Meeting the urgent need for rabies education in Haiti

The highest rate of human rabies deaths reported in the Americas is in Haiti, and most of these deaths result from rabies virus infections that occur after individuals are bitten by infected dogs and do not receive rabies post‐exposure prophylaxis. One barrier to rabies prevention in Haiti is a lack of knowledge about this disease among healthcare professionals and community members. During the past 4 years, The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has collaborated with public health officials and partners to develop, test and refine educational materials aimed at filling this need for rabies education. This report summarizes the use of feedback from knowledge, attitudes and practises surveys; key informant interviews; and focus groups to develop culturally appropriate rabies prevention materials for community members, health officials, clinicians, laboratory professionals, veterinary professionals, government officials and national and local district leaders about ways to prevent rabies. These formative research methods were critically important in ensuring that the materials would be culturally appropriate and would stand the greatest likelihood of motivating Haitians to protect themselves from rabies. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is using lessons learned in Haiti to develop and test materials in other countries with high rates of canine rabies.     

Simulated Farm Fieldwork, Energy Consumption and Related Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Canada

The amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that can be attributed to agricultural machinery management was analysed using computer simulation of farm power requirements, machine hours and fuel consumption. The ‘Farm Fieldwork and Fossil Fuel Energy and Emissions’ (F4E2) model optimised tractor and harvester power P. To minimise P for a single tractor for spring tillage and sowing, the model budgets available spring work time in half-day increments and adjusts implement widths to match. Other field operations in the model are powered by a tractor derived for spring. Emissions of GHG were estimated for ploughing, discing and sowing operations in springs, along with autumn harvesting, cultivation for weeds, spreading manure and sprying for pests. A grain trailer and a swather were considered as part of harvesting. Farm site estimates were extrapolated to regional and national scales with appropriate and available Canadian Census and farm survey data. Fuel consumption and GHG emission factors for petrol and diesel fuels were also analysed. Fuel efficiency and proper matching of equipment to tractors were important factors. Canada's 1996 Farm Energy Use Survey (FEUS) provided useful validation to the F4E2 energy consumption estimates. The model estimate of 71·6 PJ of diesel energy for 1996 was within 1% of the 72·0 PJ of diesel fuel energy that FEUS attributes to farm machinery for Canada. The 1990 Kyoto baseline estimate of GHG emissions was 6·5 Tg of CO₂ equivalent from both diesel and petrol for farm field operations in Canada.     

Honey bee orientation: a backup system for cloudy days

On cloudy days, honey bees are known to navigate to familiar food sources and orient their dances accurately. This capacity could be based on a magnetic compass sense, an ability to perceive the sun or patterns of polarized light through the clouds, or on the bees' memory of the diurnal course of the sun with respect to local landmarks. Experiments pitting these alternatives against one another demonstrate that the navigational backup system of bees is based on memory.     

Loop‐mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assays for rapid detection of Pyrenopeziza brassicae (light leaf spot of brassicas)

Pyrenopeziza brassicae (anamorph Cylindrosporium concentricum) is an ascomycete fungus that causes light leaf spot (LLS) disease of brassicas. It has recently become the most important pathogen of winter oilseed rape (Brassica napus) crops in the UK. The pathogen is spread by both asexual splash‐dispersed conidia and sexual wind‐dispersed ascospores. Such inoculum can be detected with existing qualitative and quantitative PCR diagnostics, but these require time‐consuming laboratory‐based processing. This study describes two loop‐mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assays, targeting internal transcribed spacer (ITS) or β‐tubulin DNA sequences, for fast and specific detection of P. brassicae isolates from a broad geographical range (throughout Europe and Oceania) and multiple brassica host species (B. napus, B. oleracea and B. rapa). Neither assay detected closely related Oculimacula or Rhynchosporium isolates, or other commonly occurring oilseed rape fungal pathogens. Both LAMP assays could consistently detect DNA amounts equivalent to 100 P. brassicae conidia per sample within 30 minutes, although the β‐tubulin assay was more rapid. Reproducible standard curves were obtained using a P. brassicae DNA dilution series (100 ng–10 pg), enabling quantitative estimation of amounts of pathogen DNA in environmental samples. In planta application of the β‐tubulin sequence‐based LAMP assay to individual oilseed rape leaves collected from the field found no statistically significant difference in the amount of pathogen DNA present in parts of leaves either with or without visible LLS symptoms. The P. brassicae LAMP assays described here could have multiple applications, including detection of symptomless host infection and automated real‐time monitoring of pathogen inoculum.