Concerns grow over farm drugs used like 'sweets'

By Matt McGrath

Environment correspondent, BBC News

The widespread use of antibiotics on farms without medical supervision has been condemned at a meeting of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE).

There are particular concerns about the US where authorities say it contributes significantly to resistance.

There are also worries that a new US-EU trade deal will see a watering down of tougher European laws on their use.

The OIE says it has tried to broker a compromise between the two regions.

But so far this has been unsuccessful.

It's estimated that 80% of the antibiotics purchased in the US are used on farm animals.

The drugs are given as prophylactics to livestock to help them avoid illnesses that are transmitted easily between beasts confined in large-scale feed lots.

The drugs are also used to boost the animal's weight.

But the large-scale use has prompted concerns that microbes will develop resistance.

Continued

Attracting wild bees to farms is good insurance policy

Date:

April 3, 2014

Source:

Michigan State University

Summary:

Investing in habitat that attracts and supports wild bees in farms is not only an effective approach to helping enhance crop pollination, but it can also pay for itself in four years or less, according to research. The paper gives farmers of pollination-dependent crops tangible results to convert marginal acreage to fields of wildflowers.

Continued

Ladybugs Diet Influences Effectiveness as Biocontrol Agent

Jan. 11, 2013 — By examining what lady bugs eat, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists are learning more about the movement of these beneficial insects in farm fields -- and whether they'll actively feed on crop pests.

Agricultural Research Service (ARS) entomologist Jonathan Lundgren at the agency's North Central Agricultural Research Laboratory in Brookings, S.D., and former ARS entomologist Michael Seagraves were part of a team of ARS and university scientists that examined how a lady beetle's diet alters its feeding patterns and physiology. ARS is USDA's chief intramural scientific research agency.

Lady beetles are deployed as biological controls of insect pests like aphids and Colorado potato beetles. Understanding the feeding behavior of these important beneficial insects will help researchers find ways to most effectively use the lady beetles as biocontrol agents.

In laboratory feeding tests, the researchers found that a lady beetle species called Coleomegilla maculata consumes two to three times more plant tissue after being fed a prey-only diet than after being fed a mixed diet of prey and plant tissue. This suggests that plant material is providing some key nutrients lacking in prey-only diets. It is important to recognize that non-prey foods contain different nutrients than insect prey, and that beetles that are fed mixed diets are often healthier that those fed only on prey, according to Lundgren.

Continued:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130111110920.htm