Narrator

It is September, 2004. Ivan, the largest hurricane of the year, is on
route to deliver an unwanted visitor from south of our border.

Scott Isard-Penn State University

*We had identified Ivan as one that had high potential to move spores
directly from South America into North America.*

Narrator

Scott Isard is Penn State University's professor of aerobiology -- --
the study of how organisms and biological particles are dispersed
through air.

For two years before Hurricane Ivan, Scott had followed the spread of a
plant disease new to South America -- Asian Soybean Rust. This fungus
destroys valuable soybean crops. But up to 2004, it had never entered
the continental United States. He and others developed a computer model
that could predict if the disease would enter America, if carried by a
storm like Ivan.

Kitty Cardwell-CSREES

*The states were getting their state plans ready of how they were going
to respond when they found it. Also, there was quite a bit of training
going on for the specialist in the field who might be the first ones to
find it.*

Narrator

The brilliance of proactive planning paid off again. After Hurricane
Ivan hit the US Gulf Coast, Ray Schneider, a plant pathologist from the
LSU AgCenter, found the first known case of Asian soybean rust in the
United States.

Kitty Cardwell

*It was definitely Red Alert. We've been planning for a year or two. We
knew it was likely to arrive.*

Narrator

Trained as a "first detector" through CSREES biosecurity funding, Ray
knew immediately what to do. He visually identified the disease as
soybean rust at this experimental plot near Baton Rouge. He took samples
and digital stills of the fungus for others to verify his finding. Then,
he contacted his colleague, Clayton Hollier, who had recently developed
Louisiana's rust detection action plan.

Clayton Hollier-Louisiana State University (phone recording)

*This is Clayton Hollier in Louisiana.* *I believe that we have soybean
rust. I never thought we would be able to say that but it looks like we
do. A sample will be leaving here today.*

Mary Palm -- APHIS-USDA

*We talked quite a bit with Ray Schneider. They sent digital images so
that we could see what they were looking at. The day we dreaded was
here.*

Narrator

As planned, the first detectors immediately sent samples to the USDA's
Systematic Botany & Mycology Lab in Beltsville, Maryland. All
indications were that Ray Schneider's sample was, indeed, infected with
Asian soybean rust.

Next, the sample was sent to another USDA-APHIS facility in Beltsville,
the National Plant Germplasm and Biotechnology Laboratory. The second
lab confirmed Mary's findings. Asian soybean rust had reached America's
shores for the first time in history.

Richard Dunkle - USDA

*This morning it is my duty to announce to you that we have confirmed a
detection of soybean rust, a fungal disease of soybeans, from two plots
associated with a Louisiana state research farm near Baton Rouge,
Louisiana.*

Kitty Cardwell

*There were eight more finds right in a row. And the incredible thing
was that it was a perfect perimeter of where Ivan had come in. It was
just an outline of where that hurricane had impacted.*

Ed Reddy -- United Soybean Board

*Hi Kitty. This is Ed***.** *I'm here with Steve Muench and David
Wright. We're calling to talk with you...*

Narrator

Ed Reddy and his colleagues from the United Soybean Board in St. Louis
had great concern that the Asian soybean rust brought in by Hurricane
Ivan would survive the winter. If it did, the rust invasion could
seriously threaten the 2005 soybean crop.

Narrator

By having a computer tracking system, soybean farmers would be able to
make informed decisions on whether or not to spray for the rust disease.
CSREES funded Scott Isard & others to build the rust tracker.

They completed in five months what normally would take 1-2 years to do.
Penn State joined forces with ZedX, a private sector technology company
to help meet the deadline

**Kitty Cardwell**

*It saves a lot of money because putting on sprays is costly. It's in
the hundreds of millions of dollars in savings in just the sprays alone,
and it's good for the environment because we're not putting more
fungicides into the water and into the air. It's better for us all.*

Narrator

This effective disease forecasting has introduced new ways of looking at
integrated pest management.

Kitty Cardwell

*It's a paradigm shift -- this using of the Web and information
technology -- It's the new wave of how we do this.*