Award Data

The use of sub-therapeutic concentrations of anti-microbial agents in animal feed has contributed to theproductivity of the U.S. meat and dairy industries by preventing infectious diseases, by decreasing theamount of feed required and by increasing the rate of animal weight gain. However, failure to observerecommended practices of drug withdrawal can result in concentrations of antibiotic residue ...

The ready-to-assemble (RTA) construction system is a new method for assembling wood structuresbuilt from the following engineered wood products: parallel strand lumber (PSL), laminated strandlumber (LSL), and laminated veneer lumber (LVL). The RTA system is designed for rapid assemblyby small crews of unskilled labor using common hand tools. The design of the RTA systemincorporates engineered w ...

Equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) is a retrovirus that causes a chronic infection in horses. In theabsence of a vaccine, the control of this disease depends on the diagnosis and elimination of infectedhorses. Currently approved diagnostic procedures utilize agar gel diffusion (AGID), or enzyme-linkedimmunosorbant (ELISA) methodologies to detect antibodies against the virus in horse sera as e ...

Water quality and soil erosion are high priority issues for U.S. agriculture. In more humid areas of theU.S., vegetation filter strips have proven to be an effective method of reducing erosion and improvingwater quality. Filter strips are less effective in the West due to sparser vegetation and more variablerainfall. In addition, establishment of vegetation is more difficult in many western wat ...

Simulation models that replicate the dynamics of rural growth and decline would provide aninvaluable analytical tool for rural leaders, program administrators, educators and communityprofessionals. A Rural Community Modeler (RCM) was developed in a previous Phase I effortusing the system dynamics methodology to interrelate social, educational, economic,demographic, environmental and agricultural ...

Insect pests are annually responsible for multi-million dollar grain losses. A promising detectionsystem is the ARS-developed Acoustic Location Fingerprinting Insect Detector (ALFID) which countsinsects in a grain sample by pinpointing sounds from individual adult and larval (potentially the mostdestructive in wheat) stages. The low-cost piezo-electric microphones currently used are sufficiently ...

A major problem in the hardwood lumber industry is the loss of production as the result of theformation of splits, checks, or ring failure during kiln drying. A primary cause of these drying defectsis the degradation of the green lumber as a result of bacterial infection. The optimum drying scheduleis dependent on the initial quality of the green lumber. Unfortunately, it is currently not possi ...

The infestation of crawling insect vermin can cause severe economic losses in citrus and other fruit and nut trees, nursery stock and ornamentals. The red imported fire ants (RIFA) in particular are responsible for damage and death of young citrus tree in the major U.S. citrus growing regions. RIFA freed on bark and cambium to obtain sap, girdling and often killing trees. Fire ants and other ants ...

Commercial livestock, as a group, are attacked by a complex of arthropod ectoparasites. The dairyindustry is no exception. Two species of filth fly pests that occur on this commodity group are houseflies and stable flies. Stable flies are fierce biters and have been shown to reduce milk production 40-60%. House flies are public health nuisances that can transmit a variety of diseases to humans ...

Jewelweed has a long history of medicinal use in treatment of poison ivy and other itchingconditions. There is evidence that jewelweed is as effective as currently available systemicsteroids, and that it causes fewer side effects.Commercial development of jewelweed-based skin care products, however, is limited byjewelweed's inconsistent results when applied to affected skin. The inconsistency ap ...