BETTER USES FOR Bt INSECTICIDE?

A discovery about a naturally occurring insecticide could allow that bug-killer to be better used by farmers and growers.
Chuck Quirmbach reports:

Transcript

A discovery about a naturally occurring insecticide could
allow that bug-killer to be better used by farmers and growers. Chuck
Quirmbach reports:


The bacterium known as Bt produces a toxin that has long
been used to control some insect pests. Researchers at the University
of Wisconsin-Madison have found the ability of Bt to kill gypsy moth
caterpillars is helped by the bacteria that are found in the guts of
the insect.


Graduate student Nichole Broderick is the lead author of
the study, which is published in the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences
. Broderick says knowledge of how Bt kills
caterpillars could lead to better use of Bt in the environment.


“It would be useful in terms of improving the effectiveness in field
applications and making perhaps methods of control more specific to
the pest that you’re going after.”


That could help target the nasty insects without harming the beneficial
ones.


For the Environment Report, I’m Chuck Quirmbach.

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Relief on the Horizon for Allergy Sufferers?

  • To those who may recoil in terror from this picture, relief from peanut allergies may just be a vaccine away. (Photo by Mike Froese)

A new vaccine that reduces food allergies in dogs could
some day help people who suffer dangerous reactions to food like
peanuts, milk and wheat. The vaccine is also more evidence in
support of the so-called “hygiene hypothesis.” The Great Lakes
Radio Consortium’s Tracy Samilton reports:

Transcript

A new vaccine that reduces food allergies in dogs could some day help people who suffer
dangerous reactions to food like peanuts, milk and wheat. The vaccine is also more
evidence in support of the so-called “hygiene hypothesis.” The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Tracy Samilton reports:


Allergies to foods like peanuts have become much more common over the past 20 years.
Some researchers believe it’s because, as a hygiene-conscious society, we’re no
longer exposing our bodies to infections that stimulate the immune system and protect
us from allergies. Pediatrician Dale Umetsu of Stanford University mixed a component
of Listeria bacterium and peanuts into a vaccine. He then gave it to dogs
with allergies so severe that one peanut made them sick.


“After the treatment, the dogs could tolerate up, on average, to 30 to 40 peanuts,
so this was quite an increase and the effect lasted several months, at least,
after the treatment.”


Umetsu says it could be five years or more before a vaccine is available for human trials.
A vaccine could help millions of people with food allergies.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Tracy Samilton.

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