Steady Growth in Challenging Times

College of Agriculture fulfills role in food supply chain during COVID-19 pandemic

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As the specter of a worldwide pandemic continued to grow this past spring, so did the importance of the land-grant institution’s role in providing an abundant and safe food supply to a nation and world in crisis.

In Auburn’s College of Agriculture and Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station (AAES), faculty, staff and students recognized early on that their core mission must continue in the face of unprecedented challenges.

“We made the decision to keep all experimental operations going forward during the period of adjusted operation,” said Dr. Paul Patterson, dean of the College of Agriculture and director of the AAES. “Failing to proceed with our experimental work would result in the loss of one year’s worth of experimental data and a failure to perform on contracted research work.”

“We are grateful to our faculty, staff, students and other personnel for their flexibility and creativity during this challenging time. It is truly a display of the Auburn spirit.”

- Dr. Henry Fadamiro

Fortunately, critical research activities and agricultural operations were allowed under Alabama’s initial “stay-at-home” order. Critical research includes sponsored research supported by a grant or contract, ongoing research that requires multiple years of data collection, or research with living organisms that require regular maintenance or care.

“The challenge of protecting our food systems and food supply chain are only more real during this difficult time, and we have not wavered in our efforts to address the needs of our stakeholders,” said Dr. Henry Fadamiro, associate dean for research for the College of Agriculture and associate director of the AAES.

One core mission of a land-grant university and experiment station is to conduct cutting-edge research to provide solutions to grand challenges including food insecurity, human health and the environment, Fadamiro said.

“Researchers in our life science programs study living organisms such as plants, animal, microorganisms and cell lines in the laboratory and field. These living organisms do not take time off and require constant management.

“But we recognized the need to protect the health of our Auburn Family and the public, and we made some adjustments to our operations, including provisions for faculty, staff, graduate students and other research personnel to continue their research endeavors with minimal disruption,” he said.

“They have come in at off-peak hours to collect data or maintain animals or plants and then go home and continue to work for the betterment of the citizens of Alabama and the country,” Fadamiro said. “We are grateful to our faculty, staff, students and other personnel for their flexibility and creativity during this challenging time. It is truly a display of the Auburn spirit.”

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Experimental trials continue

For the 15 AAES research centers located strategically throughout the state, spring can be the busiest time of the year because that’s when hundreds of field experiments are installed by research scientists.

The spring of 2020 was no different, except for the many extra precautions taken to ensure everyone’s safety, said Greg Pate, director of research operations for the AAES.

“We performed all normal operations to install all of our experiments,” Pate said. “We normally carry approximately between 700 and 800 trials across all of our centers including field crops, plant breeding, horticulture, beef cattle and biosystems engineering.

“During the initial stages of the pandemic, we limited interaction so that employees stayed on their respective units and maintained personal distances within units. Tours and station events such as grower meetings were canceled until further notice.”

Pate said research centers have continued to work at normal capacity.

“College of Agriculture administrators meet with the research center directors via Zoom video conference biweekly to check on health status and needs,” he said.

No disruptions in animal food chain

In the Department of Animal Sciences, faculty, staff and students made necessary transitions in the areas of animal care as well as animal harvest for those scheduled to enter the food chain, said Dr. Wayne Greene, professor and head of the department. “Our farm crews have worked tirelessly during this pandemic to ensure that they were cross-trained and had adequate student workers available, while maintaining social distancing to take care of our animals for teaching, research and Extension,” Greene said.

The department continues to be AAALAC accredited and must follow the guidelines set forth by the organization for quality animal care, he said. AAALAC International is a private, nonprofit organization that promotes the humane treatment of animals in science through voluntary accreditation and assessment programs.

“As animals grow and reach maturity, they must continue entering the food chain, and our meats laboratory personnel have worked tirelessly while maintaining social distancing to make this part of our program continue uninterrupted,” Greene said. “Our animal-related teaching laboratories have continued to operate by the use of video and other creative ways in the distance education protocols we have been experiencing during this pandemic.”

A research team stands outside
Dr. Dianna Bourassa

Dr. Dianna Bourassa

Focus on poultry production chain

Ensuring a safe food supply requires that research activities be spread across the entire poultry production chain, from live animals through processing and finally to the consumer.

Dr. Ken Macklin, professor and Extension specialist in the poultry science department, has been conducting research with broilers to evaluate litter treatments over three trials on salmonella persistency within a poultry house over time. The third trial was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition, Macklin’s research group also has been collaborating with Dr. Rishi Prasad, assistant professor and Extension specialist in the Department of Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences, and USDA-ARS scientists on using gypsum mixed with pine shavings to assess the impact of litter quality in broiler production along with the nutritive value of the resulting litter.

several chickens walk around

Poultry scientists also continue research to gain a better understanding of coccidiosis — a sometimes deadly intestinal disease of chickens. Assistant Professor Dr. Ruediger Hauck has tested samples from a variety of poultry flocks for the presence of coccidiosis in intestinal tissue.

In addition, interactions between coccidiosis and bacteria were investigated to lay the groundwork for developing and evaluating pre-and probiotic feed additives to alleviate the damage done by the disease.

Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist Dr. Dianna Bourassa has been investigating the potential for the transmission of salmonella on dust generated from poultry litter. Identifying the level of risk associated with dust-borne salmonella will denote the importance of implementing strategies to minimize the presence of dust within chicken grow-out houses.

Bourassa’s lab also is working to enhance food safety by improving the effectiveness of peroxyacetic acid for reducing the levels of campylobacter on raw chicken products. Campylobacter is the most common bacterial cause of diarrheal illness in the United States and is transmitted to humans from animals or animal products.

Fresh food production a priority

Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the vital daily nutritional need of Alabamians for healthy and safe fresh fruits and vegetables has remained unchanged.

Undeterred by the crisis, Auburn horticulture researchers have carefully and painstakingly continued efforts to address the needs of Alabama’s commercial fruit and vegetable industry.

“Our researchers evaluate everything from traditional crops and growing practices to new crops and state-of-the-art, cutting-edge technologies,” said Dr. Desmond Layne, head and professor of the Department of Horticulture.

“Some of the numerous fruit, nut and vegetable crops that we are actively researching include apple, blackberry, blueberry, cantaloupe, citrus, grape (muscadine, bunch, wine), honeydew melon, kiwifruit, lettuce, peach, pear, pecan, strawberry, tomato, turmeric and watermelon,” he said. Current research projects are determining climatic adaptability, pest/disease tolerance, flavor/nutritional quality, yield and potential for sustainable/organic production systems, Layne said.

“New, indoor aquaponics systems that combine the production of tilapia fish and lettuce, tomato, and other vegetables look at the combined production of both protein (fish) and vegetable for year-round food production,” he said.

Auburn horticulturists, driven by the land-grant mission, are laser-focused on developing and improving resilient, intensive and safe local food production systems to benefit Alabamians during this pandemic and beyond.

Food crops sustain global population

Scientists in the Department of Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences were able to continue conducting research in important food crops such as peanuts, corn, wheat and soybeans, all of which provide the proteins and carbohydrates necessary to feed and sustain a global population.

“One of the greatest sources of a plant-based protein is peanut, and in the College of Agriculture, peanut research includes breeding and genetics for improved cultivars and protection from pests such as insects, diseases and weeds, as well as soil fertility and plant nutrition,” said Dr. John Beasley, head of the Department of Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences.

Dr. Charles Chen leads the efforts in the breeding and genetics of new peanut cultivars that are higher yielding due to improved levels of resistance to pests, especially viruses and fungi. His research efforts also address improved water-use efficiency through increased drought tolerance.

Despite the interruption of many day-to-day activities in the spring and summer because of COVID-19, critical research that directly relates to food security continued, Beasley said.

“Our scientists were able to continue their research in plant breeding and genetics, crop physiology, agronomics, water quality, soil fertility, plant nutrition and the other associated soil sciences during a difficult time in the state of Alabama and our nation,” he said.

On the front line of COVID-19 management

When Dr. Robert Norton, professor of veterinary infectious diseases in the Department of Poultry Science, became a member of a Department of Defense Working Group in early February 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic was just beginning to gain a significant foothold in the United States.

The purpose of the working group was to develop protective strategies for individuals who had not been infected by SARS-CoV-2 virus. Early in this effort, massive amounts of public health data were collected and analyzed.

“Rather than focusing on models, which continuously had to be modified because of new data, the group focused on overall trends,” Norton said. “By the first week in March, the group shared the first of the analytical conclusions with Department of Defense decision-makers. This data indicated that the disease was primarily caused through respiratory infection.”

It also indicated that “fomite”-related infections were rare and didn’t contribute significantly to the overall pandemic. Fomites are inanimate objects and surfaces that can become contaminated with pathogens, enabling the spread of disease. These conclusions contrasted significantly with those of other research groups, including those in the federal government, which later recognized that COVID-19 was, indeed, primarily respiratory in origin.

“These findings were also shared with agribusiness and the food processing industry, which has been severely disrupted by COVID-19, causing meat processing plant shutdowns and meat shortages,” Norton said.

Norton was co-developer of a “Clean Air Strategy” and is a co-author on a soon-to-be-published research and policy paper, “A Multi-Layered Air Defense Model to Protect Shared Air in Critical Infrastructure Sectors,” which will be jointly published by the U.S. Air Force and the McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security, the first such jointly published paper.

The Clean Air Strategy utilizes a multilayered approach to lower viral particle numbers in the air, using filtration, “pathogen-scavenging” and maximized air flow (i.e. air exchanges) in confined work spaces, transportation systems and critical infrastructures, including agriculture and food processing.

The article will be followed by an additional series of four research papers which will specifically focus on food processing and the impact of COVID-19, as well as provide solutions that will help prevent future disruptions in the food supply.

A worker in a mask looks at a tablet.