Today is the first day of the OSU Diagnostics Short Course. Participants from Tanzania, France, Ireland, Nigeria, El Salvador, Liberia and the US started off with a quick anonymous “clicker” survey to determine competencies in various areas of pest and disease diagnostics, followed by a presentation by Professor Luis Canas on digital diagnosis of insect pests. In the afternoon, Dr. Peg Redinbaugh, USDA ARS, deftly wove in her experience with maize lethal necrosis disease in Kenya with general approaches to diagnosis of diseases caused by viruses. This was followed by a lab in which participants examined virus symptoms, prepared virus inoculum from “unknowns” and inoculated indicator plants. We will follow up next week with observation of symptoms on inoculated plants, a tissue blot immunoassay and other tests to identify the viruses.
OSU Plant Pathology grad student Anna Testen closed the day with a lecture on diagnosis of abiotic plant disorders.
