govt. of India and Organizing Secretary, ICOB-V said “This is the first International Conference on Biopesticides bringing India in the forefront in this specific area which is very important and relevant for sustainable agriculture and environmental protection”.

The conference will provide a platform for its stakeholders participating from various parts of the world-researchers, scientists from public and private sectors, planners, industrialists and end-users to share their knowledge, experiences and learning related to the development, production and application of biopesticides.

The participants will also elaborate the constraints they face, which will help in finding solutions collectively and in evolving a sustainable perspective plan for value chain network to increase the use of biopesticides.

Elaborating on the relevance of Biotechnology and TERI’s role to popularise its use, Dr. Nutan Kaushik, Fellow TERI said, “Food security is a major concern that needs to be tackled and is incorporated in National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) issued by the Government of India. For the past two decades many pests and diseases as major and limiting factors have affected the productivity of several crops. Crop protection plays an integral role in the global production of food which must satisfy increasing consumer demand. Concerns over the environment and human health impacts of chemical pesticides have led to considerable interest in the development of an alternative control method. Keeping this in mind, the conference will be of utmost importance.”

This conference is a part of the series of international conferences held previously in Thailand (1996), China (1998), Malaysia (2002), and Thailand (2005), promoted by the University of California, Riverside, USA, and Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand.

It would bring to the fore, the fundamental and applied research on various aspects of biopesticides in pest and disease management in agriculture, forestry, public health, and the urban landscape. (ANI)

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TERI, SPIB to host international conference on ‘Biopesticides: Stakeholders Perspective’

April 7, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

The conference will witness the presence of about 600 delegates from around the globe to deliberate on the advancement and promotion of biopesticides from the “stakeholders’ perspectives”.

The conference will have insightful sessions on sustainable agriculture, environmental protection, eco-restoration and climate change.

A special exhibition-BioFair 2009 will feature organizations and industrial companies involved in the field of biopesticides and related topics.

Termites indulge in both sexual and asexual reproduction

March 29, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Mar 27 (ANI): When it comes to sex, certain female termite “primary queens” can reproduce both sexually and asexually during their lifetimes, according to a new study.

The collaborative study by scientists at North Carolina State University and three Japanese universities revealed that the asexually produced babies mostly grow to be queen successors – so-called “secondary queens” – that remain in the termite colony and mate with the king.

Such asexual reproduction produces large broods of babies without the dangers of inbreeding, as secondary queens have no genes in common with the king.

And research has shown that babies produced the old-fashioned way-between either the primary or secondary queens and the king-are mostly workers and soldiers of both genders.

Dr. Ed Vargo, associate professor of entomology at NC State and a co-author of the paper, has said that the species of subterranean termite the team studied, Reticulitermes speratus, is an important economic pest in Japan and is in the same genus as termites found in North Carolina.

Termite colonies are generally founded, and then sustained by a primary king and primary queen.

During the study, the scientists collected termites from a number of different colonies in Japan. In many colonies, the primary queen was not present, but had been seemingly succeeded by numerous secondary queens. Most primary kings, meanwhile, were present in the colonies.

According to Vargo, this suggests that the primary kings live longer than the primary queens, so there is a strong need for these termites to have genetically diverse queen successors to grow the colonies efficiently.

Genetic analysis of termite populations in several colonies showed that secondary queens shared genes with primary queens but not with primary kings, suggesting asexual reproduction.

At the same time, male and female termite workers and soldiers had genetic traces of both the primary king and primary queen, suggesting sexual reproduction.

“The conditional use of sex is unusual in insects and was previously unknown in termites. This novel use of both sexual and asexual reproduction is a way for primary queens to maximize reproductive output allowing the colony to grow bigger and faster while maintaining genetic diversity and avoiding the disadvantages of inbreeding,” said Vargo.

He also said that learning more about the genetics behind reproduction could lead to ways of preventing the production of certain castes of termites or ways of knocking out certain gene functions in those castes.

The study has been published in the journal Science. (ANI)

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Dry spell affects standing crops in Himachal Pradesh

March 14, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Sirmour (HP), Mar 14 (ANI): Lack of rain and dry weather conditions have adversely affected farmers in Himachal Pradesh which has witnessed one of the driest and warmest winters in decades.

Farmers are facing severe crisis as around eighty per cent of garlic, wheat and onion crops have been damaged. There is no good ginger crop as well.

“We don’t know what to do. The region has not witnessed any rainfall after the monsoon season. You can see only women working in the fields and most of the men have started going out in search of other jobs,” said Suresh, a farmer.

Many farmers are looking for other avenues of income and are migrating to other places.

“We have incurred huge losses. Ginger crop has been damaged and people have stopped growing wheat,” said Ramesh, another farmer.

Lack of rain has damaged apple crop.

The dry spell has also affected Rabi (winter) crop sowing. Normally, the sowing of wheat and other crops is complete by late December.

Inadequate snowfall in the hills during winter also leads to water scarcity during summer as most sources of water are snow fed.

Agriculture is the mainstay of India’s economy with more than half of the population relying on the sector for livelihood.

Irregular rainfall, frost, pest infestation, floods cause huge rop damage every year. By Hemant Chauhan (ANI)

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Evolution, ecosystems may buffer some species against climate change

March 6, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, March 6 (ANI): A new study has suggested that although ecologists expect many species will be harmed by climate change, some species could be buffered by their potential to evolve or by changes in their surrounding ecosystems.

The study, by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Arizona, is using a common agricultural insect pest to understand how ecological and evolutionary factors drive population shifts in the face of a changing environment.

It shows that both ecological interactions within a food web and the potential for rapid evolutionary adaptation play critical roles in determining how populations of the legume-loving pea aphid fare during increasing bouts of hot weather, one aspect of predicted climate change.

One of the most important lessons of the work is that predictions of the consequences of environmental change on populations must take into account both ecological and evolutionary complexities, according to Jason Harmon, a UW-Madison postdoctoral researcher and lead author of the new study.

“If you’re interested in environmental change and how species are going to respond to it, you can’t just look at a single species in isolation as it is right now. You have to think about those other species around it, and you have to think about the species’ potential to change along with the environment,” he said.

Bouts of high temperature decrease pea aphid reproduction, but inherited bacteria living symbiotically within the aphids bestow them with a possible evolutionary defense.

“Because we can experimentally manipulate aphid bacteria, we have an excellent model system to explore evolutionary adaptation,” said University of Arizona professor of ecology and evolutionary biology Nancy Moran, a co-author of the study.

The researchers showed that the degree of heat tolerance conferred by the symbiotic bacteria influenced whether the aphids thrived or succumbed to experimental heat stress in the field.

The result shows that the potential for rapid evolution can have a large impact on how populations respond to environmental change.

According to UW-Madison zoology professor Anthony Ives, while predicting the response of species to climate change is complicated, the new study may help de-mystify complex processes by identifying specific factors that are relevant.

This new work will help other scientists take a broad ecological and evolutionary view while studying the effects of environmental change, he added. (ANI)

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How new species emerge

February 7, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Feb 6 (ANI): A new research paper has offered important insights into how new species come to be.

The paper has been authored by a team led by University of Notre Dame researchers Andrew Forbes, Thomas Powell, and Jeffrey Feder.

“This study is important because it shows how biodiversity itself can be a major generator of biodiversity,” Feder said.

“As new species form, they can create new opportunities for others to take advantage of, which, in turn, can lead to a chain reaction of ever more new species,” he added.

In the research paper, Forbes, Powell, Feder and colleagues demonstrate that the parasitic wasp Diachasma alloeum is evolving into a new incipient species as a result of specializing on the Rhagoletis fruit flies that they attack.

These Rhagoletis flies are themselves actively diversifying and forming new species. For the flies, the process begins with a shift to a new host plant.

Rhagoletis pomonella flies originally attacked the fruit of hawthorn trees. But about 150 years ago, a portion of the hawthorn fly population shifted and began to feed on apples.

In ecologically adapting to apples as a new host plant, apple flies are becoming genetically distinct and reproductively isolated from hawthorn flies.

The apple race of Rgagoletis flies is now a major pest of apples in the United States and is the proverbial “worm in the apple.”

The Notre Dame researchers show that the Diachasma wasp that parasitizes Rhagoletis has also shifted to use the fly larvae that feed within the apple as a new food resource.

Indeed, the wasp has evolved many of the same types of ecological adaptations to live on flies in apples that the apple fly evolved before it.

In a plot twist, the apple wasp’s ancestors appear to have come from a Rhagoletis fly infesting blueberries rather than hawthorns – one turn does not always lead directly to another.

“The idea that there are ‘speciation cascades’ operating in nature has important applications not only for understanding the process of speciation, but also for theories concerning how biodiversity reforms following mass extinction events, for why certain groups of organisms with certain lifestyles may be more diverse than others, and for why certain areas of biotic regions may have more life forms than others,” Feder said. (ANI)

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Gene engineering of pests can make their offspring die in embryo stage

January 27, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Jan 27 (ANI): An international team of researchers has engineered the genes of the medfly, which is a serious agricultural pest, to generate offspring that die whilst they are still embryos.

The genes of the medfly, also known as the lethal Mediterranean fruit fly (Ceratitis capitata), were engineered by Ernst A. Wimmer and his team from the Georg-August-University in Gottingen, Germany.

According to the researchers, the flies, when released into a wild population, could out-compete the normal male flies and cause a generation of pests to be stillborn, thus protecting important crops.

“Here, we present the first alternative, radiation-free, reproductive sterility system for medfly based on transgenic embryonic lethality,” said Wimmer.

The medfly is a devastating and economically important pest.

The currently used method of controlling it is the sterile insect technique (SIT), whereby male flies are irradiated to induce reproductive sterility and then released into the wild, where competition with fertile males reduces the overall insect population.

This radioactive version of the SIT has the drawback that the irradiated males are often less competitive than their wild brethren and so an awkward balance must be stuck between competitiveness and degree of sterility.

“When transgenic males carrying our transgenic system mate with wild females, all progeny die during embryogenesis without the need for radiation,” according to Wimmer.
Due to the complete lethality, no fruit damage from developing larvae will occur and no transgenes can pass into the wild population. Moreover, males carrying this system are highly competitive,” he added.

According to the researchers, “Use of our embryonic lethality system, without the need for radiation, can increase the safety of SIT programs, since accidental releases would not lead to infestations of the environment and possible risks coming from isotopic sources can be eliminated for workers and the environment.” (ANI)

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Chemical sex smell can lure “Vampire fish” to doom

January 21, 2009 By Rajesh Leave a Comment

London, Jan 21 (ANI): Scientists have said that a synthetic “chemical sex smell” could help rid North America’s Great Lakes of the sea lamprey, a devastating pest, dubbed as the “vampire fish”.

The sea lamprey has parasitised native species of the Great Lakes since its accidental introduction in the 1800s.

The sea lamprey’s natural life cycle takes it from birth in a stream to adulthood in the ocean, where it gains its vampirical appellation.

Circular jaws lock on to another, larger fish, and a sharp tongue carves through its scales.

From then on, the lamprey feeds on the blood and body fluids of its temporary host, often killing it in the process.

The Great Lakes on the US-Canada border support recreational fishing worth billions of dollars a year, which the lampreys would wreck but for a control programme costing about 20 million dollars annually.

Now, according to a report by BBC News, US researchers have deployed a laboratory version of a male sea lamprey pheromone to trick ovulating females into swimming upstream into traps.

This is thought to be the first time that pheromones have been shown to be the basis of a possible way of controlling animal pests other than insects.

“There’s been extensive study of pheromones in animals and even in humans,” said lead researcher Weiming Li from Michigan State University in East Lansing, US.

“But most researchers have presumed that as animals get more complex, their behaviour is regulated in a more complex way, not by just one pheromone,” he told BBC News.

Professor Li’s team released the synthetic version of a lamprey hormone from a trap placed in a stream where lampreys come to breed.

Females scenting it would swim vigorously upstream until they found the source, some becoming trapped in the process.

“Why we’re so enthusiastic about the pheromone work is that we see it as another tool in the arsenal,” said Dr Marc Gaden from the Great Lakes Fishery Commission (GLFC), the body responsible for controlling the lamprey problem.

“We see it as away of tricking these spawning lampreys, and then you can do things to manipulate their behaviour in ways that would work against them. For example, you could lure them into streams without suitable spawning habitat, or just into traps,” he added.

Professor Li’s team is now planning a larger experiment, using the pheromone to trap female lampreys in 20 streams feeding into the lakes, which will take three years to complete. (ANI)

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Lack of snow affecting apple crop in Himachal Pradesh

January 18, 2009 By Rajesh Leave a Comment

Shimla (Himachal Pradesh), Jan.18 (ANI): The lack of rain and snow has spelled doom for apple growers in Himachal Pradesh.

Apple growers in the region are worried that their crop will be severely hit unless the weather gods oblige them with snow or rainfall.

“Lack of snowfall can create problem for apple growers, there was no snowfall in the month of December and January. If snow fall will get more delayed, then farmers will be facing lot of problems, because 1700 hours of chilling conditions that is a prerequisite for the growth of apple wont be fulfilled,” said Lekh Raj, a horticulture professional.

The dry spell has also affected Rabi (winter) crop sowing. Normally the sowing of wheat and other crops is complete by late December.

Waiting for rainfall however, the farmers have not yet sown the wheat seeds. Any further delay will delay the harvest of the crop.

“This time snowfall is delayed. We are facing a lot of problems due to scarcity of snowfall. If snow had fallen on time problem of pests and many other problems could have been resolved very easily,” said Prem, an apple grower.

Inadequate snow fall during winter also leads to water scarcity during summer in the hills, where most sources of water are snow fed.

Agriculture is the mainstay of India’s economy with more than half the population relying on the sector for livelihood. Irregular rainfall, frost, pest infestation, floods cause crops damage worth thousands of rupees every year.(ANI)

Apple is the main fruit crop of Himachal Pradesh and is being grown in nine out of 12 districts. Apple accounts for about 40 percent of the total area under all fruit crop cultivation.

More than 200,000 families in the state are engaged in apple cultivation and 90% of them are small and marginal farmers with an average holding of less than 0.6 hectares.

Besides apples, other fruits like pears, peaches, cherries and plums are the major commercial crops of Himachal Pradesh. (ANI)

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How bed bugs dodge poisons designed to control them

January 11, 2009 By Rajesh Leave a Comment

Washington, Jan 11 (ANI): In a first of its kind study, toxicologists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Korea’s Seoul National University have explained how bed bugs develop resistance to drugs like pyrethroid neurotoxins, especially deltamethrin, that once kept them in check.

Led by senior researcher John Clark and colleagues, the study revealed that these nocturnal bloodsuckers have evolved to trick the latest generation of chemicals used to control them since DDT was banned.

The researchers summarized that diagnostic tools to detect the relevant mutation in bed bug populations have been “urgently needed for effective control and resistance management.”

They specifically found that bed bugs in New York City have acquired mutations in their nerve cells, which blunt the neurotoxic effect of the pyrethroid toxins used against them.

The mutations affect sodium channels (resembling pores) in the neurons’ outer membrane, where electrical nerve impulses are produced.

Earlier, these nervous system poisons could effectively paralyse and kill the bugs, however, this is not the case anymore.

Resistance means mutations are acquired over time by selection with pyrethroids, so the neuronal pores no longer respond to their toxic effects.

It was found that these pores in New York City bed bugs are now as much as 264 times more resistant to deltamethrin.

“This type of pyrethroid resistance is common in many pest insects and the failure of the pyrethroids to control bed bug populations across the United States and elsewhere indicates that resistance is already widespread,” said Clark.

He explained that for the study, the researchers collected hard-to-control bed bugs from New York City, plus easy-to-control bed bugs from an untreated colony in Florida.

The New York population was determined to be highly resistant (264 times more resistant) to deltamethrin as compared to the Florida population by contact exposure.

Also, it was found that resistance was not due to the increased breakdown of deltamethrin (enzymatic metabolism) by the resistant bed bugs but appeared to be due to an insensitive nervous system.

Using molecular techniques, they sequenced genes related to the sodium ion channel’s operation in both groups and identified two mutations found only in the resistant population.

Similar mutations have been found in other pyrethroid-resistant insects and are likely the cause of the resistance in bed bugs.

The study was published in the current issue of the Journal of Medical Entomology. (ANI)

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‘Insect-based” biological weapons easier option than nukes for terrorists

January 6, 2009 By Rajiv Gupta Leave a Comment

London, Jan 6 (ANI): While countries are leaving no stone unturned to keep their security up to date, an academic has cautioned that terrorists could easily launch a devastating attack on nations using swarms of insects to spread a deadly disease.

Jeffrey Lockwood, professor of entomology at Wyoming University and author of ‘Six-legged Soldiers: Using Insects as Weapons of War’, warned that terrorists would find it “relatively easy” to develop insect-based weapon than developing a nuclear or chemical weapon

He claimed that it’s easy to transport Rift Valley Fever or other diseases in a country by a terrorist with a suitcase.

According to the World Health Organisation, Rift Valley Fever is an east African disease that “can cause severe disease in both animals and humans, leading to high rates of disease and death.”

“I think a small terrorist cell could very easily develop an insect-based weapon,” The Telegraph quoted Lockwood as telling BBC Radio 4”s Today programme.

He claimed that it would “probably be much easier” than developing a nuclear or chemical weapon.

He added: “The raw material is in the back yard. It would be a relatively easy and simple process. A few hundred dollars and a plane ticket and you could have a pretty good stab at it.”

Also, he suggested that there’s a need for governments to have a strong “pest management infrastructure, which could absorb and respond to an introduction” of infected insects.

He stressed that making the effort to stop everything coming in at the border would not work. (ANI)

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