Validation of Selective Agars for Detection and Quantification of Escherichia coli Strains Resistant to Critically Important Antimicrobials

Established models of surveillance for AMR in livestock typically have a low sampling intensity, which creates a tremendous barrier to understanding the variation of resistance among animal and food enterprises. However, developments in laboratory robotics now make it possible to rapidly and affordably process large volumes of samples.

Optimal Sampling Intensity in South Korea for a Land-Use Change Matrix Using Point Sampling

To report changes in land use, the forestry sector, and land-use change matrix (LUCM), monitoring is necessary in South Korea to adequately respond to the Post-2020 climate regime. To calculate the greenhouse gas statistics observing the principle of transparency required by the Climate Change Convention, a consistent nationwide land-use classification and LUCM are required. However, in South Korea, land-use information is available from the 5th National Forest Inventory conducted in 2006 onwards; therefore, developing methods to determine historical LUCM information, including the base year required by the Intergovernmnetal Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), is essential. To determine the optimal sampling intensity for measuring systematic land-use changes and to estimate the corresponding area of land-use categories for previously unmeasured years, seven intensities—2 × 2 km to 8 × 8 km—were tested using the areas of the 3rd and 4th aerial photographs in time series for forestland, cropland, grassland, wetland, and settlements, according to their standard deviations and estimates of uncertainty. Analyses of statistical accuracy, statistical efficiency, economic efficiency, and convenience showed that a sampling intensity of 4 × 4 km was ideal. Additionally, the categorized areas of unmeasured land-use years were calculated through linear interpolation and extrapolation. Our LUCM can be utilized for developing a national greenhouse gas inventory.

Tracking the outbreak: an optimized sequential adaptive strategy for Xylella fastidiosa delimiting surveys

The EU plant health legislation enforces the implementation of intensive surveillance programs for quarantine pests. After an outbreak, surveys are implemented to delimit the extent of the infested zone and to manage disease control. Surveillance in agricultural and natural environments can be enhanced by increasing the survey efforts. Budget constraints often limit inspection and sampling intensities, thus making it necessary to adapt and optimize surveillance strategies. A sequential adaptive delimiting survey involving a three-phase and a two-phase design with increasing spatial resolution was developed and implemented for the Xylella fastidiosa demarcated area in Alicante, Spain. Inspection and sampling intensities were optimized using simulation-based methods. Sampling intensity thresholds were evaluated by quantifying their effect on the estimation of X. fastidiosa incidence. This strategy made it possible to sequence inspection and sampling taking into account increasing spatial resolutions, and to adapt the inspection and sampling intensities according to the information obtained in the previous, coarser, spatial resolution. The proposed strategy was able to efficiently delimit the extent of Xylella fastidiosa, while improving on the efficiency and maintaining the efficacy of the official survey campaign. From a methodological perspective, our approach provides new insights into alternative delimiting designs and new reference sampling intensity values.

Entomofauna asociada al cultivo de Solanum sessiliflorum Dunal, en el municipio de Lloró, occidente de Colombia

En tres parcelas de 6 m x 10,5 m se evaluó la entomofuana asociada al cultivo de Solanum sessiliflorum Dunal. Los insectos se colectaron aplicando captura manual y trampa. Las manuales, se efectuaron con el apoyo de jamás, pinzas y guantes de carnaza, las capturas con trampa, se realizaron por medio de trampas pitfall sin atrayentes, la intensidad de muestreo fue de 308 horas/hombre para las capturas manuales y 1344 horas/hombre para capturas con trampas pitfall. Se colectaron en total 386 individuos distribuidos en 38 géneros, 22 familias y cinco órdenes. La composición trófica sugiere a los insectos fitófagos y zoófagos como los más abundantes. La fluctuación poblacional de los insectos asociados, estuvo muy relacionada con la fenología del cultivo, ya que el registro de colectas de los insectos sugiere un aumento de la población en la etapa de floración del cultivo. The entomophuana associated with the Solanum sessiliflorum Dunal crop was evaluated in three 6 m x 10.5 m plots. The insects were collected by manual capture and trapping. The manual captures were carried out with the support of a pair of tweezers and gloves, the trapping was done with pitfall traps without attractants, the sampling intensity was 308 man-hours for manual captures and 1344 man-hours for captures with pitfall traps. A total of 386 individuals were collected, distributed in 38 genera, 22 families and five orders. The trophic composition suggests phytophagous and zoophagous insects as the most abundant. The population fluctuation of the associated insects was closely related to the phenology of the crop, since the record of insect collections suggests an increase in the population during the flowering stage of the crop.

Comment on “Global distribution of earthworm diversity”

Phillips et al. (Reports, 25 October 2019, p. 480) incorrectly conclude that tropical earthworm communities are less diverse and abundant than temperate communities. This result is an artifact generated by some low-quality datasets, lower sampling intensity in the tropics, different patterns in richness-area relationships, the occurrence of invasive species in managed soils, and a focus on local rather than regional richness.

KESEHATAN HUTAN DI BLOK KOLEKSI TUMBUHAN DAN/ATAU SATWA TAHURA WAN ABDUL RACHMAN PROVINSI LAMPUNG

The research has been conducted in the forest area block collection of plants and/or animals Wan Abdul Rachman Forest Park Lampung Province, which is in Sumber Agung Subdistrict, Kemiling Subdistrict, Bandar Lampung city covering 141.18 ha. The study was conducted to obtain forest health status at the study site. The data collection method uses the forest health monitoring (FHM) technique on 8 cluster clusters with a sampling intensity of 2.30%. The results showed that 25% (2 clusters) were categorized very well, 38% (3 clusters) were categorized as good, 12% (1 clusters) were categorized as moderate and 25% (2 clusters) were categorized as very poor. There needs to be maintenance activities for trees in the research location so that the functions and benefits of the area can be optimized