| April 2006 |
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In company with Gandhi, Bono, and Thurgood Marshall
Composting dead...what?
Can you even imagine what to do with poultry dead from avian flu? Especially since finding one chicken infected means killing the entire flock of, sometimes, tens of thousands of birds. Keeping the infected carcasses from transmitting the disease is crucial. And disposing of the carcasses through burning, burying, or discarding in a landfill is either too costly or creates an ecological or health hazard. Nathaniel Tablante and colleagues have tested a disposal method that occurred to them during Virginia�s avian flu epidemic in 2002: creating fertilizer-grade compost from bird carcasses, chicken litter, and sawdust. The 140-degree temperature generated by the compost, says the specialist in poultry health with the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, effectively kills off the flu virus. Composting dead poultry represents a good example of how the wastes of one resource user become a resource�fertilizer�for other resource users. Tablante and a University of Delaware colleague, recently featured in the Washington Post, are now traveling around the country talking up the benefits of poultry composting.Sushi wrappers and nutrient runoff: can they possibly have anything in common?Amazingly, yes. According to Dan Terlizzi, sushi wrappers�or the seaweed they�re made of�could sometime soon prove to be a cost-effective way of removing excess nitrogen from the Chesapeake Bay. �Worldwide,� says Terlizzi, a water quality specialist for Maryland�s Sea Grant Extension Program, �the culture of seaweed represents about one quarter of the total annual value of aquaculture products.� To grow, seaweed needs nitrogen. And nitrogen is what the bay has an overabundance of: because of nutrient runoff from industry, farms, and residential development. Nitrogen is also a byproduct of fish farming: ammonia, containing nitrogen, being the major waste of fish. Depending on the type of seaweed, says Terlizzi from his lab at the Center for Marine Biotechnology in Baltimore, �it can be harvested and turned into nori, or sushi wrappers.� Or used in making toothpaste, cosmetics, laxatives, and agar, a thickener in jellies and a stabilizer in ice cream. Provided more U.S. commercial applications can be found for seaweed, growing the aquatic plant as a remediation strategy will represent one more instance of how the wastes of one resource user can become a resource for another resource user. Thwarting those who care too much�about your identity
Helping smallholders in Sub-Saharan AfricaRivera has just returned from Uganda where he interviewed scores of people, from government officials to the farmers themselves. He�ll also travel to Ghana and Senegal. Studies of the other 4 countries he�s contracting out to colleagues. �Smallholders,� he says, �need to be taught to see agriculture as a business so they can meet the challenges of contemporary economic development.� �Though universities in Africa have improved a lot during the past 20 years,� he continues, �education is still the weak link in the knowledge triangle of research, extension, and education.� Up till now, the World Bank has devoted only 3% of its funding to the education side of the triangle. Wei's Way
The National Institutes of Health just awarded Iqbal Hamza, assistant professor in animal and avian sciences, a 5-year grant to continue his lab�s research of heme iron, the most bioavailable form of dietary iron in humans. Congratulations to Dr. Hamza for his work in the important area of nutritional strategies to ameliorate iron deficiency anemia, which the World Health Organization lists as one of the top 10 health risk factors in both developing and developed nations. I�m also happy to report that the Maryland Grape Growers Association presented Joe Fiola with their �Veraison Award� for outstanding contributions to viticulture and the association. Joe is a specialist in viticulture and small fruit at the Western Maryland Research and Education Center in Keedysville. Last but not least, take time out to enjoy some more excellent media coverage of the college. Ellen Ternes wrote a wonderful feature article about AGNR and its history for the Winter 2006 edition of TERP Magazine. Take a minute and download the pdf. If you're curious about who takes care of the animals on the campus farm, read the Washington Post article about Lindsay Callahan, coordinator of animal care for animal and avian sciences. |
In a recent 
None of us wants our 15 minutes of
fame to be the result of identity theft. To this end, University of
Maryland Cooperative Extension educators Joanne Hamilton, 
I�m
pleased to report that the college continues to take a national
leadership role. The American Association of Family and Consumer
Sciences board of directors recently chose The College of Agriculture and Natural Resources� three units�Academic Programs, the Agricultural Experiment Station, and Maryland Cooperative Extension�work in concert to educate students and citizens about critical issues and to solve problems in agriculture, food systems, and the environment. The college is an equal opportunity employer and provides equal access programs.
