Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

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.

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

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.