News Stories - Page 229

For children, there’s hardly a downside to the holidays; toys, treats and time away from school are enough to bring on dreams of sugarplums. For adults, the holidays can conjure a string of mental to-do lists and tension that make those sugarplums feel more like a sugar crash.

The current highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5 outbreak in the United States is a concern for the commercial poultry industry, not the general population, says a University of Georgia poultry expert. Humans won’t be infected with avian influenza by eating chicken or other poultry products. Nearly all previous cases of human infections with other avian influenza viruses involved close, direct contact with infected poultry, but little to no direct transmission from person to person. While the HPAI H5 virus has caused some severe devastation for the U.S. commercial poultry industry, there have been no reports of infections in humans, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) considers the risk to people from this virus to be low.

Whether it’s a specialty sweet treat, small-batch pork sausage or pimento cheese made from Grandma’s secret recipe, the University of Georgia’s Flavor of Georgia Food Product Contest shines the spotlight on the state’s craft foods. Registration for the 2016 Flavor of Georgia contest, which is conducted each year by the UGA Center for Agribusiness and Economic Development, is now open.

The key to feeding the world’s growing population this century will be to empower the 2.5 billion people, worldwide, who depend on small farms for their food and livelihood. That answer comes from Sanjaya Rajaram, winner of the 2014 World Food Prize, who spoke to University of Georgia community members gathered at the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences' annual D.W. Brooks Lecture on Nov. 10.

Norman Borlaug,1970 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and one of the leaders the Green Revolution dedicated his career to help ending food scarcity around the world. This fall four agricultural scientists from Africa and Asia are taking up that mantle and continuing his work as part of the Borlaug Higher Education for Agricultural Research and Development (BHEARD) Program at the University of Georgia.

To give an accurate identification of a mushroom, University of Georgia plant pathologist Jean Williams-Woodward needs to examine a sample in her laboratory. Identifying mushrooms is not an easy task, and incorrectly identifying one can lead to deadly results.

Georgia peanut farmers can’t control rainfall or the recent deluge the state received over the last week. They can, however, control how much water they apply to their crops through irrigation. A University of Georgia researcher believes applying too much water to peanuts can invite diseases and reduce yields.

In a recent study funded by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, University of Georgia researchers found that produce containing bacteria are likely to contaminate other produce items through the continued use of knives or graters — the bacteria latches onto the utensils commonly found in consumers’ homes and spreads to the next item.

University of Georgia Cooperative Extension’s Walk Georgia program will host a Fall 5k and Family Fun Day on November 14 in partnership with Elijah Clark State Park, located about 30 miles northwest of Augusta on Clarks Hill Lake near Lincolnton.