A team of researchers led by experts from the Department of Entomology in the Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences are utilizing emerging genetic technology to create a next-generation surveillance method to protect the U.S. pork industry from African swine fever virus, ASFV.
The four-year, $800,000 grant project is funded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
Gabriel Hamer, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Entomology, is leading the team that includes, Pete Teel, Ph.D., AgriLife Research entomologist and Regents Professor, also in the department, and Job Lopez, Ph.D., associate professor from the Baylor College of Medicine, as well as scientists at the National Agricultural Research Organization and Makerere University, both in Uganda.
Hamer said the team’s goal is to advance tools that quantify contact between domestic swine and soft-bodied ticks that are known vectors of ASFV. The overarching mission of the project is to prevent ASFV from establishing itself in the U.S.
Read the full story at Texas A&M Agrilife Today.
[Source: Texas A&M Agrilife Today 1 August 2024 by Adam Russell]