Last week, the Centers for Disease Control issued an advisory about beef products from JBS Swift Beef Company that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7.
This week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that a sample of prepackaged Nestle Toll House refrigerated cookie dough yielded E. coli O157:H7.
O157:H7 is a dangerous strain of E. coli. When ingested by humans, it can cause bloody diarrhea, and in some people, especially children, a potentially deadly disease called hemolytic uremic syndrome,
But there is some good news. USDA has issued a conditional license to Epitopix LLC, a Minnesota veterinary pharmaceutical company, to market Escherichia coli Bacterial Extract, a vaccine that can stop O157:H7 before it makes its way into the food chain, according to an article in today's San Francisco Chronicle. The vaccine works by preventing the bacteria, which are not harmful to cattle, from getting to the iron in a cow's intestines.
"The vaccine is potentially very exciting," the story quoted Michele Jay-Russell, a UC Davis epidemiologist. "Being able to reduce the bacteria will not only have an effect on the beef industry, but on the environment."
Jay-Russell manages a team of scientists investigating the 2006 E. coli outbreak in bagged spinach that killed three people and sickened 205 nationwide. In that incident, scientists have narrowed down the most likely cause of the contamination to either wild pigs or to a cattle herd a mile away from the spinach farm.
"That's why the vaccine is one more intervention to have," she was quoted. But, she cautioned, "It's not the end-all and be-all, and it doesn't mean everyone can relax."
Cattle.
Nearly 200 people gathered at the UC Kearney Research and Extension Center yesterday to send off retiring director Fred Swanson. The event was covered by ABC 30 Action News, the No. 1 broadcast news outlet in Fresno.
Reporter Dale Yurong interviewed Swanson in front of the center's two-story office, laboratory and meeting room complex, one of many expansions at the center that Swanson oversaw during his 26-year tenure at the helm.
"The idea was to put Kearney on the map and really develop this research center into a world-class facility," Swanson said on camera.
Somehow, Yurong was able to add video of a young Swanson to his two-minute report. It looks to me the man in the black-rimmed glasses in the same clip is Kearney-based entomologist Charlie Summers, though Yurong mentioned the name of retired UC viticulture academic Pete Christensen during his brief appearance. (It may be Christensen in the next clip walking a vineyard with Swanson.)
Swanson and Christensen were viticulture farm advisors in the Fresno County UC Cooperative Extension office in the 1970s.
"That was the heyday of the grape boom. Many of these growers had never grown grapes and not really been exposed to viticulture and so it was a challenging period of time, but it was an exciting period of time," Swanson said.
Attending the luncheon yesterday were many of Swanson's colleagues, area farmers, dignitaries from the cities of Reedley and Parlier, representatives of state and federal legislators, a member of the Fresno County Board of Supervisors and the Fresno County sherriff, Margaret Mims.
When Sheriff Mims was introduced, UC IPM advisor Walt Bentley wondered aloud, "Is she looking for Fred?"
Fred Swanson.
The Riverside Press-Enterprise may have the last word on blueberries for the 2009 season. Reporter Sean Nealon wrote two stories for last Saturday's paper about the Inland Empire's fledging blueberry industry.
One story reported on a Temecula blueberry farm where most of the fruit is harvested by the consumers themselves. The other story suggested that blueberries can make nice landscape plants. Both stories proffer the antioxidant-rich fruit with less strain on the pocketbook.
In the U-pick article, the reporter related information from UC Cooperative Extension's resident blueberry expert, farm advisor Manuel Jimenez of the UC Small Farm Program. He said California's blueberry acreage has increased from less than 20 to 5,000 to 6,000 in the past 12 years, most in the San Joaquin Valley. Blueberry production is labor intensive. A U-pick system cuts farm labor costs and the savings are passed on to consumers. In the store, blueberries are about $10 for 18 ounces. For Temecula U-pickers, the price is $5 per pint.
For the second story, Nealon spoke to Don Merhaut, an assistant UC Cooperative Extension specialist for ornamental and floriculture crops at UC Riverside. Merhaut started researching blueberries while a doctoral student at the University of Florida. After arriving at UCR in 2000, he began thinking more about blueberries' ornamental qualities -- their leaf texture, canopy, pink flowers, and, of course, delicious and healthful fruit, according to Nealon's article.
Merhaut recently completed a five-year study of 13 blueberry varieties in agricultural fields. He found 10 blueberry varieties that would make excellent landscape plants and plans to post a paper with his findings on the Internet.
Blueberries.
In the last month or so, I interviewed four retiring UC academics about their education, their beginnings with UC, their accomplishments (there were many) and their retirement plans. In all, the quartet represent 126 years of service to the California agricultural industry. All of them retire today. You can read all about the retirees by going to the news releases, linked to their names. Here, I'll share the fun part: their retirement plans.
Fred Swanson, director, UC Kearney Research and Extension Center
Swanson and his wife Cheryl will stay in their new Kingsburg home during retirement, but they have many plans for travel and recreation. The Swansons will spend more time at their cabin at Huntington Lake, play more golf at the Kings River Golf and Country Club and maintain a busy schedule of fishing and hunting trips. Swanson already has plans for two more fishing trips this year in Alaska, pheasant hunting in South Dakota, duck hunting in Tulelake, dove hunting in Kingsburg and a first-time elk hunting trip in Colorado. “Life is really good!” Swanson said.
Mick Canevari, director, UC Cooperative Extension in San Joaquin County
Canevari said he and his wife will continue to operate her specialty clothing store in Stockton and he will manage the family farm. An avid outdoorsman, Canevari already has plans for a two-week hunting trip in Canada this summer, and the local fishing and hunting he has enjoyed all his life will continue, but with greater frequency. “The one thing that will change is that now I won’t have to come home on Sundays,” Canevari said.
(The Stockton Record ran a story on Canevari over the weekend titled "Outstanding in his field.")
Don Lancaster, director, UC Cooperative Extension in Modoc County
Lancaster said retirement will provide more time for hunting and fishing, pastimes he has enjoyed going back to his days in Beegum, Calif., when venison and trout were frequently on the family dinner table. Today, Lancaster is already fishing at a favorite resort in British Columbia, Canada.
Mario Moratorio, farm advisor, UC Cooperative Extension in Yolo and Solano counties
Moratorio has plans to visit his undergraduate alma mater in Uruguay in July to present a seminar on the UC agricultural extension system. “The dean of the college is a close friend of mine,” Moratorio said. “He has been trying to develop an extension system like ours in Uruguay and would like to have another voice carrying his message.” Moratorio’s home base will remain the Solano County community of Cordelia Village, where he also plans to support local farmers during his retirement by connecting them with low-income residents in order to enhance their access to fresh fruits and vegetables.
UCCE's media services manager Mike Poe recently shared a video success story with the Communications Services team. Sacramento UCCE was struggling to maintain county funding. At budget hearings, the 4-H advisor in Sacramento County, Marianne Bird, handed out copies of a five-minute video that Poe had helped put together about the 4-H Water Wizards project.
Bird e-mailed Mike last week: "Our acting county director just came in to tell me that the Department of Water Resources has committed $20,000 to Sacramento UCCE as a result of seeing the Water Wizards DVD."
This experience definitely shows how a visual communications piece can pay dividends. Here is the video:
