Principal Investigator:
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Description:
This IPM-CRSP funded program is operational in 13 countries in Africa, Central America and South Asia. The goal of the IPDN is to improve capacity for plant disease and insect pest diagnostics at the clinical level in developing countries. IPDN works toward direct capacity building through shared expertise in sample identification, development of standard operating procedures, and utilization of a specially designed distance diagnostics and information management web portal.
Recent Developments:
September 9-20, 2013: The "Pest and Disease Diagnostics for International Trade and Food Security International" Short Course was held at OSU in Wooster. Sally Miller and Luis Canas coordinated the training. Nine scientists from Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Saudi Arabia, Canada, Brazil, Bangladesh, Nigeria and Egypt participated in the event.
August, 2013: Working in collaboration with various institutions in Uganda, IPDN conducted a plant diagnostics training workshop in the Soroti district. Twenty-nine participants (25 male, 4 female) were drawn from the districts of Bukedea, Entebbe, Kamuli, Kumi, Ngora, Soroti and Serere. Subjects included pest and disease surveillance, diagnostics, and management and common pests and diseases of passion fruit.
February, 2013: A workshop on the use of real time qPCR for detection/diagnosis of bacterial canker of tomato was conducted in collaboration with OSU, Universidad del Valle de Guatemala and Agroexpertos (IPDN hub lab). Participants (10 males, 5 females) from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala Ministries of Agriculture, San Carlos University, Universidad Landivar, and private diagnostic labs attended. The workshop was held in at the Universidad del Valle in Guatemala City. Trainers were Dr. Melanie Lewis Ivey (OSU) and Ms. Kristen Willie (OSU/USDA-ARS). The workshop was organized in conjunction with, and funded by, USAID through the USDA Foreign Agriculture Service (FAS) in Guatemala.