Betterbee must obtain U.S. Environment Protection Agency approval before selling the product to beekeepers. They would simply place a small, sliced-open plastic bag of the gel inside a beehive. The formic acid slowly evaporates, leaving a harmless residue. Twenty-one U.S. and Canadian universities and other organizations aim to expand the global reach of AgNIC, the Agriculture Network Information Center, on the World Wide Web. It could help people around the world find reliable, fast sources of agricultural informationespecially during drought or other natural disaster.
AgNIC members plan to continue expanding the subject-area coverage and attract new members.
A new genetic test quickly distinguishes a damaging pig virus from a harmless strain of the same virus used in a vaccine. The virus causes PRRSporcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome. PRRS is one of the world's most costly swine diseases. It causes late-term fetal deaths, abortions, weakness in newborn pigs, and severe respiratory disease in young pigs. When an outbreak occurs, lab diagnosticians have difficulty differentiating disease-causing field strains from the vaccine strain.