An inactivated vaccine for the control of bluetongue virus serotype 16 infection in sheep in Italy

Because no suitable products are at the moment available to safely control the spread of BTV-16 in Europe, an inactivated vaccine was produced from the reference field isolate of bluetongue virus serotype 16. One group of six sheep was vaccinated subcutaneously with the inactivated vaccine twice, on days 0 and 28, whereas a second group of eight sheep was inoculated with saline solution and used as mock-vaccinated control animals. Seventy-eight days after the first vaccination, all sheep were inoculated subcutaneously with a suspension containing 10(6.3) TCID(50) of a virulent reference BTV-16 isolate. Apart from a transient inflammatory reaction at the injection site, no adverse effects were reported following vaccination. All vaccinated animals developed high titres (7.3-9.3log(2)(ED50%/50 microl)) of virus-specific neutralising antibodies and were resistant to challenge with BTV-16. Conversely, following challenge, control animals developed hyperthermia and long lasting high-titre viraemia.     

Detection of Ecballium elaterium in hedgerow olive orchards using a low-cost uncrewed aerial vehicle and open-source algorithms

BACKGROUND

Ecballium elaterium (common name: squirting cucumber) is an emerging weed problem in hedgerow or superintensive olive groves under no tillage. It colonizes the inter-row area infesting the natural or sown cover crops, and is considered a hard-to-control weed. Research in other woody crops has shown E. elaterium has a patchy distribution, which makes this weed susceptible to design a site-specific control strategy only addressed to E. elaterium patches. Therefore, the aim of this work was to develop a methodology based on the analysis of imagery acquired with an uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) to detect and map E. elaterium infestations in hedgerow olive orchards.

RESULTS

The study was conducted in two superintensive olive orchards, and the images were taken using a UAV equipped with an RGB sensor. Flights were conducted on two dates: in May, when there were various weeds infesting the orchard, and in September, when E. elaterium was the only infesting weed. UAV-orthomosaics in the first scenario were classified using random forest models, and the orthomosaics from September with E. elaterium as the only weed, were analyzed using an unsupervised algorithm. In both cases, the overall accuracies were over 0.85, and the producer's accuracies for E. elaterium ranged between 0.74 and 1.00.

CONCLUSION

These results allow the design of a site-specific and efficient herbicide control protocol which would represent a step forward in sustainable weed management. The development of these algorithms in free and open-source software fosters their application in small and medium farms. © 2022 The Authors. Pest Management Science published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.     

Fertility of Holstein cows and heifers submitted to timed artificial insemination and receiving one or two doses (12 h apart) of semen

The objective of this retrospective study was to assess the effect of receiving a single (n = 50,285) or double (n = 4392) artificial insemination (AI), 12 h apart, within a timed artificial insemination protocol on pregnancy per AI (P/AI) in nulliparous heifers (inseminated with either sex-sorted or conventional semen) and pluriparous Holstein cows in a commercial dairy herd. Also, this study aimed to investigate the relationship between temperature-humidity index (THI) and time of the first AI and fertility. Fertility of cows receiving two AI with normothermia (THI <68) was higher (p < .05) than cows receiving a single AI (42.9% vs. 36.4%). P/AI of cows receiving two AI with severe heat stress (THI >85) was higher (p < .05) than cows receiving a single AI (21.0% vs. 12.6%). Regardless of heat stress conditions, applying the first AI in the morning increased (p < .05) P/AI in cows with double AI than in cows whose first AI occurred in the afternoon (38.4 vs. 33.3%). With moderate heat stress, and sexed-sorted semen, P/AI to timed AI was higher (65.0 vs. 51.9%; p < .05) in heifers receiving double AI than those serviced once. It was concluded that double AI, 12 h apart, enhanced fertility at timed AI than herd mates with a single AI, particularly with heat stress at breeding.     

Using midday stem water potential for scheduling deficit irrigation in mid–late maturing peach trees under Mediterranean conditions

Irrigation techniques that reduce water applications are increasingly applied in areas with scarce water resources. In this study, the effect of two regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) strategies on peach [Prunus persica (L.) Batsch cv. “Catherine”] performance was studied over three growing seasons. The experimental site was located in Murcia (SE Spain), a Mediterranean region. Two RDI strategies (restricting water applications at stage II of fruit development and postharvest) based on stem water potential (Ψ_s) thresholds (?1.5 and ?1.8 MPa during fruit growth and ?1.5 and ?2.0 MPa during postharvest) were compared to a fully irrigated control. Soil water content (θ_v), Ψ_s, gas exchange parameters, vegetative growth, crop load, yield and fruit quality were determined. RDI treatments showed significantly lower values of θ_v and Ψ_s than control trees when irrigation water was restricted, causing reductions in stomatal conductance and photosynthesis rates. Vegetative growth was reduced by RDI, as lower shoot lengths and pruning weights were observed under those treatments when compared to control. However, fruit size and yield were unaffected, and fruit quality was slightly improved by RDI. Water savings from 43 to 65 % were achieved depending on the year and the RDI strategy, and no negative carryover effect was detected during the study period. In conclusion, RDI strategies using Ψ_s thresholds for scheduling irrigation in mid–late maturing peach trees under Mediterranean conditions are viable options to save water without compromising yield and even improving fruit quality.     

Resource allocation tradeoffs in Manila’s peri-urban vegetable production systems: An application of multiple objective programming

This paper designed and developed a multi-objective programming (MOP) model to illustrate the dynamic relationship among technologies, productive activities, constraints and farmers’ objectives in the peri-urban vegetable production system and use the model as an economic tool in analysing probable consequences of a given action or innovation on the farm. The best compromise solution was generated using four analytical steps, as follows: single-objective optimization (to determine the ideal and anti-ideal values of the objective functions); constrained optimization (to generate the set of Pareto non-dominated solutions); cluster analysis (to trim down efficient set into smaller homogeneous groups); and compromise programming (to determine where the best compromise solution lies).     

Quality and maximum profit of industrial tomato as affected by distribution uniformity of drip irrigation system

The tomato industry reformed its system of payment by weight of tomato, introducing a corrective system based on percent level of fruit dry matter produced. Such a decision implies significant changes in the management of irrigation systems, with a need to emphasize the technological quality of the marketable product. Three levels of distribution uniformity of the irrigation system are analysed, and related production functions of crop yield and percent of dry matter are presented as well as their use on the optimisation of dry matter, expected revenues and seasonal applied water. Results are critically influenced by the distribution uniformity. They demonstrate the inter-relationship between crop production, percent fruit dry matter and irrigation management, and the importance of considering non-uniformity in the economic analysis of industrial tomato production. Decreases in uniformity lead to a reduction in dry matter production per unit land. Decreases in dry matter are also observed with increasing levels of seasonally applied water, with the optimal level always lower than the required for maximum yield. Such interaction suggests a continuous and inverse relationship between profit and water applied. However, due to the corrective system of payment, by levels of percent of dry matter produced, for some uniformity, the expected revenue follows the yield-water production function instead of the dry matter function. This fact introduces disturbances in the optimal water applied inducing higher than expected levels of water applied for profit maximisation. The simulated data also show that incentives to switch to new systems or management practices able to raise the distribution uniformity result more from profit losses than increases in water price.