RIVERSIDE, Calif. A research team that includes John Trumble, a distinguished professor of entomology at the University of California, Riverside, has won the Integrated Pest Management Team Award from the Entomological Foundation, a national organization that aims to educate young people about science through insects.
Sponsored by Dow AgroSciences, the award "recognizes the successful efforts of a small collaborative work team approach to pest control." Trumble and the other members of the team will receive the award an inscribed statue on Nov. 12 in Knoxville, Tenn., during the annual meeting of the Entomological Society of America.
The Entomological Foundation recognized the research team, named the Zebra Chip Research Team, for its research and extension efforts that have had a dramatic effect on the potato industry.
By the time the team formed in 2008, a new pathogen named zebra chip had devastated the potato industry by spreading zebra chip disease, causing losses in the millions of dollars annually.
"Indeed, many growers were on the verge of leaving the industry entirely," Trumble said. "When pesticide use in the fields increased dramatically, with unsatisfactory results, more economic losses followed."
The Zebra Chip Research Team developed new techniques to identify the pathogen, allowing researchers to document local, regional, and national movements of the potato psyllid (Bactericera cockerelli) spreading zebra chip disease. The researchers determined both within-plant and within-field movements of the psyllid and the zebra chip pathogen, and developed special sampling programs that enabled potato growers to choose the level of
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| Contact: Iqbal Pittalwala iqbal@ucr.edu 951-827-6050 University of California - Riverside Source:Eurekalert |