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CapitalPress.com
August 7, 2015
Washington
West Nile virus cases come early in Washington
Disease strikes 6 horses before July ended
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Six horses in Washington
have been infected by West
Nile virus in the past 10 days,
already surpassing the num-
ber of equine cases in all of
2014, according to the Wash-
ington State Department of
Agriculture.
The virus is appearing
in horses earlier than last
year, when the first of five
cases was confirmed Aug.
19, WSDA spokesman Mike
Louisell said Friday. The first
case in 2013 was confirmed
in late September.
Horses contract the disease
from mosquitoes that have fed
on infected birds. “Look at the
hot weather we’ve been hav-
ing. That’s no doubt spurred
mosquitoes,” Louisell said.
The virus is most common
in south-central Washington,
though it has infected horses
and humans in other regions
of the state.
So far this year, the state
Department of Health reports
five human cases, including
four in Benton County, where
two horses have been infected.
The fifth person sickened
by the virus lives in King
County in Western Washing-
ton, but was likely infected
in Adams County in Eastern
Washington, according to the
health department.
WSDA previously report-
ed that a gelding in Kenne-
wick in Benton County was
confirmed July 21 to have the
virus. The horse survived, and
it continues to improve, ac-
cording to WSDA.
Since then, five more cases
have been confirmed. The six
cases are the most in Wash-
ington since 2009, when the
virus infected 78 horses, by far
the worst outbreak ever in the
state. Equine cases have been
relatively rare in the past sev-
eral years, with two cases con-
firmed in 2013, one in 2012
and none in 2011 and 2012.
The cases so far this year
include:
• A 2-year-old Andalusian
stud colt in Harrah in Yakima
County. The horse’s condition
is improving.
• A 4-year-old Andalusian
stud in Kennewick was euth-
anized.
• A 3-year-old Quarter
horse gelding in Mesa in
Franklin County died.
• A 9-year-old Appaloo-
sa mare in Othello in Adams
County. The horse appears to
be recovering.
Anti-aphid wheat research shows opportunities
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
An effort to develop wheat
that wards off aphids didn’t
succeed but researchers in En-
gland say the work could open
the door to other hybrids of
wheat that repel pests without
the use of pesticides.
When aphids are attacked
or stressed, they produce
an alarm pheromone, E-be-
ta-farnesene, which is known
by the initials EBF. When
EBF is released it causes
aphids to disperse, said Huw
Jones, a professor at the cere-
al transformation laboratory
at Rothamsted Research in
Harpendon, Hertfordshire in
England.
Jones’ team tried to genet-
ically engineer wheat plants
to make the compound, repel
aphids and attract aphids’ nat-
ural enemies.
“If it had worked as
planned, it would give farmers
a choice whether to continue
using conventional insecti-
cides or to sow a crop variety
that would repel aphids but
keep them alive to maintain
the populations of natural en-
emies,” Jones said in an email
to the Capital Press.
Some parts of the project
Eric Mortenson/Capital Press file
Wheat grows in this file photo taken in 2014. Scientists in England
developed a genetically modified wheat aimed at controlling aphids
without the use of pesticides.
worked well, Jones said, not-
ing that it’s the first time wheat
plants have been genetically
engineered to emit the alarm
pheromone. Lab experiments
demonstrated that the plants
successfully repelled aphids
and attracted parasitic wasps
that lay their eggs in the insect
pests and kill them.
However, in 2012 and 2013
field trials, Jones’ team didn’t
observe any statistically sig-
nificant behaviors in aphids or
parasitic wasps.
Jones said the aphid alarm
response is normally triggered
by a sudden burst of EBF, but
the genetically modified plants
made the pheromone contin-
ually, which may have had a
saturating effect.
“Like you can smell a new-
ly applied perfume but cannot
notice it after a while,” Jones
said.
The project has ended, but
Jones is seeking funding to in-
vestigate the amount and tim-
ing of EBF emissions.
“We are aware of wheat
genes that are switched on
when aphids colonize and start
to feed,” he said. “We are in-
terested in isolating these gene
switches and using them to
drive the expression of the en-
zymes needed to make EBF.”
The research would be
applicable to any area where
aphids are a pest, Jones said.
Arron Carter, winter wheat
breeder at Washington State
University, said it’s just a
matter of getting funding and
having someone interested in
doing the research.
He said aphids are not a
high impact concern, but a
research project would be of
general help. Wireworm, an-
other wheat pest, could be con-
trolled by a similar technique,
he said.
Spring wheat is typically
hit by aphids more than win-
ter wheat. Early infections of
aphids usually transmit barley
yellow dwarf virus to winter
wheat, Carter said.
But the biggest stumbling
block is customers’ opposition
to genetically modified wheat,
Carter said.
“Until our markets accept
GMO, we won’t see any of it
here in the PNW,” he said.
Jones believes non-lethal,
behavioral approaches to pest
control have “great potential.”
State funding moves Connell rail project forward
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Railroad congestion near
Connell, Wash., that slows
the shipment of agricultural
crops and supplies is closer to
a solution, thanks to $10 mil-
lion from the state legislature,
project supporters say.
Washington legislators re-
cently approved the funding in
the 2015-2017 Transportation
Revenue package.
The funding will be di-
vided into $5 million in each
of the 2015-2017 and 2017-
2019 bienniums.
The project will help the
regional delivery of goods
from farm to market, said
Jed Crowther, Connell city
administrator.
The rail traffic “pinchpoint”
occurs where the Columbia
Basin Railroad line intersects
with the BNSF Railway main-
line between Spokane and Pas-
co, Wash. The interchange will
be moved roughly 1.5 miles
south of its current location.
Rail traffic has increased
from 5,000 to roughly 12,000
cars per year, Crowther said.
Future freight traffic could
increase dramatically, said Pat
Boss, consultant for the Co-
lumbia Basin Railroad.
About $2 billion in agri-
cultural products are shipped
annually through the region by
rail. Boss said affected cargo is
roughly 50 percent agricultural
freight, including grain, frozen
vegetables and canola.
A planning study for pre-
liminary design is underway.
Crowther said it’s still early to
determine final costs. Boss said
there may be additional federal
funding, but said the $10 million
adds “a huge bit of credibility.”
Crowther expects the proj-
ect to be finished in three to
four years. He expects “a sig-
nificant push” to coordinate
with BNSF’s efforts to dou-
ble-track its mainline between
Spokane and Pasco.
Projects to address railroad
congestion in Warden and Mo-
ses Lake received $2 million
and $21 million, respectively,
Boss said. Those projects may
result in more traffic through
Connell, Boss said.
• A 3-year-old Azteca male
in Mabton in Yakima County.
The horse appears to be re-
covering.
Idaho confirmed July 23
that a horse in Washington
County was infected this year,
the state’s only case this year.
The California West Nile
Virus website, jointly run by
several government agencies,
does not report equine cases.
California’s surveillance sys-
tem includes chickens set out to
detect mosquito-borne illness-
es. So far, 45 chickens have
been sickened in nine counties,
including the Northern Califor-
nia counties of Shasta, Butte,
Glenn, Sutter, Yuba and Placer.
Oregon has not confirmed
any equine cases this year,
state Department of Agricul-
ture spokesman Bruce Pokar-
ney said Friday.
The West Nile virus ap-
peared in the United States
in 1999. The disease sickens
people, horses, birds and other
animals, but it does not spread
from horses to people or oth-
er animals. Most horses that
contract the virus show no ill
symptoms. About one-third of
the horses with symptoms die.
WSDA recommends hors-
es be vaccinated against the
virus and that owners take
steps to protect their horses
from mosquitoes.
ID’ing grapevine
fungus may help
fight disease
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
PULLMAN, Wash. —
Washington State University
researchers believe they have
taken a step forward in com-
bating grapevine trunk dis-
ease in Washington vineyards.
Scientists said they have
documented seven fungal
species that cause cankers in
grapevines, more than previ-
ously known, and that know-
ing them and their varying
biology and dispersal will
allow better, customized
management.
The work was done by
Leslie Holland who com-
pleted her master’s degree in
plant pathology in June. She
worked under the guidance
of Dean Glawe, a WSU plant
pathology professor who re-
tired in June, and Gary Grove,
director of the WSU Irrigated
Agriculture Research and Ex-
tension Center in Prosser.
Building upon research
by Glawe, Holland conduct-
ed a statewide survey to
gauge how common grape-
vine trunk diseases are. Fun-
gi infect trunks or cordons
through pruning wounds,
resulting in cankers that en-
large over time and ultimate-
ly kill the plant.
Glawe linked grapevine
trunk disease to the fungus
Eutypa armeniacae in the
1970s when looking at Con-
cord grapes. Wine grapes
were not widely grown in
Washington then. Holland ex-
panded the research to wine
grapes.
Holland analyzed diseased
wood and identified can-
ker-causing fungi based on
morphological features and
gene sequencing. Not only
did she discover more fungal
species could cause cankers
in Washington than was pre-
viously known, but she also
saw a correlation between
vineyard age and symptom
incidence.
She found the highest in-
cidence of trunk disease in
a vineyard with 33 percent
of its vines showing symp-
toms. This was also the old-
est vineyard sampled, with
plants from 40 to 42 years
old. The trend continued as
she crunched the numbers.
“Washington is at an ad-
vantage because the wine
industry is young, with most
vineyards planted from 10 to
30 years ago, and we have
had scientists involved since
the beginning,” Glawe said.
“The predictive value of Les-
lie’s research is substantial, as
we are just beginning to see
trunk disease become a bigger
problem.”
Holland plans to contin-
ue studying canker fungi on
other perennial crops when
she begins a Ph.D. program at
the University of California-
Davis
in
September.
Through sequence analy-
ses, she found that fungal
isolates in Washington are
similar to fungal isolates in
other grape-growing regions
of the world, including
California, Portugal and
Australia.
WSU photo
Fungal growth on discolored, cankered wood samples.
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