S1060: Fly Management in Animal Agriculture Systems and Impacts on Animal Health and Food Safety

(Multistate Research Project)

Status: Inactive/Terminating

Project Menu

SAES-422 Reports

Annual/Termination Reports:

[03/05/2014] [04/16/2015] [03/15/2016] [03/10/2017] [03/10/2017] [04/24/2018]

Date of Annual Report: 03/05/2014

Report Information

Annual Meeting Dates: 01/14/2014 - 01/16/2014
Period the Report Covers: 10/01/2013 - 09/01/2014

Participants

"Gerry, Alec (alec.gerry@ucr.edy) - University of California, Riverside;" "Boxler, Dave (dboxler@unl.edu) - UNL, North Platte, NE;" "Brewer, Gary (gbrewer2@unl.edu) - University of Nebraska;" "Swiger, Sonja (slswiger@ag.tamu.edu) - Texas A&M Agrilife Extension;" "Watson, Wes (wes_watson@ncsu.edu) - North Carolina State University;" "Stoffolano, John (stoff@ent.umass.edu) - University of Massachusetts;" "Geden, Chris (Chris.Gedden@ARS.USDA.GOV) - USDA, Gainesville, FL;" "Kaufman, Phil (pkaufman@ufl.edu) - University of Florida;" "Machtinger, Erika (emachtinger@ufl.edu) - University of Florida;" "Rutz, Don (dar11@cornell.edu) - Cornell University;" "Hinkle, Nancy (nhinkle@uga.edu) - University of Georgia;" "Warner, Bill (wwarner@central.com) - Central Garden and Pet;" "Healy, Kristin (KHealy@agcenter.lsu.edu) - Louisiana State University;" "Roeder, Rick (rroeder@uark.edu) - University of Arkansas;" "Weeks, Emma (eniweeks@ufl.edu) - University of Florida;" "Moon, Roger (rdmoon@umn.edu) - University of Minnesota;" "Friesen, Kristina (Kristina.friesen@ARS.USDA.GOV) - USDA, Lincoln, NE;" " Trout-Fryxell, Rebecca (RFryxell@utk.edu) - University of Tennessee;" "Zurek, Ludek (lzurek@Ksu.edu) - Kansas State University;" "Loftin, Kelly (kloftin@uaex.edu) - University of Arkansas;" "Ferguson, Holly (hferguson@wsu.edu) - Washington State University;" "Hogsette, Jerry (Jerry.Hogsette@ARS.USDA.GOV) - USDA, Gainesville, FL;" "Wayadande, Astri (a.wayadande@okstate.edu) - Oklahoma State University;"

Brief Summary of Minutes

Opening session: Project Chair Alec Gerry called the meeting to order at 8:31 AM on January 15. Jerry Hogsette, local arrangements coordinator, provided information about the facility, registration fees, and meals/snacks. This was followed by a round of self-introductions. Dave Boxier shared the sad news of the death of Jack Campbell. Alec announced that he and Brad Mullens will organize a symposium in Jack's honor at this year's LIWC. NIFA representative Herb Bolton was unable to attend the meeting but sent a message that Alec shared with the group. This message is appended to this report in its entirety. We are encouraged to look at the newly updated National IPM roadmap in developing ideas for grant proposals. Dan Strickman, NP104 National Program Leader for ARS, was unable to attend the meeting. Rick Roeder, the administrative advisor to S1060 extended his congratulations on approval of the new project, which will run through September of 2018. In order to have the multistate project continue without interruption, a new multistate project will need to be submitted by October 1, 2017. He also reminded us that the minutes of meeting need to be submitted to him within 60 days of the meeting. After a brief break, we returned to begin discussion of progress on the project's various elements:

Objective 1. New technologies for management of biting and nuisance flies in organic and conventional systems (moderator, Wes Watson).

• Wes Watson reported that geraniol is effective at moving horn flies away from animals, and suggested that Jerry Zhu is seeing good results in this vein using catnip oil. This summer Wes will be working with heifers and try to measure the distance that the flies
are moved and whether the repellent treatments have an effect on mastitis in the herd. He will measure fly movement using mark-release-recapture methods with DayGlo powders, assisted by a fly vac.

• Dave Boxier reported on a push-pull project for stable flies on heifers in Nebraska. Treatments were 39% geraniol, prolate, permethrin, and mineral oil controls. Mineral oil and geraniol were somewhat repellent but efficacy was limited to a few hours. Dave also reported on an eartag study involving an 8% abamectin+PBO tag (Y-tex XP820) and found that the tags worked well for 14 weeks. This tag has been on the market since 2007. So far there is no evidence that the flies are developing resistance to the Al.
Finally, in lab bioassays, Dave found that the fatty acid mixture product C8910 killed >95% of the stable flies and Aedes aegypti that were exposed.

• Don Rutz opened a discussion about the state of knowledge regarding the use of landscaping plants to attract or repel pest species of flies.

• Alec Gerry introduced the product SPLAT from ISCA technologies. SPLAT ("specialized pheromone & lure application technology") is a waxy material that is used for slow release of pheromones and possibly for repellents. SPLAT formulated with a number of known repellents was evaluated in a limited trial for use on cattle against horn flies and stable flies. Residual efficacy beyond 24-48 hrs was limited due it seems to loss of the product on the animals caused by animal grooming and loafing.

• Jerry Hogsette provided an update on several projects: l )Vestergaard ZeroFly, a deltamethrin-treated screening material for use as barrier treatments and in attract and kill approaches for stable flies; 2) sugar baits containing eugenol for house flies; 3) boric acid sugar baits; 4) Suspend Polyzone, a deltamethrin product from Bayer, as an alternative to lambda-cyhalothin for treated fabric for stable fly targets; 5) the Knight Stick sticky fly trap from Bugjammer, whose foam base has a sparkly appearance that makes it more attractive to stable flies than the standard Olson trap.

• Holly Ferguson examined alternative calf hutch bedding materials (chopped straw vs. poplar sawdust) and treatments (sodium bisulfate [ParlorPal], lime, diatomateous earh,

sugar, diflubenzuron, sulfur, and ZorbiSan [Fullers earth/sulfuric acid/ quartz]) for their effects on house fly production . Diflubenzuron was the only bedding treatment that was effective in laboratory assays. In the field, sawdust bedding produced fewer flies than straw. ParlorPal was effective in some instances but the results were mixed.

• Chris Geden gave a presentation on potential effects of climate change on fly populations and their natural enemies. He proposed updating the old fly simulation model developed in Axtell's program. There was a discussion about developing a multi-institution grant proposal on the topic of flies and climate change.

• Erika Machtinger gave a presentation summarizing her PhD research to date on host location by the fly parasitoid Spalangia cameroni. This included a discussion of dispersal distance, effect of colonization on host finding, and chemical cues used in host location. S. cameroni responds most strongly to a combination of odors from the host larval habitat (soiled horse bedding) and fly larvae.

• Phil Kaufman reported on CowVac (available through Spalding Laboratories) studies on Florida dairies. The product worked quite well on horn flies and also collected large numbers of house flies and stable flies.

• Roger Moon did a comparison of the CowVac (ca. $7500) with the old-school "Bruce walk-through" trap, which costs less than $2000 to build. The CowVac was much more efficient than the Bruce trap, which only collected about 5% of the flies present.
Cleaning the screening on the CowVac probably improves fly catch, but the strong motor on the trap allows for little loss of efficiency up through 50% occlusion of the screening.

• Emma Weeks discussed recent work on efficacy of different strains of Beauveria bassiana against house flies. The GHA strain had the fastest kill rate. The HF23 strain performed poorly and had a low sporulation rate.

Objective 2. Insecticide resistance detection and management (moderator, Jeff Scott).

• Jeff Scott announced that the national survey of house fly insecticide resistance has been published. He also announced that the house fly genome has been sequenced in its entirety. Pia Olafson is currently working on the stable fly genome. Jeff then reported on recent work to understand the mechanism underlying resistance to neonicotinoids. He selected with imidacloprid to develop a strain that was 2300X resistant in females, l30x resistant in males. Resistance genes were mapped to chromosomes 3 and 4, both of which need to be present to get the full expression of resistance. The resistance was not synergized by PBO, and cross-resistance was seen to dinotefuran and acetamiprid but not to nithiazine or spinosyns. The resistance mechanism is not one of the "usual suspects". Work is on progress to identify the mRNA involved to provide a genetic test for the resistance alleles.

• Phil Kaufman reported on the first year of efforts to document levels of stable fly resistance to permethrin at different locations. Data were obtained from sites in Tennessee, Minnesota, North Carolina, and Nebraska. Preliminary results indicated low

resistance at most sites, but one of the North Carolina locations showed moderate resistance. The project will continue in the summer of 2014.

Objective 3. Investigation of the microbial ecology, epithelial immunity, and vector competence of biting and nuisance flies (moderator, Ludek Zurek).
Ludek Zurek presented reports that were submitted by Dana Nayduch and Pia Olafson, who were unable to attend the meeting:

• Dana Nayduch announced that in her new 5-year project plan she will be concentrating on house fly again. The emphasis will be on bacteria in manure that affect fly fitness, which ones colonize the fly gut, and their effect on pathogen transmission by the fly.

• Pia Olafson is concentrating on horn fly and stable fly. One aspect of the work is the immune system of the flies and how that system allows them to live in microbe-rich environments without being overrun by the microbes. There are 300-350 gene transcripts in the gut of horn fly and stable fly that are involved in innate immunity. She has found that live Salmonella organisms survive passage through the horn fly gut and appear in excreta 5-7 hours after ingestion, indicating that horn fly is both a reservoir and bioenhancer of the organism. She is also looking at stable fly peptidoglycan recognition binding proteins (PGRP's) and gram-negative binding proteins (BNBP's), especially at gene expression during different fly life stages and appetitive states. Stable fly PGRP
and BNBP's are expressed in immature development, especially in the gut. Horn fly defensins and PGRP's are expressed in immature development in the gut.

• Ludek Zurek announced that he will be playing a role in a $14 million USDA-CAP grant that will examine movement of shigatoxin-producing E. coli inthe food chain, including in manure and house flies.

• John Stoffolano reported on recent work on the fly crop, especially in relation to pathogen movement through the environment. Compared with other flies, the house fly has a very high rate of crop contraction, and spends about 23% of its life regurgitating.
Flies regurgitate much more than they defecate, allowing the movement and deposition of pathogens. Crop contraction is under the control adipokinetic hormone (stimulates contraction) and the neuropeptide DMS, which shuts it down. Contraction is also regulated by serotonin, trehalose, and glucose. Contraction of salivary glands is also under endocrine control and is highly sensitive to serotonin. Infection with salivary gland hypertrophy virus reduces the rate of contraction. Labellar glands and salivary glands both produce antimicrobials that go to the crop.

• Astri Wayadande proposed development of a model of fly-borne pathogens that would include casual contact and regurgitation modes of acquisition and transmission. Flies are not equal in their ability to acquire and drop off pathogens, and the pathogens vary as well. Blow flies are much better at acquisition than house flies, and blow flies pick up many more E. coli than Salmonella. Blow flies are also much more efficient at dropping

off these organisms than house flies. Astri proposed a group effort to get a clearer understanding of both casual and biological transmission with the additional goal of developing a model.

Objective 4. Characterize population biology of biting and nuisance flies (moderator, Kristina Friesen).

• Kristina Friesen discussed her current efforts to discover common denominators in stable fly larval development sites that account for their suitability for producing flies. She plans to continue studying the basic biology of stable fly larvae, an area that has received little study. This will include gut pH, physiology , and larval orientation. Stable fly larvae are attracted to ammonia.

• Roger Moon reported on a project on source reduction for stable fly by managing bedding materials. In Minnesota, manure and bedding accumulate in loafing sheds during the winter and then become stable fly producing sites in the spring. Ifthis bedding is managed as a compost through the winter it can be rendered unsuitable for stable fly development in the spring. Roger is also preparing to do another round of stable fly development time determinations in different parts of the country through the help of volunteer collaborators.

Objective 5. Community and stakeholder involvement (moderator, Don Rutz).
Alec Gerry discussed the need for a reliable national database of registered insecticides for livestock and poultry pests. Current databases are cumbersome and difficult to navigate.
Developing a new database that is current and correct will be challenging for several reasons. Things are constantly changing as products enter and leave the market, and several states have their own registration processes. Product names are confusing; sometimes products with very similar names have different active ingredients. At the same time, a single EPA registration may be sold and marketed under many different names.

At this point it was agreed to stop the discussions and move into the business meeting because many people had travel plans that would prevent them attending all of the next day's session. Alec took the chair again and LSU (Baton Rouge) was selected for next year's meeting venue, with a suggestion that it be held in the 2"d week of January. There was a discussion about moving the S1060 meeting to hold it in conjunction with the LIWC. A motion was made to do so but did not carry, with the result that we will retain the current model of meeting in January. The meeting was adjourned for the day at 5 PM, and resumed the following morning.

Objective 5, continued. The meeting was resumed with a continued discussion of Alec's proposed pesticide database. Roger Moon offered to donate student help to beta-test the database once it is up and running. Itwas agreed that industry support is critical to keep the

information current. Phil Kaufman, Kelly Lofton, Roger Moon, and Bill Warner agreed to help with this project.

Don Rutz proposed that we need a central location for all extension literature in our field, and Nancy agreed to work with Don on cataloging the known literature. The goal is a master list of extension and training resources for veterinary entomology. Don also requested the group to send one-page summaries of current work to produce public-ready "brag sheets"to document accomplishments by project members. Phil Kaufman indicated that UF's department has a science writer on staff who can help polish the writing on these documents.

At this point the floor was opened to new business and general project planning activities:

• Chris Geden asked who would be interested in exploring development of a grant proposal on climate change and flies: Roger Moon, Astri Wayadande, Kristina Friesen, Wes Watson, and Becky Trout indicated interest.

• Becky Trout asked the group to send specimens of Gulf Coast ticks to her.

• Jeff Scott asked the group to share information on funding opportunities via check-offs and other industry-sponsored grant programs. Jeff also asked that people let him know if they are working with new active ingredients.

• Phil Kaufman asked folks to let him know if they are interested in participating in the stable fly resistance study this year.
• Roger Moon asked for volunteers for the stable fly development time study.

Alec then went through the project objectives in sequence and asked what plans people have for the coming year. He also pointed out that the US Poultry and Egg Association is willing to host Alec's fly spot counting program . The new egg rule requires fly monitoring as part of a Salmonella management, so there will be increasing interest in the program.

Having concluded business, there was a vote to recognize Alec and Jerry with a hearty round of applause.

Meeting adjourned, 11:30 AM.

NIFA Update Multistate Project S-1060:
Fly Management in Animal Agriculture Systems and Impacts on Animal Health and Food Safety Orlando, FL, January 15-16, 2014
Herb Bolton, NIFA National Program Leader, Entomology

National I nstitute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) FY 2014 Budget Status

• Because of the sequester in fiscal year 2013, NIFA has maintained a tight operating budget with more virtual grant panels; no staff travel;selective hiring; and no training funds. This austere posture will continue in fiscal year 2014.

• NIFA is operating under a continuing resolution and will not know its fiscal year 2014 budget until Congress completes its appropr iations with an Omnibus Bill around January 15, 2014 when the continuing resolution expires.

• Under the President's fiscal year 2014 budget request,total fundingfor the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) was requested to increase to $1.288 billion.

• The President's Budget proposed numerous changes to NIFA programs including severa l funding line consolidations.

o The NIFA Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program lines (excluding IR-4) were proposed to be consolidated under the new Crop Protection/Pest Management program with funding proposed at $17.1million.This consolidation is pending direction from Congress in the fiscal year Omnibus Bill.

o Under the President's budget proposal,the 7.61% reductions due to FY 2013 sequestration to the system's core capacity programs (Hatch,Hatch Multistate, etc.) were requested to be restored and there was a request for a $106.396 million increase to AFRI (the Food and Agriculture Research Initiative) .

o Language in the Science and Technology Priorities for the FY 2014 Budget from the Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Office of Management and Budget are supportive of NIFA's grant portfolio:

• ";development of sustainable food production systems that minimize the use of inputs such as water,energy, pesticides, and fertilize r and increase the productivity of agriculture while minimizing environmenta l impacts." See:
http://www .whitehouse .gov/sites/default/files/m-12-15.pdf

Status of NIFA Grant Programs

• Because NIFA is operating under a Continuing Resolution,no new programs can be started. So, NIFA is preparing Requests for Applications {RFAs) based on programs that were in place in FY 2013.

• We are preparing to release RFAs for individual grant programs as in fiscal year 2013 unless Congress provides further guidance in the Omnibus Bill around January 15.

• The FY 2014 AFRI Foundational RFA is now posted.

o NIFA Funding Opportunity Page:

o http: //www.n ifa.usda . gov/fo/foundational programafri . cfm.This page includes links to the request for applications (RFA), the NIFA Grants.gov Application Guide, the application package, and abstracts of funded projects.

• Please continue to monitor the NIFA website for release of other RFAs.See: http://nifa .usda.gov/

Farm Bill Situation

• Although there was good bipartisan activity at the committee-level in both the House and Senate, the completion of the Farm Bill did not occur before Congress left on the Christmas recess.

• Without a final Farm Bill,several NIFA grant programs will not have new grant opportunities: (1) Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative; (2) Specialty Crops Research Initiative; and (3) Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program.

• In addition,NIFA's operating budget is adversely impacted by not having funding for these programs.

• Some Congressional observers believe that Congress will act on passing a Farm Bill after the fiscal year 2014 Omnibus Bill is completed.

NIFA Staff Changes

• Ralph Otto, NIFA Deputy Director of Food and Community Resources,retired at the end of the year after more than 36 years of federal service.

• Dr. Deborah Sheely, Assistant Director of the Institute of Food Production and Sustainability, has accepted a position at the University of Rhode Island.

• Dr. Monte Johnson,National Program Leader for the IR-4 program and the Pest Management Alternatives Program retired at the end of the year.

Communications

• NIFA Communications Brochure - A Few Examples of recent High-Impact Outcomes of NIFA Investments are posted on the NIFA website.

o See - http://www . nifa . usda . gov/newsroom/pri ority outcomes . html

• NIFA Communications staff also completed a longer document of impacts/outcomes from the 2008 Farm Bill.

o See - http://nifa.usda .gov/nea/ag systems/pdfs/farm bill 2013.pdf

• Herb is always interested in receiving impacts and outcomes from the committee members on the S-1060, or S-1030 projects, that could be further promoted in NIFA publications and
communications.

• NIFA Communications staff particularly needs articles/stories that have been picked up or reported by the media on NIFA funded projects.
• At any time throughout the year, please forward to me any media coverage or articles/stories on impacts/outcomes.

National IPM Roadmap
• The Federal IPM Coordinating Committee (FIPMCC) updated the 2004 version of the National IPM Roadmap in 2013. The FIPMCC has worked this past year to update the "Roadmap."
• See: http://www.ipmcenters .org/Docs/IPMRoadMap.pdf

NIFA Assistance
• Please give me a call or send an email if Ican help in any way. o Herbert T. Bolton, Ph.D.,B.C.E.
o National Program Leader for Entomology
o Institute of Food Production and Sustainability o National Institute of Food and Agriculture
o phone - 202-401-4201;fax 202-401-1782

Accomplishments

Publications

Impact Statements

Date of Annual Report: 04/16/2015

Report Information

Annual Meeting Dates: 01/14/2015 - 01/15/2015
Period the Report Covers: 10/01/2013 - 09/01/2018

Participants

Gerry, Alec (alec.gerry@ucr.edu)- UC Riverside; Waldron, Keith (keith.waldron@cornell.edu)- Cornell University; Smythe, Brandon (bsmythe@nmsu.edu)- New Mexico State University; Nayduch, Dana (Dana.Nayduch@ars.usda.gov)- USDA, Manhattan, KS; Boxler, Dave (dboxler1@unl.edu)- UNL, North Platte, NE; Brewer, Gary (gbrewer2@unl.edu)- University of Nebraska; Swiger, Sonja (slswiger@ag.tamu.edu)- Texas A&M Agrilife Extension; Watson, Wes (wes_watson@ncsu.edu)- NCSU, Raleigh, NC; Geden, Chris (Chris.Geden@ars.usda.gov)- USDA, Gainesville, FL; Kaufman, Phil (pkaufman@ufl.edu)- University of Florida; Rutz, Don (dar11@cornell.edu)- Cornell University; Hinkle, Nancy (nhinkle@uga.edu)- University of Georgia; Warner, Bill (wwarner@central.com)- Central Garden and Pet; Healy, Kristin (khealy@agcenter.lsu.edu)- Louisiana State University; Roeder, Richard (rroeder@uark.edu)- University of Arkansas; Weeks, Emma (eniweeks@ufl.edu)- University of Florida; Moon, Roger (rdmoon@umn.edu)- University of Minnesota; Olafson, Pia (Pia.Olafson@ars.usda.gov)- USDA, Kerrville, TX; Perez de Leon, Adalberto (Berto.Perezdeleon@ars.usda.gov)- USDA, Kerrville, TX; Friesen, Kristina (Kristina.friesen@ars.usda.gov)- USDA, Lincoln, NE; Fryxell, Rebecca (rfryxell@utk.edu)- University of Tennessee; Zurek, Ludek (lzurek@ksu.edu)- Kansas State University; Loftin, Kelly (kloftin@uaex.edu)- University of Arkansas; Hogsette, Jerry (Jerry.Hogsette@ars.usda.gov)- USDA, Gainesville, FL; Wayadande, Astri (a.wayadande@okstate.edu)- Oklahoma State University; Machtinger, Erika - University of Florida; Talley, Justin (Justin.talley@okstate.edu)- Oklahoma State University

Brief Summary of Minutes

Opening session: Project Chair Alec Gerry called the meeting to order at 8:31 AM on January 14.

Lane Foil, local arrangements coordinator, provided information about the facility, registration fees, and meals/snacks. This was followed by a round of self-introductions. Alec noted the fine symposium that was held at the ESA meeting in Portland in recognition of the retirement of Don Rutz. NIFA representative Herb Bolton was unable to attend the meeting but sent a report that Alec shared with the group. This message is appended to this report in its entirety. The overall tone is optimistic this year, with a $12 million increase in NIFA funding for research this year. A new grants program, AFRI’s Education & Literacy Initiative (ELI), will provide funding for young scientists all the way from undergraduate to post-doctoral levels. The ARS National Program Leader position for NP104 is vacant. Rick Roeder, the administrative advisor to S1060, thanked Lane and encouraged the group to submit an application for the award for excellence that is given out by the southern region experiment station directors. The application is due in mid-February. Rick reminded us that our annual report is due 60 days after the meeting is held. After a brief discussion, Kristin Friesen volunteered to pursue submission of an application for our project to be recognized with an award by the southern region experiment station directors.

Adalberto Perez de Leon (Beto) gave an overview of the Veterinary Pest Genomics Initiative as well as an update of research activities at Kerrville. He also explained the reorganization of ARS into 6 new national regions under the leadership of Dr. Chavonda Jacobs-Young. Briefly Kerrville will host the Veterinary Pest Genomics Center as a virtual center with the goal of partnering with others. Objectives include preparing for climate change by unraveling the genomes of high-consequence veterinary pests such as horn fly, stable fly, screwworm, and cattle fever ticks. Also, to examine population genomics of pests in their indigenous and invasive ranges to develop models of distributional changes that may result from climate change. Also, to mine genomes to develop transformative technologies. The missions of the Initiative are to prepare for climate change and the possible introduction of foreign animal disease and pest threats. Beto reminded the group that the LIWC will be held jointly with AAVP and ISEP in Boston on July 11-14.

This was followed by an extended discussion of how rank and file researchers can use the genomic resources that are increasingly available.

Business Meeting: A brief business meeting was held after concluding Objective 5. San Antonio was nominated, voted on, and approved for the 2016 meeting. Meeting adjourned for the day at 5:15.

Thursday AM: Beto reminded the group that the deadline for ICE symposia will be March 2. Alec than had the members form discussion groups to discuss planning for Objectives 1-4 and report back to the main group. Results of those discussions follow:

Objective 1, summarized by Wes Watson: There is a need to compile the existing data on horn fly repellents and to agree on standardized methods for on-animal repellency testing. Perhaps an article on this could be developed for JIPM. Testing with the CowVac will continue.

Objective 2, summarized by Phil Kaufman: Becky Trout Fryxell will monitor horn flies for a year, then look at SNIP’s to determine why some individual cattle are more or less attractive to the flies. Pia Olafson will ask people to send stable flies to look for kdr-his allele frequency; please send her pupae or adults in ethanol. Phil Kaufman will continue to receive stable flies or provide cooperators with kits to monitor resistance; please save survivors and dead flies separately and send them in ethanol to Pia. Jeff Scott has control flies and three kdr strains and will evaluate how they respond to different pyrethroids. Pia Olafson will continue to use genomics to examine olfaction in stable fly and horn fly.

Objective 3, summarized by Dana Nayduch: Kristina Friesen will continue looking at stable fly larval habitats, and may conduct EAG’s on the larvae. Dana Nayduch and Ludek Zurek will examine house fly and bacteria in larval breeding sites. Astri Wayadande will examine the excretome of flies and retention of bacteria on cuticle. Becky Trout Fryxell is mostly committed to tick work but is starting to look at flies. Pia Olafson will examine epithelial immunity in the gut of stable fly and the trans-stadial passage of pathogens in horn fly.

Objective 4, summarized by Kristina Friesen: There were two main discussion topics. The first had to do with the question of whether Nebraska spring stable fly populations are local or migrants from elsewhere. They suggested that collaborators put out traps, score first appearance of flies, and send the collected flies to Kristina for morphometric analysis. The second topic had to do with possible summer estivation of stable flies and whether this could account for the 2nd, late-season peak in stable fly populations in some locations.

Objective 5: Please continue to send feedback to Alec Gerry on the pesticide database. Don Rutz asked the group to please send print-ready extension materials to Don and Nancy (Hinkle) for collation.

Alec announced that he will roll off as chair at the end of next year’s meeting, with Kristina moving into his slot. After a round of applause for Alec’s leadership, the meeting was adjourned at 11:15.

Accomplishments

Objective 1. New technologies for management of biting and nuisance flies in organic and conventional systems (moderator, Wes Watson). Wes Watson reported on a calf comfort study with 4 treatments: controls, neem, BioUD (undecanone), and CowVac. All three treatments reduced horn fly counts. Neem and BioUD had the greatest effects on calf behaviors such as head toss, tail switch, skin twitch, and foot stomp. Wes also looked at the repellence of a numbered repellent and found that the activity was very short-lived; geraniol lasted longer. Wes also reported on a mark-release-recapture study; marked flies returned to the animals from which they had been collected quickly, many within 15 minutes of release. Dave Boxler reported on a push-pull project for stable flies on heifers in Nebraska using geraniol, permethrin and mineral oil; geraniol @ 200 ml per animal worked best but repellency was short-lived. In another study, Python (zetacypermethrin) strips and ear tags gave excellent control for 15 weeks. An abamectin strip (XP820) and permethrin pour-on gave good control for three weeks. The injectable parastiticide product from Merial “Longrange” (eprinomectin) had little effect on horn flies except for a short time after injection. Finally, a 1% permethrin pour-on provided a quick knockdown, but flies rebounded within a couple of weeks. Jerry Hogsette tested whether the bed bug product Cimi-Shield was effective against flies. This is an interesting “green” product with a FIFRA 25b exemption. When applied to paint roller the product killed about 80% of the flies after 24 hours. The high price of Cimi-Shield (>$200 for enough to treat one hotel room) may limit its potential use against other pests. Justin Talley reported on two projects. In the first, he compared several commercial products for horn fly control, including the VetGun, which operates in a manner similar to a paintball gun. The XP820 (abamectin) ear tag provided good control, as did several others. The VetGun was fun to use, but control faded within a few weeks. The VetGun was also more expensive than ear tags, and some animals were skittish around the gun. It may have some utility for treating a few bulls. In the second project he reported on a study involving the effect of controlled pasture burns on horn fly and face fly populations. Pasture burning resulted in substantial reductions in horn fly populations in the following season. Roger Moon evaluated the use of different bedding and housing options for winter housing of organic cows. Sawdust compost bedding in the barn produced far fewer stable flies the following summer than straw pack bedding outdoors; if straw bedding must be used (it is less expensive than sawdust) it should be removed by June 1 to avoid fly emergence. Roger also reported that the CowVac catches 6x more horn flies than the Bruce trap and also collects more stable and face flies. The CowVac, however, is much more expensive. Chris Geden examined the effects of high temperature regimes on the effectiveness of parasitoids and two insecticides against house flies. Spalangia cameroni was more affected by high temperatures than Muscidifurax raptor. Flies were more susceptible to imidacloprid under hot conditions, whereas cool temperatures favored activity of cyfluthrin. A survey for insecticide resistance was done with newly colonized flies from Florida, Nebraska, and California dairy farms; Florida flies were moderately resistant to diflubenzuron and highly resistant to imidacloprid. Resistance to cyfluthrin was moderate in all three populations. Objective 2. Insecticide resistance detection and management (moderator, Jeff Scott). Phil Kaufman reminded group members to provide flies if they are interested in participating in the stable fly resistance project. So far they have seen some resistance in flies from NC and WA. Pia Olfason has found that some populations have a high incidence of kdr-his alleles. Jeff Scott is looking at three different types of kdr (kdr, super-kdr, kdr-his) and has selected for fly isogenic strains for each type. He will examine the shifts in allele frequencies when populations are started with a fixed percentage of each. The alleles have different effects depending on which pyrethroid is tested. Jeff is also examining imidacloprid resistance; two genes are involved, one each on chromosomes 3 and 4. Pia Olafson gave an update on stable fly genomics. The genome has been sequenced and is now being assembled; assembly should be completed by next year. They have found the odorant receptor Orco in the antennae, proboscis, and ovipositor of the fly. She has also found 20 odorant binding proteins; some are only expressed in larvae, others in adults. She has also found 15 ORs (odor receptors). So far the ORs have been found in the antennae and mouthparts but not yet in the ovipositor. Five gustatory receptors have been found in the antennae, mouthparts and ovipositor. An antenna-specific cytochrome P450 has been identified that is involved in odor degradation. Pia will be devoting more of her time in the next few years to horn fly than to stable fly. Objective 3. Investigation of the microbial ecology, epithelial immunity, and vector competence of biting and nuisance flies (moderator, Ludek Zurek). Ludek Zurek summarized results from the recent paper by Albuquerque and Zurek (Front. Microbiol., 10 November 2014 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2014.00590). Two week old horse manure is most attractive to adult stable flies. If you add eggs to manure of different ages, it is suitable for development from fresh through 3 weeks old; 4 and 5 week old manure does not support much development. One-week-old manure produces the biggest flies, and larvae develop fastest in fresh manure. In another study Ludek looked at development of Culicoides sonorensis in mud with varying levels of cow manure loading. The best development was at 25% manure, with little development at <12.5% and >50%. Higher manure loading rates produced larger pupae. When different animal manures were tested at 25% loading rates, the most favorable manures were sheep, cattle goat, and horse; development was poor in pig, deer and chicken manure. Kristina Friesen is monitoring stable fly development in bedding at different times during a six week accumulation cycle. Dana Nayduch has established RNAi as a tool for Culicoides functional analysis and is currently looking at microbe-midge and midge-virus interactions. Several genes involved in blood-feeding have been found as well. Dana is working on house flies once again and is doing transcriptional profiling of the fly immune response. Some of this work involves using Pseudomonas aeruginosa to study the immune response. Some of the questions she is interested in asking are: 1) why do some microbes pass transstadially and others do not? 2) can the fly larval habitat be modified to prevent acquisition/transmission? 3) how did antimicrobial peptide genes in HF evolve & how and when are they used? Objective 4. Characterize population biology of biting and nuisance flies (moderator, Kristina Friesen). Alec Gerry is trying to determine the height at which house flies will fly. Using a tower sticky trap, they have found flies at all heights tested, with fairly uniform distribution. Diel flight activity patterns in July were surprisingly flat, with a small morning peak and no peak in late afternoon. Justin Talley is examining whether flies can be intercepted or channeled into corridors using barriers. Flies in this study flew readily over 1.5 meter walls but less so over 3 meter walls. The artificial barriers used in the study were attractive enough that they may be useful to create barriers or channel flies. In another study, Justin has started to look at fly collections and production associated with composted cattle mortality. Roger Moon reported on the multistate study of stable fly field development. So far, 14 participants have reared over 25,000 flies at different locations in the US and Canada. The results will allow validation of weather-dependent models of fly development and survivorship. Wes Watson gave a more detailed account of his stable fly development data for Roger’s project. His best survival was in the cohort that was started in April, although all of the cohorts have produced at least some flies, even those that experienced hard freezes. Development time was fastest in the June-September cohorts but survival was low. There was a long general discussion about the disappearance of stable flies in mid-summer, with dryness of larval habitats cited as the likely cause. Objective 5. Community and stakeholder involvement (moderator, Don Rutz). Keith Waldron is managing a four-year IPM extension grant from NIFA that includes dairy IPM. They have had lots of outreach meetings for both conventional and organic producers. This year they will publish a new organic IPM guide and a Spanish-language dairy IPM guide. The organic guide will include pesticides that have EPA registrations but are OMNI approved for organic use. Keith is finding it more difficult to get access into NPIRS (National Pesticide Information Retrieval System, from Purdue). An alternative is MAPL (Mobile Access to Pesticide Labels, from Oregon state), which is good for search and query but the results cannot be easily exported into Excel. Alec Gerry announced that the Vet Ent pesticide database is now up and running and thanked all who helped. The challenge now will be to keep it up to date as registrations come and go. Alex gave a demonstration of the database, VetPestX, the following morning (http://veterinaryentomology.ucr.edu/vet_pesticides.html ). NIFA Update Multistate Project S-1060: Fly Management in Animal Agriculture Systems and Impacts on Animal Health and Food Safety Baton Rouge, LA, January 14-15, 2015 National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) FY 2015 Budget Status The good news is that Congress passed the FY 2015 budget before the holidays with a slight budget increase for NIFA. Now NIFA can proceed with releasing our Requests for Applications (RFAs) and move ahead with holding panels and making grant awards. On December 16, 2014, the President signed the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015 (H.R. 83) which provides annual funding for the Federal government including the U.S. Department of Agriculture. H.R. 83 provides $1.29 billion in discretionary spending for the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) which is about $12 million above the FY 2014 Appropriations. The attached table provides program funding information and a comparison of the FY 2014 Consolidated Appropriations, FY 2015 President’s Budget, and FY 2015 Consolidated Appropriations funding levels. The table also includes mandatory funding provided by the 2014 Farm Bill (H.R. 2642), the Agricultural Act of 2014. The FY 2015 Act funds the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) at $325 million and directs that not less than 15 percent of the competitive research grant funds be used for agricultural research enhancement awards program. The Act provides $2.5 million for the new Food Safety Outreach Program. Most other programs are funded at the FY 2014 level with slight increases for Veterinary Medical Services Act, Grants for Insular Areas, Methyl Bromide Transition, Crop Protection/Pest Management, Regional Rural Development Centers, and Food and Agriculture Defense Initiative programs. The Act does not include funding for Critical Agricultural Materials and Water Quality programs. Status of NIFA Grant Programs NIFA has begun to release more RFAs now that Congress has passed the FY 2015 budget. Please monitor the NIFA website for release of RFAs. See: http://nifa.usda.gov/ . NIFA Staff Changes Last year Dr. Deborah Sheely, the previous Assistant Director of the Institute of Food Production and Sustainability, accepted a position at the University of Rhode Island. Dr. Parag Chitnis has replaced her as the new Deputy Director of the Institute of Food Production and Sustainability (see next bullet). Dr. Parag Chitnis was selected for the Deputy Director position for NIFA’s Institute of Food Production and Sustainability (IFPS). Chitnis joins NIFA from the National Science Foundation (NSF) – Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, where he served as division director, deputy division director, and program director. Prior to joining NSF, he was a professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Molecular Biology at Iowa State University, and was an assistant professor in the Division of Biology at Kansas State University. Communications NIFA will have a new look for its website in February 2015. The new website design and features will make it easier for grant applicants to get grant information and contact information for current NIFA points of contact. NIFA Communications staff are also ramping up their efforts to improve outreach on outputs, outcomes and specific impacts for NIFA-funded projects. NIFA Communications staff particularly needs articles/stories that have been picked up or reported by the media on NIFA funded projects. At any time throughout the year, please forward to me any media coverage or articles/stories on impacts/outcomes that you would like me to share with our NIFA Communications staff. NIFA Requests for Proposals of Possible Interest to S-1060 Members (for answers to specific questions, please contact the NIFA National Program Leader listed in the current or most recent RFA. AFRI-ELI - Food, Agriculture, Natural Resources and Human Sciences Education and Literacy Initiative (Formerly the AFRI NIFA Fellowships Grant Program) $15 million for fellowships to train and develop the next generation of scientists who will lead agriculture into the future by solving current and future challenges facing society. NIFA will support pre- and post-doctoral fellowships, and for the first time, undergraduate fellowships. See: http://www.csrees.usda.gov/funding/rfas/afri.html Each of the four regional IPM Centers offers small mini- or enhancements grants for IPM working groups or projects in their regions. Use National IPM Center webpage (http://www.ipmcenters.org) for link to each regional IPM center. Small Business Innovation Research - SBIR offers Phase I and Phase II funding for Animal Production and Protection. See: http://www.csrees.usda.gov/funding/rfas/sbir_rfa.html AFRI Foundational Program - The AFRI Foundational Program offers funding in Animal Health and Production and Animal Products. See: http://www.csrees.usda.gov/funding/rfas/afri.html and http://www.nifa.usda.gov/funding/rfas/afri_archives.html AFRI Foundational Program - The AFRI Foundational Program offers funding in Critical Agricultural Research and Extension (CARE) that address critical problems continue to impede the efficient production and protection of agriculturally-important plants and animals. See: http://www.csrees.usda.gov/funding/rfas/afri.html and http://www.nifa.usda.gov/funding/rfas/afri_archives.html AFRI Foundational Program - The AFRI Foundational Program offers Exploratory funding that encourages continuous development of innovative ideas that will position US Agriculture at the global forefront. These developments will lead to quantum leaps in the agricultural fields. They will address the challenges that have never been addressed before in the areas of food security, climate change, environmental quality and natural resources, nutrition, obesity, food safety, strong families and vibrant communities, and thriving youth. See: http://www.csrees.usda.gov/funding/rfas/afri.html and http://www.nifa.usda.gov/funding/rfas/afri_archives.html AFRI Food Security - The AFRI Food Security Program offers funding in Minimizing Losses from Pests and Diseases of Livestock. See: http://www.nifa.usda.gov/funding/rfas/afri.html and http://www.nifa.usda.gov/funding/rfas/afri_archives.html Question on Value of National Academy of Sciences Reports in NIFA Proposal Applications • Question: Phil Kaufman and Alec Gerry were discussing whether reports like this one from the NAS (http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=19000) provide any weight when we submit proposals to USDA-NIFA. Do Program Managers and Grant Panel reviewers pay attention to these kind of reports or get briefings on these reports so that they might be more inclined to fund a proposal that falls in line with these kind of national recommendations? This might be helpful to address in your report to the S1060 group. • Answer: Yes, I think this kind of report could be very valuable in making your case in a proposal application that there is a high priority for research from a specific group of stakeholders. Because different grant application Requests for Proposals can have different requirements, check to make sure that make sure that this type of citation adds strength to your proposal. For the Crop Protection and Pest Management Program, Applied Research and Development Program applications, an appropriate citation of report of this type would be useful in the application. You can always check with the program’s National Program Leader for advice. NIFA Assistance Please give me a call or send an email if I can help in any way. Herb is always interested in receiving impacts and outcomes from the committee members on projects that could be further promoted in NIFA publications, communications, and LISTSERVs. Herbert T. Bolton, Ph.D., B.C.E. National Program Leader for Entomology Institute of Food Production and Sustainability National Institute of Food and Agriculture phone - 202-401-4201; fax 202-401-1782 hbolton@nifa.usda.gov

Publications

Research Publications Ekanayake, P., Gerry, A. 2014. Evaluation of a transient barrier trapping system to manage the canyon fly (Diptera: Muscidae). Journal of Medical Entomology. Vol. 51: 130-138. Mayo, C.E., Osborne, C., Mullens, B.A., Gerry, A.C., Gardner, I.A., Reisen, W., Barker, C.M., MacLachlan, N.J. 2014. Seasonal variation and impact of waste-water lagoons as larval habitat on the population dynamics of Culicoides sonorensis (Diptera:Ceratopogonidae) at two dairy farms in northern California. PLOS ONE. Vol. 9: e89633. Murillo, A., Gerry, A., Gallagher, N., Peterson, N.G., Mullens, B.A. 2014. Laboratory and field assessment of cyantraniliprole relative to existing fly baits. Pest Management Science. published online ahead of print: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ps.3847/pdf. Extension Publications Elliot, S., Gerry, A. 2014. Got fleas, flies, lice, ticks or mites? Vets can search new Center-funded website to find ectoparasite treatments. Western IPM Center. Davis, CA. Vol. September. Edition Western Front. Editors: Steve Elliot. Website: http://www.wrpmc.ucdavis.edu/. Gerry, A.C. 2014. Managing house fly production associated with feeding cull fruit as a diet supplement to pasture cattle. Report submitted via email to UCCE Livestock Farm Advisors and Department of Environmental Health Directors throughout the state. CA Environmental Health Department Directors. Gerry, A. 2014. Insect Pests of Animals: Searchable Pesticide Database. Poultry Ponderings Quarterly Extension Newsletter (reprinted in several Advisor newsletters and blogs). 1p. UC Davis. Editors: Maurice Pitesky. Presentations Gerry, A.C. The biology and ecology of the house fly. Annual Fall Workshop Series, Target Specialty Products. November 2014. Portland, OR.

Impact Statements

Date of Annual Report: 03/15/2016

Report Information

Annual Meeting Dates: 01/12/2016 - 01/14/2016
Period the Report Covers: 10/01/2013 - 09/30/2018

Participants

Participants Attachment:

S1060 Participants 2016.pdf

Brief Summary of Minutes

Minutes: Project Chair Alec Gerry called the meeting to order at 8:38 AM on January 13. Pia Olafson, local arrangements coordinator, provided information about the facility, wireless signal access, and registration fees. This was followed by a round of self-introductions. Alec noted that Kristina Friesen will be taking over as chair at the end of this meeting. Kristina reminded everyone to send her a paragraph summary of progress and a list of publications ASAP for the annual report. The current multistate project expires on September 30, 2018. Therefore, we will need to work on the renewal next year.

Rick Roeder, the admiistrative advisor to S1060, reinforced Kristina's call for the information necessary to prepare the annual report, which is due 60 days after the meeting. The group narrowly missed last year's deadline to submit the nomination package for the award for excellence that is given out by the southern region experiment station directors. We will try again this year, with Kristina Friesen again volunteering to handle the nomination. In addition to the annual report info, Kristina asked that we submit information on any grants that people received to support S1060-related research. Please include grants during all years of the present project as well as those received during its predecessor, S1030. The nomination application is due in mid-February. Alec thanks Kristina for her continuing efforts with this undertaking.

Herb Bolton was not able to attend the meeting but provided Alec with a report that will be attached to the minutes.

Phil Kaufman announced the establishment of a new US-AID Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Livestock Systems that will be administered by the University of Florida. There will be $50 million in funds over 5 years to support research and capacity building projects in the target countries of Mali, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Cambodia, and Nepal. There will be four "areas of inquiry" for projects to fit under; S1060 members will probably sumbit under the area of Livestock Disease Management and Food Safety. Multidisciplinary projects will be favored, as will thoase that address certain cultural cross-cutting concerns. An example of these cultural concerns is the feminization of agriculture in Nepal that has resulted from the emigration of men to neighboring India to find jobs. The RFA will come out in April, with proposals due in August.

Business Meeting: A brief business meeting was held after concluding Objective 5. Riverside was nominated, voted on, and approved for the 2017 meeting, which will be held Jan 11-12. Meeting adjourned for the day at 5:15.

Thursday AM: Don Rutz encouraged all members to cc their annual reports to Don and Nancy Hinkle so that they can continue to look for S-1060 outcome information to be developed into 1-page public-ready documents to share with stakeholders and lawmakers. There was a general discussion about what the group might be able to produce as a group accomplishment. Some other multi-state projects have left legacies in the form of identification guides or methodological workbooks. What sort of tangible product could S-1060 produce that would take advantage of the collective expertise in the group?

This concluded the main business of the meeting. Alec thanked Pia for her hard work organizing the meeting, and an enthusiastic round of applause was sent in Roger's direction for his many years of excellent and dedicated service to our science. The gavel was passed to Kristina, who said that it was time to start thinking and planning the next 5-year project. It was suggested that an objective be developed to take advantage of the genomics information that have become available. After a round of applause for Alec's leadership, the meeting was adjorned at 11:30.

Accomplishments

Objective 1. New technologies for management of biting and nuisance flies in organic and conventional systems (moderator, Wes Watson). <ul> <li>Wes Watson reported on a horn fly test in 2010-2012 comparing the efficacy of 2% geraniol (125 ml/animal) with the fatty acid mixture C8910 (5% each of C8, C9 and C10 in mineral oil, 250 ml/ animal). Geraniol was a good repellent that had some knockdown activity, but many flies recovered. C8910 produced knockdown without recovery. With repeat treatments (2x/week for 2 weeks), they observed 94% control.</li> <li>Wes also conducted a test involving the use of vegetative barriers to modulate dispersal and movement of horn flies. Flies were collected from CowVacs, treated with DayGlow powders and released from different areas. Flies generally moved with or against the wind (if wind speeds were not too high). They moved relatively short distances from the release points and were reluctant to cross a tree line.</li> <li>Brad Mullens reported on geraniol and C8910 in California using similar treatments as used by Wes in the study above. He monitored fly counts, defensive behaviors, sex ratio, mating success, fecundity and blood meal size of the flies. He also compared the efficiency of direct visual counts by people with counts made by taking digital photos and making the counts from the photos. The photographic method missed about 20% of the flies actually present and was much more time-consuming than the visual counts. As Wes had observed, flies were knocked down after a direct hit by both products, and recovered from geraniol but not C8910 treatments. Fly counts on treated animals resurged after 2-4 days. Counts on untreated animals within a treated group (embedded controls) mirrored those of treated animals, suggesting toxicity as well as repellency. Defensive behaviors dropped after treatment but were not as good an indicator of horn fly pressure as has been seen with stable flies. The behaviors were triggered by low fly numbers. Blood meal sizes were very small overall (0.3-0.8 microliters) and if anything showed a small increase in response to treatment.</li> <li>Brad also reported on tests with Beauveria (Botaniguard) against wild caught horn flies. The treatment killed lots of flies but he was surprised to see that about 5% of the untreated flies developed mycoses. Some of the infected flies showed signs of “summit disease”, anchoring themselves to the screen lids of their containers before dying in a manner reminiscent of what E. muscae causes its hosts to do.</li> <li>Dave Boxler presented results from several studies, which are briefly summarized as follows: 1) Weekly treatments of cattle herds with either geraniol, permethrin, or half of the animals in the herd treated with each all had similar effects on stable flies and were lower than counts on untreated animals. 2) A new eartag, Tolfenprol, with an active ingredient in the novel tolfenpyrol class of insecticide provided good horn fly control for up to 10 weeks. The a.i. is a mitochondrial complex 1 electron transport inhibitor. 3) VetGun Vet Caps with permethrin and PBO kept horn flies below the EIL for 3-4 weeks, but are expensive at $2.61 per capsule. 4) Horn fly counts on cattle treated with C8910 eartags stayed below the EIL for 7 weeks, with an overall reduction of 46% compared with controls. 5) Attaching Python insecticide strips to mineral feeders provided moderate control, but not all of the animals visited the feeders. 6) Work is in progress to develop a collar-style dust-dispensing device filled with C8910 dust.</li> <li>Emma Weeks reported on three studies involving entomopathogenic fungi and flies: 1) House flies died much faster than stable flies after a 1 hour exposure to conidia on filter paper. Sporulation rates were low, and the BalEnce Beauveria product was not effective against house flies. 2) Oviposition rates of house flies were reduced when oviposition sites were treated with commercial formulations of conidia; stable fly effects were more variable. 3) Mortality of house flies was higher when flies were exposed continually to sugar cubes treated with fungal formulations than when they received a fixed-time exposure. Again, the BalEnce product performed poorly.</li> <li>Phil Kaufman reported on attempts to select for faster kill rates using Beauveria against horn flies. To do this he started with a horn-fly-derived strain that was isolated by student Chris Holderman. So far they have passed it through 7 generations of selections, choosing the first dead flies from each passage challenge the next batch of flies.</li> <li>Chris Geden discussed assessment of fly parasitoids from different collection sites (FL, MN, NE, CA) to heat tolerance. Muscidifurax zaraptor is more heat tolerant than M. raptor, and S. endius more tolerant than S. cameroni. The populations from different locations varied but showed no overall pattern of higher tolerance in parasitoids from the hottest collection site (near San Jacinto, CA).</li> <li>Chris also reported on relative susceptibility of flies and parasitoids to the IGR pyriproxyfen. Parasitoids were either unaffected by this material (Spalangia spp.) or 100-1000 times less susceptible (Muscidifurax) than house flies</li> <li>Roger Moon’s program did a winter bedding study in which they compared composted bedding packs with straw in loafing sheds and exposed locations for stable fly production. Flies were highly attracted to both types of bedding but larval production was very low from the composted material. In outdoor sites fly productions was higher when the animals were removed in May than in April. A possible downside of this approach is that the carbon content of the final compost is high and therefore does not provide much nutrition for plants when it is spread on fields. Roger also announced that he is retiring from his position at the University of Minnesota this May.</li> <li> </li> </ul> Objective 2. Insecticide resistance detection and management (moderator, Jeff Scott). <ul> <li>Jeff Scott has been working on spinosad, imidacloprid and pyrethroid resistance. He presented results from recent pyrethroid resistance work, in which he is comparing the resistance conferred by the kdr, kdr-his, and super-kdr alleles. He compared the effects of these alleles on the toxicity of 18 synthetic pyrethroids as well as PBO-synergized pyrethrins. In general, super-kdr (common in Nebraska) confers the highest resistance, followed by kdr then kdr-his. With some pyrethroids, super-kdr resistance makes it impossible to kill the flies at any dose. However, with other pyrethroids super-kdr flies are less resistant than kdr flies. The multihalogenated pyrethroids such as tefluthrin, fenfluthrin and transfluthrin are “super-kdr busters” that overcome super-kdr resistance. Super-kdr is recessive whereas kdr and kdr-his are dominant, but dominance patterns can vary depending on the particular pyrethroid being examined.</li> <li>Phil Kaufman summarized results from three years of the stable fly national resistance survey. Resistance to permethrin remains relatively low and does not show much in the way of regional variation.</li> <li>Pia Olafson gave an update on the stable fly genome project. The genome has been sequenced, assembled, and publicly available via the NCBI . The total genome size is Glossina, Lucilia, Musca, Drosophila, and Anopheles gambiae; this will be useful for identifying genes that are unique to stable fly. A current goal is manual curation of the genome to see whether the genes are really there for important processes such as chemosensory, visual, reproduction and development systems, sex determination, detoxification, salivary gland proteins, etc.</li> <li>Jeff Scott discussed the importance of leveraging the information that the genomics work is providing. As an example, he cited work being conducted by Andy Clark at Cornell to examine RNA sequences associated with immune responses to pathogens by house fly.</li> <li> </li> </ul> Objective 3. Investigation of the microbial ecology, epithelial immunity, and vector competence of biting and nuisance flies (moderator, Ludek Zurek). <ul> <li>Ludek Zurek discussed the prevalence of different types of shigatoxigenic E. coli in flies from confined cattle environments. Among house flies, 34.3% carry E. coli from one of 7 shiga serotypes that do not belong to the 0157 group, but only 1.5% were STEC positive. This means that just screening for the 0157 serotype results in substantial under-reporting of the risk for shiga-carrying flies. In contrast, only 1.1% of stable flies were found with non-0157 shiga-producing E. coli, and cell counts were much lower than in house flies. STEC was not detected in stable flies.</li> <li>Dana Nayduch reported on recent work on several projects addressing immune responses by flies. She has found that house flies have 10 copies of the gene coding for the anti-microbial peptide defensin. In contrast, Drosophila only have one copy of this gene. This raises several questions. Why are there so many copies in house flies? Are different ones turned on in response to different threats? Are they inducible? Are they tissue- or life-stage-specific?</li> <li>Dana also mentioned that she is examining whether adult male and female flies differ in their rate of acquisition of bacteria from manure. They do, but it depends on whether sugar is also presented along with the manure. She is also investigating trans-stadial carriage of bacteria. Some species are transmitted trans-stadially but are lost before adult eclosion whereas others survive all the way to the adult fly.</li> <li>Lastly, Dana discussed whether survival of bacteria in flies is dose-dependent. Yes, immune responses are stronger to higher doses of ingested bacteria. The strongest reduction of bacterial numbers occurs soon after ingestion of medium doses of bacteria. But what stimulates the immune response, given that the bacteria cannot pass the peritrophic matrix? It appears that bacterial dimeric peptidoglycans can pass through the peritrophic matrix and can reach receptors in the epithelial cells lining the gut.</li> <li>T.C. Crippen, new to this group, has been working on Aphitobius diaperinus as vectors of Salmonella and is applying those techniques to work with flies.  She is also doing behavioral and forensic entomology work on the microbiome of carrion flies and is interested in the movement of pathogens by insects. </li> </ul> Objective 4. Characterize population biology of biting and nuisance flies (moderator, Dave Taylor). <ul> <li>Aaron Tarone, also new to the group, introduced himself and his interests in the systematic/genomics of calliphorids.</li> <li>Dave Taylor is re-examining Tim Lysyk’s stable fly larval development rate models by rearing larvae under different planes of nutrition and temperatures. He will be measuring development time, survival, and pupal weights under these conditions.</li> <li>Kristina Friesen continues to tackle the question of the origin of stable flies in the Spring in Nebraska. Collaborators have been sending Spring flies to Kristina along a transect from Texas to Canada, and she is making wing size measurements and assessments of ovarian condition of the flies. The earliest flies that she has seen for the season in Nebraska were in March; these flies were fairly old and suggests that they were migrants rather than local overwintering individuals.</li> <li>Kristina is also studying larval stable fly nutrition by varying the carbohydrate:protein ratio in the diet. The flies can tolerate substantial reductions in protein, but even small cuts in carbohydrates results in significant drops in fitness.</li> <li>Bob Pfannenstiel has been characterizing the Culicoides species composition and breeding sites in areas of orbivirus outbreaks. Light trap data indicate a prevalence of 62% C. stelifer, 22% C. haematopotus and 6 % C. crepuscularis. Breeding sites that are associated with cattle are generally dominated by C. crepuscularis, but one dairy pond produced 93.9% C. sonorensis. He also found C. variipennis at Konza Prairie in an area associated with bison.</li> <li>Roger Moon reported on the multistate study of stable fly field development. He has found that stable flies have a 379 degree-day requirement, with a lower development threshold of 3.7oC and an upper threshold of 32oC</li> </ul>   Objective 5. Community and stakeholder involvement (moderator, Don Rutz). <ul> <li>Alec Gerry gave an update on the pesticide database that he developed for veterinary entomology (<a href="http://veterinaryentomology.ucr.edu/vet_pesticides.html">http://veterinaryentomology.ucr.edu/vet_pesticides.html</a> ). He gave a demonstration and reminded people to please provide him with updated information as it becomes available so that the database remains current. Alec also said that his VetEnt website at UCR is also a platform for S-1060 project-related educational/extension content. Please send Alex links to other extension content on pest ID, biology, YouTube clips on monitoring, etc. Please also send information related to meetings, events, and funding opportunities. At Roger Moon’s suggestion, the group gave Alec a round of applause in recognition of the enormous effort that Alec has put into these efforts. </li> <li>Keith Waldron announced that NYS-IPM is developing a Spanish-language version the Organic Dairy IPM Guide.  They have also translated the 2000 Pest Management recommendations for New York into Spanish (minus the specific insecticide information). A distance learning program has been launched by IPM and PMEP to provide online credit hours for certified pesticide applicators. Lastly, the Cornell IPM program has developed a set of profiles for 31 active ingredients for 25B pesticides, i.e. those that are exempted from federal registration. The profiles include information on toxicity, environmental fate, efficacy and other items.</li> </ul> Having concluded Objective 5, Alec then had the members form discussion groups to discuss planning for Objectives 1-4 and report back to the main group. Results of those discussions follow: Objective 1, summarized by Wes Watson: There is a need for new repellents for push-pull programs. Perhaps the 25b list has some candidates. In general, there is not enough “pull” in the push-pull programs. Could animal decoys (such as the deer targets that are sold to hunters) be used to attract target insects? Alec’s “Flyspotter” program will be placed on the 1060 website maintained by him at UCR. Alec will be examining an intriguing detection system that detects air disturbance caused by insects passing through a hoop. Phil will be looking at patented semiochemicals, Wes will continue work with vegetative barriers and corridors, somebody will continue to evaluate Vestergaard insecticide-treated barriers, and Chris will continue looking at heat tolerance of flies and natural enemies. Objective 2, summarized by Jeff Scott: Phil Kaufman will continue to receive stable flies or provide cooperators with kits to monitor resistance. Kevin Temeyer indicated there may be novel acetylcholinesterase mutants in stable fly populations. Jeff Scott pointed out the need to obtain baseline data on house fly susceptibility to the toxicant (cyantraniliprole) in the new Syngenta bait Zyrox before its use becomes widespread. Objective 3, summarized by Aaron Tarone: Aaron Tarone will be examining the evolution of bacteria associated with flies. There could be good funding opportunities for this work. Objective 4, summarized by Dave Taylor: There were two main discussion topics involving collaborations. The first involves work on horn fly dispersal that is being led by Wes. The second had to do with the question of whether Nebraska spring stable fly populations are local or migrants from elsewhere. Collaborators will continue to put out traps, score first appearance of flies, and send the collected flies to Kristina for morphometric analysis.

Publications

Barba, M., A. J. Stewart, T. Passler, T. Hathcock, A. A. Wooldridge, E. van Santen, M. Chamorro, R. Cattley, J. A. Hogsette and X. P. Hu. 2015. Experimental inoculation of house flies, Musca domestica with Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis serovar equi. Bull. Insectol. 68: 39-44. Barba, M., A. J. Stewart, T. Passler, A. A. Wooldridge, E. van Santen, M. Chamorro, R. Cattley, T. Hathcock , J. A. Hogsette and X. P. Hu. 2015. Experimental transmission of Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis serovar equi in horses by house flies. J. Vet. Internal Med. 29: 636-643. Boxler, J. D. 2015. The horn fly. University of Nebraska- Lincoln, Neb Guide. G1180. Boxler, J. D. 2015. The face fly. University of Nebraska- Lincoln, Neb Guide. G1204. Boxler, J. D. 2015. Nebraska management guide for insect pests of livestock and horses. University of Nebraska- Lincoln, Extension Circular. EC-1550. Davis, T.J, P.E. Kaufman, J.A. Hogsette, and D.L. Kline. 2015. The effects of larval habitat Quality on Aedes albopictus skip oviposition.  J. Am. Mosq. Control Assn. 31: 321-328. Fowler, F. E., J. Chirico, B. A. Sandelin and B. A. Mullens. 2015. Seasonality and diapause of Musca autumnalis (Diptera: Muscidae) at its southern limits in North America, with observations on Haematobia irritans (Diptera: Muscidae). J. Med. Entomol. 52: 1213-1224. Fowler, F. E. and B. A. Mullens. 2016. Dividing the pie: differential dung pat size utilization by sympatric Haematobia irritans and Musca autumnalis. Med. Vet. Entomol. (in press). Friesen, K., D. Berkebile, B. Wienhold, L. Durso, J. Zhu, and D. Taylor. 2016. Environmental parameters associated with stable fly (Diptera: Muscidae) development at hay feeding sites. Environ. Entomol. (in press). Geden, C. J. and H. Skovgaard. 2014.  Status of Tachinaephagus zealandicus (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae), a larval parasitoid of muscoid flies, in the eastern U.S. and Denmark.  J. Vector Ecol.  39: 453-456. Geden, C. J., D. Johnson, P. E. Kaufman and C. K. Boohene. 2014.  Competition between the filth fly parasitoids Muscidifurax raptor and M. raptorellus (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae).  J. Vector Ecol.  39: 278--287. Machtinger, E. T., C. J. Geden, J. A. Hogsette, and N. C. Leppla. 2014.  Development and oviposition preference of house flies and stable flies in six substrates from Florida equine facilities.  J. Med. Entomol. 51: 1144-1150 Machtinger, E. T., C. J. Geden, P. E.Teal, and N. C. Leppla. 2015.  Comparison of host-seeking behavior of the filth fly pupal parasitoids, Spalangia cameroni and Muscidifurax raptor (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae).  Environ. Entomol. 44: 330–337; DOI: 10.1093/ee/nvu063. Boucias, D., J. Baniszewski, P. Prompiboon, V. Lietze, and C. J. Geden. 2015.  Enhancement of the Musca domestica hytrosavirus infection with peritrophic matrix disruptive chemistries.  J. Invertebrate Pathol. 125: 35-43. Machtinger, E. T., C. J. Geden, and N. C. Leppla. 2015.  The effect of linear distance on the parasitism of house fly hosts (Diptera: Muscidae) by Spalangia cameroni (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae). PLoS ONE 10(6): e0129105.  doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0129105. Machtinger, E.T., C. J. Geden, P. E. Kaufman, and A. M. House. 2015.  Use of pupal parasitoids as biological control agents of filth flies on equine facilities.  J. Integr. Pest. Manag. DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jipm/pmv015">http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jipm/pmv015</a>  First published online: 23 September 2015 Machtinger, E. T. and C. J. Geden. 2015.  Comparison of the olfactory preferences of four species of filth fly pupal parasitoids (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae) in equine and bovine manure.  Environ. Entomol 44: 1417–1424 Machtinger, E. T., C. J. Geden, E. D. LoVullo, and P. D. Shirk. 2015.  Impacts of extended laboratory rearing on female fitness in the parasitoid Spalangia cameroni (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae) with an analysis of Wolbachia strains..  Annals, Entomol. Soc. Amer. DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/aesa/sav118">http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/aesa/sav118</a>  First published online: 27 November 2015 Machtinger, E. T., E. M. Weeks, and C. J. Geden. 2016.  Sublethal consequences of commercial fungal products on filth flies (Diptera: Muscidae) (in press). Mullens, B. A., D. Soto and A. C. Gerry. 2016. Estimating field densities of Haematobia irritans (Diptera: Muscidae) using direct visual field counts versus photographic assessments. J. Med. Entomol. 53, doi: 10.193/jme/tjv246. Müller, G. C., J. A. Hogsette, D. L. Kline, J. C. Beier, E. E. Revay and R. D. Xue.  2015. Response of Phlebotomus papatasi to visual, physical and chemical attraction features in the field. Acta Tropica 141: 32-36. Solorzano, J. A., J. Gilles, O. Bravo, C. Vargas, Y. Gomez-Bonilla, G. V. Bingham, and D. B. Taylor. 2015. Biology and trapping of stable flies (Diptera: Muscidae) developing in pineapple residues (Ananas comosus) in Costa Rica. J. Insect Sci. 15: 145.  Soto, D. F. E. Fowler, B. A. Sandelin and B. A Mullens. 2014. Musca autumnalis (Diptera: Muscidae) and the host-specific nematode Paraiontonchium autumnale (Tylenchida: Iotonchidae) in southern California. J. Med. Entomol. 51: 288-292. Zhu, J. J., G. J. Brewer, D. J. Boxler, K. Friesen, and D. B. Taylor. 2015. Comparisons of antifeedancy and spatial repellency of three natural product repellents against horn flies, Haematobia irritans (Diptera: Muscidae). Pest Manag. Sci. 71: 1553-1560. Zhu, J. J., Q. Zhang, D. B. Taylor, and K. M. Friesen. 2015. Visual and olfactory enhancement of stable fly trapping. Pest Manag. Sci. doi: 10.1002/ps.4207.

Impact Statements

Date of Annual Report: 03/10/2017

Report Information

Annual Meeting Dates: 01/10/2017 - 01/12/2017
Period the Report Covers: 10/01/2013 - 09/30/2018

Participants

Alec Gerry/UC Riverside
Phil Kaufman/University of Florida
Nancy Hinkle/University of Georgia
Sonja Swiger/Texas A&M Agrilife Extension
Aaron Tarone/Texas A&M University
Rich Meisel/University of Houston
Jeff Scott/Cornell University
Jerry Hogsette/USDA, Gainesville, FL
Xing Ping Hu/Auburn University
Kristina Friesen/USDA, Lincoln, NE
Brandon Smythe/New Mexico State University
Trisha Dubie/Oklahoma State University
Doug Ross/Bayer Animal Health
William B. Warner/Central Garden and Pet Co.
Bill Donahue/Sierra Research Laboratories
Kelly Lofton/University of Arkansas
Chris Geden/USDA, Gainesville, FL
Becky Trout Fryxell/University of Tennessee
Levi Zahn /UC Riverside
Amy Murillo/UC Riverside
Brad Mullens/UC Riverside
Gary Brewer/University of Nebraska
Rick Roeder/University of Arkansas
Dave Boxler/UNL, North Platte, NE
David Taylor/USDA, Lincoln, NE

Brief Summary of Minutes

Opening session: Project Chair Kristina Freisen called the meeting to order at 8:36 AM on January 11, 2017. Local arrangements coordinator Alec Gerry provided information about the facility, wireless signal access, and registration fees ($70 this year). This was followed by a round of self-introductions. Kristina announced that S-1060 had won the “National Excellence in Multistate Research Award” and that Sonja Swiger had attended the award ceremony in Washington and received the award plaque on behalf of the project. A round of applause followed to recognize Kristina’s work in assembling the award application.

Rick Roeder, the administrative advisor to S1060, reminded us that the annual report is due 60 days after the meeting. Rick also congratulated the group on the award and said that the experiment station directors had been impressed with the diversity of the membership and the modernity of the techniques being used in the research. There is a $15,000 cash award that must be spent within a year (or request a one-year extension). The money cannot be used to fund research but rather could be used for student travel or for invited speakers for next year’s meeting. He also mentioned that screwworm flies had been detected on the Florida mainland, and Phil Kaufman gave an update on the fly problem in Florida.

Business Meeting: A brief business meeting was held to choose the location for next year’s meeting. Orlando was nominated, voted on, and approved for the 2018 meeting. Meeting adjourned for the day at 5:30 PM.

Thursday AM:

Nancy Hinkle reminded us that the LIWC this year will be at the Hilton Desoto Inn in Savannah June 26-28, 2017.

Kristina Friesen led a discussion about how to spend the balance of our project’s award ($13,000). Possibilities included funding student travel to next year’s meeting, inviting an outside speaker or two, inviting stakeholders from commodity groups, paying to migrate the UCR website to neutral ground, or sending project members to major commodity meetings like the World Poultry Expo.

Replacement Project. Kristina led a discussion for developing the replacement project for S-1060. Expanding it to include darkling beetles, ticks and other pests would be nice but it would dilute the focus and could detract from our mission of team science and collaboration. It was decided to keep our current 5 objectives but refresh the sub-objectives. The following shell of a project was developed to form the foundation of writing committees:

Objective 1 (management): Wes Watson (nominated chair), Brandon Smythe, Jerry Hogsette, Chris Geden, Alec Gerry, Kelly Lofton, Brad Mullens, Gary Brewer.

Objective 2 (resistance): Jeff Scott (nominated chair), Phil Kaufman, Becky Trout Fryxell, Caleb.

Objective 3 (microbes): Dana Nayduch (nominated chair), Ludek Zurek.

Objective 4 (population biology): Dave Taylor (nominated chair), Jerry Hogsette, Sonja Swiger, Becky Trout Fryxell, Kelly Lofton.

Objective 5 (extension/outreach): Alec Gerry (nominated chair).

Several general topics were discussed, including:

The desirability of an eartag that would delay the release of the active ingredient.

Developing a social media presence to deliver information to stakeholders.

The need for a stronger entomology presence with the EPA so that they are informed about reasonable product testing protocols.

Meeting adjourned after a round of applause for Kristina and Alec (time not noted).

Accomplishments

Objective 1. New technologies for management of biting and nuisance flies in organic and conventional systems. <ul> <li>Dave Boxler reported on several studies. In the first, he compared horn fly counts on animals treated with nothing (controls), geraniol, permethrin, and geraniol plus permethrin. In 2016 all treatments appeared to be equally effective, though the repellent was only effective for one week. In the second, he looked at efficacy of a C8910 product that is being sold successfully in the horse market. This material only kills flies on contact and provided 77% reduction in fly counts during the first two weeks. Greatest efficacy was during the first few days after treatment. In the third, he reported very high (112 and 288x) levels of permethrin resistance in Nebraska flies. There was a discussion about the need for new chemistry for horn flies. Doug Ross discussed the new Tolfenpro eartag from Bayer. This eartag has a new active ingredient, tolfenpyrad, that inhibits the mitochondrial electron transport system. It was introduced into the market in 2016 but there was some unexpected eye irritation that is being looked at. Finally, Dave reported on a feedlot that has been spraying permethrin, coumaphos and phosmet, every three days for houseflies. Fly testing showed 100x resistance to permethrin and 1000x to coumaphos.</li> <li>Nancy Hinkle tested a solar-powered sprayer for horn flies and found that permethrin was effective but only for a short while. Similar results were seen using the VetGun armed with lambdacyalothrin. Abamectin eartags (XP-820) provided several months of control.</li> <li>Bill Warner discussed recent changes in EPA’s standards for efficacy testing in which candidate products must meet the 90% control mark. It can take the EPA up to a year to approve a testing protocol submitted by industry. Required methodologies are becoming increasingly stringent. House fly bait tests can no longer be conducted in the field but must be done in 8-ft cube cages. Bed bug testing must be done with F2 colonies from field collections with a minimum of three strains, over a full dose-response range. Testing guidelines are unwritten, ever-changing, and under the purview of people with little or no knowledge and experience working with the insects.</li> <li>Brad Mullens discussed several items: 1) he and Amy Murillo have two new poultry IPM book chapters coming out; 2) there will also be an article by Mullens et al. in “American Entomologist” about past and future needs for veterinary entomology; 3) he will soon be publishing a big paper on the work with C8910 and geraniol, both of which were effective; and, 4) Using “cow models” with odors, stable flies responded to both octenol and CO2 but horn flies only responded to octenol. Brad also discussed his recent sabbatical in Tennessee, where he did trapping studies with the H-trap for Tabanus sulcifrons. This species has two forms, early and late, which may turn out to be different species. He also observed male swarming/mating behavior of T. calens and will be coauthoring a paper on this subject with Jeff Freeman that will include some of Jeff’s data from 57 years ago!</li> <li>Sonja Swiger has been looking at a Cargill feed additive (Emerald) including extracts of cinnamon and garlic that is thought to be helpful for ruminant nutrition. It is currently being fed to deer, and horn fly counts on animals suggest that it is effective against them. In lab tests she saw little effect when fly eggs were placed on manure pats from treated cattle. She also discussed a concern involving the timing of eartag placement in her state. Texas producers like to put tags on in the spring but horn fly populations don’t peak until August. By this time the tags have lost much of their potency.</li> <li>Trisha Dubie evaluated Long Range (Ivomec) injectable and the Corathon (coumaphos and diazinon) eartag. The Long Range product worked very well, perhaps because the formulation has a built-in second wave of release after about 10 weeks. Treated animals had higher weight gain than untreated controls. She also reported on development of an immunomarking technique for flies in which flies are treated with egg white as a marker that can be detected using ELISA methods. Flies retained the mark for 2-3 weeks and the technique is sensitive enough to detect 10-100 ppb of the marker. Finally, analysis of volatiles from animal carcasses showed that composting resulted in significant reductions in dimethyl disulfide emissions; composting also reduced fly numbers.</li> <li>Phil Kaufman reported on the evaluation of three semiochemicals individually and as mixtures as adulticides and larvicides targeting stable fly and horn fly. Adult horn flies were more sensitive to the semiochemical-based insecticides than the stable fly. High dose exposure provided significantly increased mortality against only horn fly larvae. No synergism was observed when evaluated as mixtures.</li> <li>Jerry Hogsette discussed work with Zyrox fly bait and the EndZone insecticide sticker. EndZone is a sticker that can be stuck on windows and has a surface coated with sugar and acetamiprid. Surprisingly, stable flies fed on these dry baits and were killed.</li> <li>Chris Geden described recent attempts to develop a pyriproxyfen (PPF) autodissemination station for house flies. Under field conditions in California and Florida he found that house flies were attracted to a new station design but few actually landed on the PPF-treated surface. Erika Machtinger and he have written a review of fly parasitoid biology and uses in biocontrol for a forthcoming book. They will provide Nancy with a link to the pdf when it comes out.</li> <li>Jerry Hogsette reported good results using KnightStick stable fly traps when they were placed within animal enclosures at zoos and protected from animals by hotwires. </li> </ul> Objective 2. Insecticide resistance detection and management (moderator, Jeff Scott). <ul> <li>Jeff Scott presented results from recent pyrethroid resistance work, in which he has documented the resistance conferred by the kdr, kdr-his, and super-kdr alleles as well as the fitness costs of these alleles. Resistance alleles that provide the most resistance (super-kdr) also have the highest fitness costs. He set out to see whether any new resistance alleles had emerged in recent decades. After a survey indicated that Kansas was a rich source off resistance allele diversity, he examined different fly populations, conducted selections, and searched for new alleles that could be involved in resistance to 10 pyrethroids. Resistance varied among the strains and five new mutations were found in standard kdr and one for super-kdr. Two new mutations may be involved in the compensation for fitness costs that come with resistance.</li> <li>Becky Trout Fryxell is examining seasonality of resistance allele frequencies in stable fly and seeing higher frequencies at the end of the fly season.</li> <li>Jeff Scott provided a status report of fly genomics. Thanks to Pia Olafson, the stable fly genome is completed and annotated. With house fly, Andy Clark and Ludek Zurek are looking at genes involved in responding to pathogens and Rich Meisel is investigating sex determination. </li> </ul> Objective 3. Investigation of the microbial ecology, epithelial immunity, and vector competence of biting and nuisance flies. <ul> <li>Kristina Friesen made reports on behalf of Ludek Zurek and Dana Nayduch, who were unable to attend the meeting. A poster from Ludek was put on display which documented house fly carriage of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Dana wanted the group to know that there will be a special issue of the “Annals of the ESA” covering filth fly-microbe interactions. Dana also reported that, with some pathogens, there is a difference in the amounts of bacteria that female and male flies carry. Females always have more bacteria on the body surface and deposit more fecal spots that males. Dana is also doing transcriptomes of 2nd instar larvae of horn fly, house, fly, stable fly, and face fly in the same kind of manure.</li> <li>Aaron Tarrone is looking at attraction of Lucilia sericata to volatiles produced by Proteus mirabilis, whose genome has been sequenced.</li> <li>Xing Ping Hu discussed the possible role of house flies as a vector of pigeon fever, also known as equine distemper. The disease is caused by infection with Corynebacterium pseudotuberculos and can result in abscesses in horses, sheep and cattle.</li> <li>Becky Trout Fryxell reported on an incident at the Plateau Research Center, a facility that has both produce and cattle at the same site. When a problem developed with E. coli on the produce, Becky collected 2500 flies and will now assess them for presence of E. coli and Salmonella. </li> </ul> Objective 4. Characterize population biology of biting and nuisance flies (moderator, Dave Taylor). <ul> <li>Levi Zahn is studying house fly movement patterns. Flies move with a more pointed directionality later in the day than in the morning. Wind does not seem to account very much for fly movement. Levi will be working on using remote sensors that can identify and count fly species and sex using infrared beams and wing beat frequency.</li> <li>Amy Murillo is installing backpacks on chickens that will monitor their behavior by tracking their movement, allowing construction of time budgets for items such as walking, feeding, and dustbathing. Using this, she hopes to examine questions such as whether ectoparasites cause birds to spend more time engaged in dustbathing.</li> <li>Kristina Friesen provided a progress report of a regional phenology project in which stable flies are monitored in many regions for seasonality and the sex and reproductive status of flies collected at different times of year.   In 2015, collections (from nine states and provinces) were made up of mostly young flies throughout the season in many locations. In Texas and Nebraska, early season flies were older and in a late ovarian condition, and in Manitoba the early season flies were older whereas late season flies were younger. Results in 2016 were rather different, with more older flies overall than in 2015. She has saved and slide-mounted the wings from all of the flies for body size assessment. A discussion followed about the origin of early season flies in different locations and the cause of the late fall peak that is seen in some locations. </li> </ul> Objective 5. Community and stakeholder involvement. <ul> <li>Alec Gerry gave an update on the pesticide database that he developed for veterinary entomology <a href="http://veterinaryentomology.ucr.edu/vet_pesticides.html">http://veterinaryentomology.ucr.edu/vet_pesticides.html</a>. Data from 22 states are now in the database. He would like to see this database migrate from UCR and make it a national (S-1060) database. He encouraged industry to give input to maintain and update the database to keep it current. The website also has an S-1060 blog.</li> <li>Phil Kaufman mentioned the series of webinars of narrated PowerPoint presentations by Dan Suiter for continuing education credits for certified pesticide applicators for urban and structural pests. They can be found at <a href="http://www.gtbop.com/">www.gtbop.com</a>. Should we develop something along these lines? Phil also mentioned that Keith Waldron has retired and that the New York program will be publishing a Spanish language version of the Pest Management Guidelines for Livestock. </li> </ul> Having completed the Objectives reports, Aaron Tarrone gave a presentation to the group on genomics and how it could fit into the renewed project. He gave several examples: 1) leveraging work done by Drosophila researchers that could help in predicting what alleles might be involved in possible resistance to fatty acid mixtures such as C8910; 2) examination of ecological adaptations such as migration or adaptation to temperature; 3) examining admixtures/source populations to determine the origins of dispersing populations; 4) improving screwworm strain design for SIT; and, 5) functional genomics, including insecticide resistance and response to pathogens. In summary, Aaron encouraged a more prominent role for genomics in the next iteration of the project.

Publications

Impact Statements

Date of Annual Report: 03/10/2017

Report Information

Annual Meeting Dates: 01/10/2017 - 01/12/2017
Period the Report Covers: 10/01/2013 - 09/30/2018

Participants

Alec Gerry/UC Riverside
Phil Kaufman/University of Florida
Nancy Hinkle/University of Georgia
Sonja Swiger/Texas A&M Agrilife Extension
Aaron Tarone/Texas A&M University
Rich Meisel/University of Houston
Jeff Scott/Cornell University
Jerry Hogsette/USDA, Gainesville, FL
Xing Ping Hu/Auburn University
Kristina Friesen/USDA, Lincoln, NE
Brandon Smythe/New Mexico State University
Trisha Dubie/Oklahoma State University
Doug Ross/Bayer Animal Health
William B. Warner/Central Garden and Pet Co.
Bill Donahue/Sierra Research Laboratories
Kelly Lofton/University of Arkansas
Chris Geden/USDA, Gainesville, FL
Becky Trout Fryxell/University of Tennessee
Levi Zahn/UC Riverside
Amy Murillo/UC Riverside
Brad Mullens/UC Riverside
Gary Brewer/University of Nebraska
Rick Roeder/University of Arkansas
Dave Boxler/UNL, North Platte, NE
David Taylor/USDA, Lincoln, NE

Brief Summary of Minutes

Opening session: Project Chair Kristina Freisen called the meeting to order at 8:36 AM on January 11. Local arrangements coordinator Alec Gerry provided information about the facility, wireless signal access, and registration fees ($70 this year). This was followed by a round of self-introductions. Kristina announced that S-1060 had won the “National Excellence in Multistate Research Award” and that Sonja Swiger had attended the award ceremony in Washington and received the plaque on behalf of the project. A round of applause followed to recognize Kristina’s work in assembling the award application.

Rick Roeder, the administrative advisor to S1060 reminded us that the annual report is due 60 days after the meeting. Rick also congratulated the group on the award and said that the experiment station directors had been impressed with the diversity of the membership and the modernity of the techniques being used in the research. There is a $15,000 cash award that must be spent within a year (or request a one-year extension). The money cannot be used to fund research but rather could be used for student travel or for invited speakers for next year’s meeting. He also mentioned that screwworm flies had been detected on the Florida mainland, and Phil Kaufman gave an update on the fly problem in Florida.

Having completed the Objectives reports, Aaron Tarrone gave a presentation to the group on genomics and how it could fit into the renewed project. He gave several examples: 1) leveraging work done by Drosophila researchers that could help in predicting what alleles might be involved in possible resistance to fatty acid mixtures such as C8910; 2) examination of ecological adaptations such as migration or adaptation to temperature; 3) examining admixtures/source populations to determine the origins of dispersing populations; 4) improving screwworm strain design for SIT; 5) functional genomics, including insecticide resistance and response to pathogens. In summary, Aaron encouraged a more prominent role for genomics in the next iteration of the project.

Business Meeting: A brief business meeting was held to choose the location for next year’s meeting. Orlado was nominated, voted on, and approved for the 2018 meeting. Meeting adjourned for the day at 5:30.

Thursday AM:

Nancy Hinkle reminded us that the LIWC this year will be at the Hilton Desoto Inn in Savannah June 26-28.

Objective 1 (management): Wes Watson (nominated chair), Brandon Smythe, Jerry Hogsette, Chris Geden, Alec Gerry, Kelly Lofton, Brad Mullens, Gary Brewer.

Objective 2 (resistance): Jeff Scott (nominated chair), Phil Kaufman, Becky Trout Fryxell, Caleb

Objective 3 (microbes): Dana Nayduch (nominated chair), Ludek Zurek

Objective 4 (population biology): Dave Taylor (nominated chair), Jerry Hogsette, Sonja Swiger, Becky Trout Fryxell, Kelly Lofton.

Objective 5 (extension/outreach): Alec Gerry (nominated chair)

Several general topics were discussed, including:

The desirability of an eartag that would delay the release of the active ingredient.

Developing a social media presence to deliver information to stakeholders.

The need for a stronger entomology presence with EPA so that they are informed about reasonable product testing protocols.

Meeting adjourned after a round of applause for Kristina and Alec (time not noted).

Accomplishments

Objective 1. New technologies for management of biting and nuisance flies in organic and conventional systems <ul> <li>Dave Boxler reported on several studies. In the first, he compared horn fly counts on animals treated with nothing (controls), geraniol, permethrin, and geraniol plus permethrin. In 2016 all treatments appeared to be equally effective, though the repellent was only effective for one week. In the second he looked at efficacy of a C8910 product that is being sold successfully in the horse market. This material only kills flies on contact, and provided 77% reduction in fly counts during the first two weeks. Greatest efficacy was during the first few days after treatment. In the third he reported very high (112 and 288x) levels of permethrin resistance in Nebraska flies. There was a discussion about the need for new chemistry for horn flies. Doug Ross discussed the new Tolfenpro eartag from Bayer. This has a new active ingredient, tolfenpyrad, that inhibits the mitochondrial electron transport system. In was introduced into the market in 2016 but there was some unexpected eye irritation that is being looked at. Finally Dave reported on a feedlot that has been spraying permethrin, coumaphos and phosmet every three days for house flies. Fly testing showed 100x resistance to permethrin and 1000x to coumaphos.</li> <li>Nancy Hinkle tested a solar-powered sprayer for horn flies and found that permethrin was effective but only for a short while. Similar results were seen using the VetGun armed with lambdacyalothrin. Abamectin eartags (XP-820) provided several months of control.</li> <li>Bill Warner discussed recent changes in EPA’s standards for efficacy testing in which candidate products must meet the 90% control mark. It can take EPA up to a year to approve a testing protocol submitted by industry. Required methodologies are becoming increasingly stringent. House fly bait tests can no longer be conducted in the field but must be done in 8-ft cube cages. Bed bug testing must be done with F2 colonies from field collections, minimum of three strains, over a full dose-response range. Testing guidelines are unwritten, ever-changing, and under the purview of people with little or no knowledge and experience working with the insects.</li> <li>Brad Mullens discussed several items: 1) he and Amy Murillo have two new poultry IPM book chapters coming out; 2) there will also be article by Mullens et al. in American Entomologist about past and future needs for veterinary entomology; 3) he will soon be publishing a big paper on the work with C8910 and geraniol, both of which were effective; 4) Using “cow models” with odors, stable flies responded to both octenol and CO2 but horn flies only responded to octenol. Brad also discussed his recent sabbatical in Tennessee, where he did trapping studies with the H-trap for Tabanus sulcifrons. This species has two forms, early and late, which may turn out to be different species. He also observed male swarming/mating behavior of T. calens and will be coauthoring a paper on this subject with Jeff Freeman that will include some of Jeff’s data from 57 years ago!</li> <li>Sonja Swiger has been looking at a Cargill feed additive (Emerald) including extracts of cinnamon and garlic that is thought to be helpful for ruminant nutrition. It is currently being fed to deer, and horn fly counts on animals suggest that it is effective against them. In lab tests she saw little effect when fly eggs were placed on manure pats from treated cattle. She also discussed a concern involving the timing of eartag placement in her state. Texas producers like to put tags on in the spring but horn fly populations don’t peak until August. By this time the tags have lost much of their potency.</li> <li>Trisha Dubie evaluated Long Range (Ivomec) injectable and the Corathon (coumaphos and diazinon) eartag. The Long Range product worked very well, perhaps because the formulation has a built-in second wave of release after about 10 weeks. Treated animals had higher weight gain than untreated controls. She also reported on development of an immunomarking technique for flies in which flies are treated with egg white as a marker that can be detected using ELISA methods. Flies retained the mark for 2-3 weeks and the technique is sensitive enough to detect 10-100 ppb of the marker. Finally, analysis of volatiles from animal carcasses showed that composting resulted in significant reductions in dimethyl disulfide emissions; composting also reduced fly numbers.</li> <li>Phil Kaufman reported on the evaluation of three semiochemicals individually and as mixtures as adulticides and larvicides targeting stable fly and horn fly. Adult horn flies were more sensitive to the semiochemical-based insecticides than the stable fly. High dose exposure provided significantly increased mortality against only horn fly larvae. No synergism was observed when evaluated as mixtures.</li> <li>Jerry Hogsette discussed work with Zyrox fly bait and the EndZone insecticide sticker. EndZone is a sticker that can be stuck on windows and has a surface coated with sugar and acetamiprid. Surprisingly, stable flies fed on these dry baits and were killed.</li> <li>Chris Geden described recent attempts to develop a pyriproxyfen (PPF) autodissemination station for house flies. Under field conditions in California and Florida he found that house flies were attracted to a new station design but few actually landed on the PPF-treated surface. Erika Machtinger and he have written a review of fly parasitoid biology and uses in biocontrol for a forthcoming book. They will provide Nancy with a link to the pdf when it comes out.</li> <li>Jerry Hogsette reported good results using KnightStick stable fly traps when they were placed within animal enclosures at zoos and protected from animals by hotwires.</li> </ul>  Objective 2. Insecticide resistance detection and management (moderator, Jeff Scott). <ul> <li>Jeff Scott presented results from recent pyrethroid resistance work, in which he has documented the resistance conferred by the kdr, kdr-his, and super-kdr alleles as well as the fitness costs of these alleles. Resistance alleles that provide the most resistance (super-kdr) also have the highest fitness costs. He set out to see whether any new resistance alleles had emerged in recent decades. After a survey indicated that Kansas was a rich source off resistance allele diversity, he examined different fly populations, conducted selections, and searched for new alleles that could be involved in resistance to 10 pyrethroids. Resistance varied among the strains and five new mutations were found in standard kdr and one for super-kdr. Two new mutations may be involved in the compensation for fitness costs that come with resistance.</li> <li>Becky Trout Fryxell is examining seasonality of resistance allele frequencies in stable fly and seeing higher frequencies at the end of the fly season.</li> <li>Jeff Scott provided a status report of fly genomics. Thanks to Pia Olafson, the stable fly genome is completed and annotated. With house fly, Andy Clark and Ludek Zurek are looking at genes involved in responding to pathogens and Rich Meisel is investigating sex determination. </li> </ul> Objective 3. Investigation of the microbial ecology, epithelial immunity, and vector competence of biting and nuisance flies. <ul> <li>Kristina Friesen made reports on behalf of Ludek Zurek and Dana Nayduch, who were unable to attend the meeting. A poster from Ludek was put on display which documented house fly carriage of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Dana wanted the group to know that there will be a special issue of the Annals of the ESA covering filth fly-microbe interactions. Dana also reported that, with some pathogens, there is a difference in the amounts of bacteria that female and male flies carry. Females always have more bacteria on the body surface and deposit more fecal spots that males. Dana is also doing transcriptomes of 2nd instar larvae of horn fly, house, fly, stable fly, and face fly in the same kind of manure.</li> <li>Aaron Tarrone is looking at attraction of Lucilia sericata to volatiles produced by Proteus mirabilis, whose genome has been sequenced.</li> <li>Xing Ping Hu discussed the possible role of house flies as a vector of pigeon fever, also known as equine distemper. The disease is caused by infection with Corynebacterium pseudotuberculos and can result in abscesses in horses, sheep and cattle.</li> <li>Becky Trout Fryxell reported on an incident at the Plateau Research Center, a facility that has both produce and cattle at the same site. When a problem developed with E. coli on the produce, Becky collected 2500 flies and will now assess them for presence of E. coli and Salmonella. </li> </ul> Objective 4. Characterize population biology of biting and nuisance flies (moderator, Dave Taylor). <ul> <li>Levi Zahn is studying house fly movement patterns. Flies move with a more pointed directionality later in the day than in the morning. Wind does not seem to account very much for fly movement. Levi will be working on using remote sensors that can identify and count fly species and sex using infrared beams and wing beat frequency.</li> <li>Amy Murillo is installing backpacks on chickens that will monitor their behavior by tracking their movement, allowing construction of time budgets for items such as walking, feeding, and dustbathing. Using this, she hopes to examine questions such as whether ectoparasites cause birds to spend more time engaged in dustbathing.</li> <li>Kristina Friesen provided a progress report of a regional phenology project in which stable flies are monitored in many regions for seasonality and the sex and reproductive status of flies collected at different times of year.   In 2015, collections (from nine states and provinces) were made up of mostly young flies throughout the season in many locations. In Texas and Nebraska, early season flies were older and in a late ovarian condition, and in Manitoba the early season flies were older whereas late season flies were younger. Results in 2016 were rather different, with more older flies overall than in 2015. She has saved and slide-mounted the wings from all of the flies for body size assessment. A discussion followed about the origin of early season flies in different locations and the cause of the late fall peak that is seen in some locations. </li> </ul> Objective 5. Community and stakeholder involvement. <ul> <li>Alec Gerry gave an update on the pesticide database that he developed for veterinary entomology (<a href="http://veterinaryentomology.ucr.edu/vet_pesticides.html">http://veterinaryentomology.ucr.edu/vet_pesticides.html</a> ). Data from 22 states are now in the database. He would like to see this database migrate from UCR and make it a national (S-1060) database. He encouraged industry to give input to maintain and update the database to keep it current. The website also has an S-1060 blog.</li> <li>Phil Kaufman mentioned the series of webinars of narrated PowerPoint presentations by Dan Suiter for continuing education credits for certified pesticide applicators for urban and structural pests. They can be found at <a href="http://www.gtbop.com/">www.gtbop.com</a>. Should we develop something along these lines? Phil also mentioned that Keith Waldron has retired and that the New York program will be publishing a Spanish language version of the Pest Management Guidelines for Livestock.</li> </ul>

Publications

Impact Statements

Date of Annual Report: 04/24/2018

Report Information

Annual Meeting Dates: 01/16/2018 - 01/19/2018
Period the Report Covers: 01/16/2018 - 04/19/2018

Participants

Participants Attachment:

S-1060 Minutes of 2018 annual meeting of multi.docx

Brief Summary of Minutes

Opening session: Acting chair Alec Gerry called the meeting to order. Project chair Kristina Friesen has announced her decision to retire from USDA, effective Feb 24, but agreed to help complete the project re-write. Alec reminded the group that the annual report is due 60 days after the meeting and that the final report is due in 12 months. Local arrangements coordinator Jerry Hogsette provided information about the facility, wireless signal access, and registration. This was followed by a round of self-introductions.

Rick Roeder, the administrative advisor to S1060 reminded us that the annual report is due 60 days after the meeting, and that the current project ends on 9/30/2018. We should try to have a new project submitted by January 30. Because of the long time that it takes to complete the review, we may have to use a temporary project number for next year’s meeting.

Herb Bolton discussed the situation in Washington. The lack of a budget is slowing down the NIFA grants process. NIFA director Sonny Ramaswamy is advocating for funding “tactical science”, making the point that agricultural commodities have large impacts the country’s economy and need appropriate funding. Sonny had to fight to restore NIFA funding after sequestration. The Farm Bill is under development and may include some “tactical science” elements. NIFA is developing a new strategic plan. Our project submitted input on this during the comment period, as did MUVE and Nancy Hinkle. On the NIFA website, the “Data Gateway” is replacing the CRIS portal for searching for funded projects. The NIFA site now allows you to sign up for updates. You can also share your results via the “Share Your Science” tab under the “Impact” main tab of the NIFA site.

Herb mentioned that Sonny Ramaswamy is working hard to get capacity funds back and to increase AFRI funding, which is only funded at about 30% of what it should be. AFRI has two new programs. The first is CARE (Critical Agriculture Research and Extension), intended to fund very applied work that is ready for implementation and outreach. The second is “Exploratory”, for highly innovative breakthrough work across all commodities. AFRI also funds fellowships for young scientists on all topics through the ELI (Education and Literacy Initiative) program,

Minutes Attachment:

S-1060 Minutes of 2018 annual meeting of multi.docx

Accomplishments

Objective 1.  New technologies for management of biting and nuisance flies in organic and conventional systems <ul> <li>Wes Watson announced that NC State has filled four entomology faculty slots this year, including positions on precision pest management, systematics, and insect-vectored viruses. He then reported on a horn fly dispersal study in which he got as team of 14 students to help with a mark -release-recapture study where flies were monitored on a herd located 277 meters away after treating the cattle at the release site with 1% geraniol. In the first trial, geraniol was only applied to the upper body, and many of the flies simply moved to the legs rather than dispersing from the treated herd. Higher recapture rates (8%) were observed when whole-body treatments were made at the release point. His lab has developed a flight mill and found that horn flies flew 1.4-2.5 km/hr. They plan to expand this work to look at horn fly, stable fly, house fly, and face fly flight as a function of fly age, sex, feeding status, reproductive condition, etc.</li> <li>Alec Gerry summarized some push-pull work using geraniol and fatty acids (C8-9-10) as repellents. Both provided good immediate results but the repellency was transient, and flies seemed to be getting adequate blood meals even on treated animals. He then reported on bait test with house flies in which a new indoxycarb (sodium channel blocker) bait worked well when compared with the established commercial products Zyrox and QuickStrike. There were signs that the flies were becoming tolerant of the dinotefuron used in QuickStrike bait. Lastly, he presented work that his student Levon Zahn is doing using sensors to recognize and count flies. It can count flies using fluctuations in light transmission as they pass through a 3”-1 meter circle using photosensor arrays and a laser line. The sensors, in combination with the software involved, can “learn” to recognize species based on body size and wing beat signatures. The sensors are inexpensive but the software will be licensed and costly.</li> <li>Jerry Zhu discussed some new work on a repellent from coconut oil. He pointed out that although catnip oil is effective it is highly transient and only lasts for 6 hours or so in the field. Fatty acids and their methyl esters found in coconut oil look more promising, especially the C8 lauric acid and methyl laurate. C8-C13 fatty acids are repellent, but C14 upward are not. Lauric acid is safe and very inexpensive; it could be applied to cattle for $0.08 per animal. Repellency persists for up to two weeks in the lab and has activity against horn flies, bed bugs, and ticks. He is working with a 14% starch formulation that is particularly effective.</li> <li>Dave Boxler presented work on a number of topics related to horn fly control. 1) apple cider was expensive and ineffective; 2) New YTex tag with 6% abamectin, 3% cypermethrin and 20% PBO provided 70% control and was also effective against face flies; 3) Another YTex tag, the XP820 (8% abamectin and 20% PBO) provided excellent control for 10-12 weeks.</li> <li>Chris Geden gave a summary of work with Israeli scientists on pyrproxifen, some new work on sugar alcohols as a vehicle for Beauveria bassiana, and has a new student who will look at whether parasitoids can detect pupae that are infected with bassiana.</li> <li>Erika Macthinger outlined a grant with Chris Geden that was recently funded by U.S. Poultry and Egg. They will be searching for new strains of bassiana from flies collected in poultry houses, selecting to improve virulence, and testing for compatibility with parasitoids and predators.</li> <li>Dana Johnson, who has just finished her MS thesis, gave an overview of her research project. She looked at combinations of Beauveria bassiana with three gram-negative bacteria species. There was little evidence for synergy, but combinations of bassiana with Pseudomonas protegens were more effective than either pathogen alone and P. protegens has an exotoxin that looks promising in its own right.</li> <li>Jerry Hogsette found that by placing KnightStick fly traps inside a solar-powered electric fence enclosure within the animal exhibits at the National Zoo, the traps caught 3-10 times as many flies as traps that were placed along the perimeter of the exhibits.</li> </ul>  Objective 2.  Insecticide resistance detection and management. Jamie Freeman from Jeff Scott’s lab is examining the frequency of several resistance alleles in house flies, including the VSSC mutations kdr, kdr-his, and s-kdr as well as the detoxification alleles in the CYP family. Kansas flies are highly resistant to permethrin (lots of s-kdr), Utah about 50% resistant, and New Mexico flies had low resistance. CYP6D1 was very common in all populations, especially Kansas. Tetrachlorvinphos resistance patterns were similar to permethrin. Kansas flies were 100% resistant to methomyl.  Objective 3. Investigation of the microbial ecology, epithelial immunity, and vector competence of biting and nuisance flies. <ul> <li>Ludek Zurek is examining house flies and Bovine Respiratory Disease (BRD) virus, which is often associated with the bacteria Mannheimia haemolytica, Pasteurella multocida, and Histophilus somni in clinical cases of BRD. He has developed primers for all three bacteria and will now survey house flies for their presence. Ludek is also looking at 7 strains of shigatoxin-producing coli besides 0157:H7. They are common in house flies but not stable flies. However, house flies collected from restaurants so far haven’t had shigatoxic E. coli, suggesting that the “urban” flies are losing the pathogens during the journey from farm to town. The prevalence of 0157 on farms is about 4%.</li> <li>Dana Nayduch discussed a variety of topics on house fly-bacterial interactions. She is using fly transcriptomics and microbiome analysis to understand how flies use various manures and finding that flies have massive expansion and redundancies in immune genes. Are they using these genes to help with feeding and defense? So far 12 defensins have been found, including digestive lineages that are more recent and common in adult flies. She is also working on excretion of Salmonella typhimurium by adult house flies, specifically effects of sex and dosing. Female flies acquire more cfu’s than males, but males excrete more. Flies fed low doses excrete more cfu’s than flied fed on higher doses, probably because higher doses trigger a stronger immune response.</li> <li>Jessica Thompson, Dana Nayduch’s student, presented information on how cantaloupe facilitates transmission of Salmonella typhimurium between house flies. Flies lost most of the ingested bacteria within 6 hours when no food was present. When cantaloupe was present, flies transmitted bacteria to the fruit and replicated a great deal over the next 24 hours. Healthy flies became infected when they fed on the fly-contaminated cantaloupe.</li> <li>Pia Olafson reported to the group via Zoom Conference because she was unable to make it to the meeting. She discussed a project involving genotyping cattle and assessing horn fly resistance. A team has been put together for this work, and the next step will to examine two herds at the Meat Animal Research Center (MARC) that have been genotyped. The animals are now being phenotyped for fly burden, as will be their calves. The work could lead to identifying specific genes involved in fly resistance, which in turn could facilitate breeding for resistant lines of cattle.</li> <li>Lettie McCay, a student at the University of Tennessee, surveyed cattle producers in TN, TX, and NM to see how strong an interest they had in buying horn fly-resistant cattle. Results from Tennessee have been collated: 79% would pay $1500 more for a bull that was horn fly resistant and 82% would pay more for a resistant bull overall; 94% would pay more to have all-resistant animals in their herds.</li> <li>John Stoffolano discussed a wide range of topics on house fly, including: 1) antimicrobial peptides (AMP’s) are produced by the salivary and labellar glands and go into the crop; 2) flies as vectors of Chlamydia responsible for trachoma; 3) role of flies in transmission of ORF, or sore mouth disease of sheep in Italy; 4) toxic effects of chitosan on adults, possibly due to interference with gut microflora; 5) neuronal connections in the crop and the effect of serotonin on crop contraction rates; 6) biofilm production by coli on the interpseudotrachae of adult flies; 7) salivary gland hypertrophy virus; 8) up-regulation of antimicrobial products in the salivary gland following fungal challenge.</li> <li>Nancy Hinkle has a new paper coming out in the Science of the Total Environment on bacteria associated with flies on Georgia dairies.</li> </ul>  Meeting adjourned for day and reconvened on Thursday at 8:30 AM  Objective 4. Characterize population biology of biting and nuisance flies. <ul> <li>Travis Davis, a graduate student at the University of Tennessee, discussed plans for his MS thesis. He will be using mitochondrial and nuclear DNA to analyze relationships among the 50 species of Tabanus in the southeastern US. He also wants to map distributions for all the species using museum specimens and volunteer collectors in different locations. He hopes to use niche modelling to characterize species distribution as a function of factors such as altitude, temperature, rainfall, and vegetation index.</li> <li>Phillip Shultz, a graduate student at Texas A & M, is working on population genetics of Culicoides sonorensis. He is using SNP’s to look at gene flow and dispersal, hybridization with vitripennis and C. occidentalis, and possible cryptic species. He is working closely with deer ranchers. Objectives include determining whether C. varipennis has cryptic species and understanding C. sonorensis gene flow in ways that could predict or mitigate future bluetongue outbreaks.</li> <li>Dave Taylor discussed the growing problem of stable flies developing in crop residues. He presented information from southwest Australia, where the main culprit is residues from truck farms growing beets, celery, lettuce, etc. The soil is coarse and sandy and the crop residues are producing 200-500 stable flies per square meter, resulting in unbearable fly burdens on nearby cattle. Dave also did a lab study in which he diluted fly larval diet with vermiculite to produce a range of diets with decreasing available nutrition for the larvae. Stable fly larvae grown in “poor” media developed just as fast as on good media but produced smaller-sized adult flies.</li> </ul>  Objective 5.  Community and stakeholder involvement. Alec Gerry announced that his Veterinary Entomology website has moved from UCR’s server to a .org domain on the WIX platform. It has documents on biology of veterinary pests and the pesticide database VetPestX. The website could use a little more information in the “Training and Education” section, and the “other resources” section also needs more content. Perhaps information about the LIWC or S1060 could find a place in there.  Becky Trout Fryxell is working with Pia Olafson on the topic of developing horn fly resistant cattle. They did a survey of cattle producers on the status of horn fly management: 1) most feel that flies jeopardize animal comfort; 2) many aren’t sure that they can identify which flies they have; 3) most get their pest management information from Extension, other farmers, and popular media; 4) they don’t want information delivered through apps or learning modules; 5) they do want direct training, web sites, YouTube tutorials, and print articles. They would like to develop a program that allows producers to take a photo of flies on their animals, send it in, and have flies identified, counted, and a recommendation of whether treatment is warranted. They are looking for collaborators to help identify high- and low-fly carrying cattle. They are getting closer to identifying the genes involved in resistance to flies. This work requires funding for the genotyping and needs industry backing to push it forward.  Business Meeting <ul> <li>Las Cruces, New Mexico was nominated, voted on, and approved for the 2019 meeting. Brandon Smythe will host, and the meeting will be held the week of January 21st.  </li> <li>New officers were elected for the next iteration of the project: Becky Trout Fryxell (Chair) and Erika Machrtinger (Co-Chair). Chris Geden will continue to serve as secretary.</li> <li>There is still about $6000 left over from the award that S-1060 received. Some of the money will be used to fund student travel to the 2018 LIWC, and Alec Gerry will receive $1000 to produce 4 YouTube clips on veterinary pests. Becky Trout Fryxell agreed to handle the LIWC student travel awards.</li> <li>Alec suggested that a committee be formed to oversee the Veterinary Entomology website. Several people volunteered to serve: Brandon Smythe, Gary Brewer, Becky Trout Fryxell, Phil Kaufman, Dave Taylor, Erika Machtinger, and Jerry Zhu.</li> <li>Becky called Kristina Freisen to discuss the new project plan. Kristina is resigning effective February 23 but will see the project re-write through and publish outstanding data from collaborations. She pointed out areas where the group needed to do some work on the new project, especially to identify collaborations for the objectives.</li> <li>The rest of the day was devoted to a long discussion of the new project, identifying objectives, adding outcomes, outputs, and milestones, and listing collaborators.</li> <li>Wes Watson pointed out that a group at MIT has an app called “Dotcount” that can be used and trained to count just about anything.</li> <li>After thanking local arrangement coordinator Jerry Hogsette and de-facto meeting chairs Alec and Becky, the meeting was adjourned at 5 PM.</li> </ul>