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CapitalPress.com
November 4, 2016
California
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New lab strengthens defense against animal diseases
California bolsters state
network of researchers
By CECILIA PARSONS
For the Capital Press
Cecilia Parsons/For the Capital Press
Standing in front of the newly dedicated Alex
A. Ardans laboratory in Tulare, Calif., are, from
left, Dr. John Adaska, branch chief of the Tulare
facility; Michael Larimore, dean of the UC-Da-
vis School of Veterinary Medicine; Dr. Alex
Ardans; and CDFA Secretary Karen Ross.
Rapid detection and response
to disease outbreaks in livestock
and poultry is the goal of a new
diagnostic laboratory operated by
the University of California for the
state Department of Food and Ag-
riculture.
The $4.9 million state-funded
project is in Tulare, adjacent to the
UC Veterinary Medicine Teaching
and Research Center and in the cen-
ter of one of the top dairy produc-
tion counties in the nation.
The facility has the space and
capability for avian and livestock
necropsy and other studies onsite.
Livestock and poultry producers
and their veterinarians will be able
to submit samples or bring animals
to the lab for diagnosis. With early
diagnosis and detection, steps can
be taken to halt the spread of conta-
gious diseases.
Speaking at the lab dedication
on Oct. 28, State Veterinarian An-
nette Jones said protecting Cali-
fornia livestock and poultry from
catastrophic disease outbreaks,
particularly those that are foreign to
domestic animal populations, is one
of the CDFA laboratory system’s
primary functions.
“We depend on the world-class
diagnosticians at CAHFS on a daily
basis to alert us to disease and help
us understand the nature of new or
evolving diseases so that our veter-
inarians can make critical decisions
and take swift and effective action,”
she said.
The Tulare facility is one of four
labs in the California Animal Health
and Food Safety laboratory system
charged with protecting animal
health and public safety. Last year
the system accepted 33,559 submis-
sions from 2,336 veterinarians and
9,645 animal owners providing dis-
ease surveillance throughout Cali-
fornia.
The new 29,000-square-foot lab-
oratory was named in honor of the
laboratory system’s founding direc-
tor and UC professor emeritus Alex
A. Ardans, who led the statewide
diagnostic service for 21 years until
his retirement.
Ardans, who was present for the
dedication, along with CDFA Sec-
retary Karen Ross, played a major
role in restructuring and revitalizing
California’s state diagnostic labora-
tory system.
He was also instrumental in
the launch of the National Animal
Health Laboratory Network, re-
sponsible for responding to emer-
gency animal disease outbreaks
anywhere in the U.S. He received
his veterinary degree from UC-Da-
vis in 1965 and joined the faculty
there in 1969. He was named found-
ing director of the state laboratory
system in 1987.
Dr. John Adaska, branch chief,
said the facility is outfitted with
technology to allow classroom in-
struction via video. A video link
also allows for multiple, concurrent
consultations on disease outbreaks
or other livestock disease emergen-
cies.
The necropsy department has
separate handling facilities for poul-
try and livestock, security features
to ensure containment of disease,
incinerator capable of disposing one
cow per hour and bio-secure dispos-
al of all effluent. Large animal han-
dling equipment is in place to hold
live animals and move deceased an-
imals for testing.
Adaska said that when all new
equipment is in place the facility
will serve as a valuable resource
for livestock and poultry producers
in the southern San Joaquin Valley
who need quick and accurate identi-
fication of disease, including ruling
out the presence of serious conta-
gious diseases such as anthrax. The
early warning system can also pro-
tect food safety by keeping diseased
animals out of the food chain.
Adaska also pointed out that the
new branch lab would build on a
long history of successes achieved
by the statewide system. Those in-
clude diagnosing exotic Newcastle
disease among backyard chickens
in 2002, leading to a $168 million
state and federal eradication effort.
The lab system also played a ma-
jor role in limiting spread of avian
influenza in 2015 as the U.S. expe-
rienced one of the worst outbreaks
of the disease among poultry.
Construction of huanglongbing research lab on track
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
The citrus industry is on
track to open a dedicated re-
search center near the Univer-
sity of California-Riverside
next year to tackle the deadly
tree disease huanglongbing.
The project’s schedules and
financial commitments are be-
ing met and the process of ob-
taining local, state and federal
permits has gone smoothly so
far, reported the Exeter-based
California Citrus Mutual.
“We’ve got an excellent
contractor we’re working with
and we’re on track to hope-
fully get some good research
projects in there by ... this
time next year,” Citrus Mutual
public affairs director Alyssa
Houtby said.
The grower-funded Cali-
Courtesy of UC-Riverside
An artist’s rendition shows a planned new laboratory near the
University of California-Riverside that will specialize in research
into defeating the deadly citrus tree disease huanglongbing. The
project will be built with the help of $8 million in donations from the
citrus industry.
fornia Citrus Research Foun-
dation has raised $8 million to
construct a biosecurity-level
3 building near the universi-
ty, which has more than 100
years’ experience in citrus re-
search. A level-3 lab can house
the live bacterium.
The facility will enable sci-
entists to do work with plant
pathogens that previously
couldn’t be done in South-
ern California. The nearest
high-level pathogen lab is at
UC-Davis, and materials of-
ten must be sent as far away as
Texas or Florida to be tested.
Huanglongbing — which
has devastated the citrus in-
dustries in Florida, Georgia,
Louisiana, South Carolina and
Texas — has been found in 26
citrus trees in Southern Cali-
fornia neighborhoods, Hout-
by said. Huanglongbing isn’t
harmful to humans or animals
but causes discoloration of
fruit and leaves and eventually
kills the tree.
The project proceeds as
a 118-square-mile portion of
Placer County northeast of
Sacramento has been added
to the quarantine for the Asian
citrus psyllid, which can carry
huanglongbing. State officials
met with Placer County grow-
ers in March to advise them
how to protect mountain man-
darins and other citrus fruit
should the psyllid arrive.
About one-third of Cali-
fornia’s land mass is now un-
der quarantine for the psyllid,
requiring shipped fruit to be
free of leaves and debris. The
state is considering adopting a
regional quarantine structure
under which fruit moving be-
tween regions would have to
undergo a wet wash.
A committee has made fi-
nal recommendations for a
stepped-up quarantine to state
Food and Agriculture Secre-
tary Karen Ross, and changes
could be implemented with-
in the next couple of months,
Houtby said.
The industry supports im-
proving the quarantine, she
said.
“We are in full swing with
the navel harvest in the Cen-
tral Valley and there’s a lot of
fruit going up and down the
state,” she said. “There’s a lot
of opportunity for the psyllid
to spread.”
In other developments in-
volving the psyllid and huan-
glongbing:
• The state and Citrus Mu-
tual are continuing to hold
training workshops for farm
labor contractors and crew
bosses on measures to control
the spread of the psyllid.
Courtesy of California Wolf Center
Karin Vardaman, far right, of the California Wolf Center and others
attend a range rider training session in Montana last May. The Wolf
Center will host another series of meetings with ranchers in North-
ern California and Southern Oregon beginning on Nov. 11.
Workshops seek to help ranchers
avoid wolf-livestock conflicts
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
YREKA, Calif. — A wolf
recovery group that has sought
common ground with ranch-
ers is hosting another series of
workshops in Northern Cal-
ifornia and Southern Oregon
aimed at finding solutions to
wolf-livestock conflicts.
The meetings, which start
Nov. 11, will seek to merge
ranchers’ expertise about their
livestock and land with sci-
ence-based knowledge of wolf
biology and behavior, organiz-
ers say.
The workshops will be sim-
ilar to those held in April to
teach ranchers how to prevent
depredation, said Karin Varda-
man, the California Wolf Cen-
ter’s director of wolf recovery.
“We learned a lot from the
last workshop,” Vardaman said,
noting that facilitators now
have a better understanding of
the area’s landscape.
“One of the critiques we
heard ... is that California is dif-
ferent,” she said. “What we’re
doing is taking it and applying
it to the relevant landscape of
California and Oregon.”
The daylong workshops will
be led by the Working Circle
Collaborative’s Timmothy Ka-
minski, ranch manager and cow
boss Joe Englehart and wolf
specialist Carter Niemeyer,
who have a combined 70 years
of experience on wolf-livestock
interactions, according to a
meeting flier.
The three will lead discus-
sions on such topics as under-
standing gray wolves and their
behavior, recognizing areas
and conditions that pose risks
to livestock, finding ways to
improve range and livestock
production while avoiding
conflicts with wolves, and un-
derstanding depredation inves-
tigations.
The meetings are only
the latest effort at outreach to
ranchers by the Wolf Center,
which has set up a range rid-
er program with volunteers to
help livestock producers deter-
mine if there are wolves in the
area.
State and federal protections
make it illegal to kill or hunt
wolves in California, even in
the case of livestock depreda-
tion. Wolf advocates and state
officials have been promoting
nonlethal means of warding off
wolves, including using guard
dogs, motion-sensor lights,
brightly colored flags or range
riders or providing supplemen-
tal feed to livestock to keep
them away from grazing areas
when wolves are known to be
present.
Each of the workshops is 9
a.m. to 4 p.m. and no registra-
tion is necessary. Here are the
dates and locations:
• Nov. 11: Fort Jones Library, Fort
Jones, Calif.
• Nov. 12: Holiday Inn Express, Yreka,
Calif.
• Nov. 14: Holiday Inn Express,
Ashland, Ore.
• Nov. 15: Bonanza Community Center,
Bonanza, Ore.
• Nov. 16: McCloud River Mercantile
Hotel, McCloud, Calif.
• Nov. 17: Inter-Mountain Fair and
Event Center’s Heritage Room, McAr-
thur, Calif.
• Nov. 18: Plumas Sierra County Fair’s
Serpilio Hall, Quincy, Calif.
For information, email contact@
workingcircle.org.
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