By Luke Teuscher, Gibson City, Ill.

Digital imagery is providing a faster and cheaper way for laboratories to diagnose crop problems and treatment.

The Plant Disease and Insect Diagnostic Laboratory at Oklahoma State University is one of the nation’s first networked diagnostic labs to help detect potential bioterrorism threats through insect and plant diseases.
Created in 1998, OSU’s digital diagnostics program has changed in response to terrorist attacks on American soil.

“Currently, no pests in Oklahoma are considered a bioterrorism threat,” said Brian Olson, OSU plant disease diagnostician.

The U.S. government invited a network of universities to participate in a new program designed to protect the agricultural commodities Americans depend on for food, said Russell Wright, head of the OSU Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology.

“We will be prepared to detect an unknown agent that was intentionally introduced, whether it is an insect or plant disease,” said Richard Grantham, insect diagnostician and director of the Plant Disease and Insect Diagnostic Laboratory.
The government established five regions to compose the National Plant Diagnostic Network. The Great Plains region includes Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and northern Texas.
Oklahoma is part of the Great Plains Diagnostic Network. Kansas State University serves as the headquarters for the nine-state region.

Wright said by combining the resources available at each lab, diagnosticians could cut costs and divide the workload among each program in the region.

When farmers and ranchers had questions about insects in the past, they sent an actual sample of the specimen in question to a research facility, like OSU, and waited several days for a response. With distance diagnostics, however, farmers can photograph or scan the specimen or take it to a county extension office where the picture is sent via the Internet.
“The best thing about the system is the improved efficiency and speed of response,” said Wright. “Before, a person might have to send the sample in by mail, and we would have to identify it and get back to the person.”
 
With this new technology in place, the lab can identify what kind of insect or plant disease a farmer or rancher has without having a physical specimen in the lab or looking at a crop in the field.

“It expedites the process by providing instant feedback,” said Mick Jones, Lincoln County extension educator.
Wright said this technology saves time and money for the universities involved.

This way, the farmer or rancher with the problem receives information more quickly.

“Now they can send an image in and we can have an answer back in minutes rather than days if we have all of the information,” said Wright.
Distance diagnostics can also serve as an early warning system against potential sources of bioterrorism.

If an insect pest or plant disease was introduced into the United States and control was not established in the early stages, the effects could be devastating to the U.S. food supply, said Wright.
 

To protect crops that provide grain for livestock and humans, this new approach to establish early detection and response was created. The goal of this new idea was identification and quick release of information regarding control, said Wright.

“We give them the symptoms we have, and they e-mail us an answer. They sometimes follow up with a phone call if needed,” said Jones.

One might think the use of digital diagnostics would be costly, but Wright said the new technology is relatively inexpensive.

“For plant disease samples we charge $10 to help pay for that diagnostic service because it costs money to run tests,” said Wright. “We do not charge for insect diagnostic services.”

The system works out of a large database of insect pictures and plant disease information. Every picture sent to the lab is kept in the database as a digital image for future use.

The lab also offers digital images the users can view to see if they can determine what the problem is with their crop, said Wright.

“The network is a communications avenue,” said Olson. “Our lab will be receiving equipment for Web-based communications with microscopes and digital imaging.”

The distance diagnostics system works because anyone can send a picture of an insect or crop to the lab for identification. Pictures of the insect or crop damage can be scanned into a computer and sent to the lab through the lab Web site.

Areas of information available to the user on the Web site include the plant host, insect and arthropod identification, as well as plant diseases and field area.

According to the lab’s Web site, the primary mission of the laboratory is to provide residents in the state of Oklahoma with accurate diagnoses of plant diseases and insect pests and to make recommendations for their control.

For more information about distance diagnostics and its uses, call (405) 744-9417, or visit the Web site at http://entoplp.okstate.edu.
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