French maker Popote said it was recalling two lots, while Vitagermine removed three different batches of Babybio formula from the shelves in the latest such recalls to rock the infant formula industry in recent weeks.

Several manufacturers, including European giants like Nestle, Danone, and Lactalis, have issued recalls of infant formula that could be contaminated with cereulide in more than 60 countries since December.

French authorities are investigating the deaths in December and January of two babies who were thought to have drunk possibly contaminated powdered milk. No link has been established so far between the formula and their symptoms.

The agriculture ministry on Friday set the new threshold at 0.014 micrograms of cereulide per kilogram of body weight, instead of 0.03 micrograms.

Vitagermine said its milk had complied with French rules until they changed last week, and it was removing the three batches on Monday to "better ensure the safety of infants".

Popote said it was removing two batches of first-stage infant formula "without waiting for the new European framework".

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) on Monday said its scientists had also suggested a maximum level for cereulide of 0.014 micrograms per kilogram of body weight.

This translated to 0.054 micrograms of cereulide per litre in infant formula, the Italy-based agency said.

"This advice is intended to help EU risk managers determine when products should be withdrawn from the market as a precautionary public health measure," it added.

- Cereulide health risk -

But European consumer association Foodwatch accused multinationals of focusing on thresholds as a "diversionary tactic".

"Cereulide should not be there at all in the first place," it said.

"It is illegal to market products that expose babies to health risks," it added, comparing cereulide to mouse droppings.

"There is no European standard on the presence of mouse droppings in infant formula. Nevertheless, it is prohibited," Foodwatch said.

The recall of potentially contaminated infant formula has heaped scrutiny on Chinese firm Cabio Biotech, the supplier of an ingredient used in infant formula which is suspected of being tainted.

Headquartered in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, Cabio Biotech is one of the world's largest producers of ARA, a fatty acid used primarily in baby formula and food products.

French company Nutribio told AFP it recalled some of its milk following an "alert" from Cabio Biotech.

French advocacy group Children's Health also named the company in a court filing, asking the government to order companies to pull all formula with ARA oil produced by Cabio Biotech.

Cabio Biotech has yet to publicly address allegations its ARA oil was contaminated, and has not responded to multiple requests for comment.

]]> Sat, 07 FEB 2026 10:20:07 AEST Brussels, Belgium (AFP) Jan 29, 2026 - Environmental groups Thursday raised the alarm after finding toxic "pesticide cocktails" in apples sold across Europe, in a new study highlighting widespread contamination.

PAN Europe, a coalition of NGOs campaigning against pesticide use, had around 60 apples randomly purchased in 13 European countries -- including France, Spain, Italy and Poland -- analysed for chemical residues.

Eighty?five percent of the samples contained multiple pesticide residues, the organisations said, with some apples showing traces of up to seven different chemicals.

In 71 percent of cases, PAN Europe detected pesticides classed among the most hazardous in the European Union -- so?called "candidates for substitution" that the bloc aims to phase out as soon as possible.

The analysis also found that 64 percent of samples contained at least one per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance, also known as "forever chemicals", which are found throughout the environment and everyday products.

Pesticide residues are permitted in the EU below certain maximum levels. But PAN Europe warned of the "cocktail effect," when consumers are exposed to several pesticides simultaneously in a single product.

Martin Dermine, a senior official at the coalition, criticised the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) for assessing pesticides individually rather than the risk from "multiple exposure" to several substances.

"In this report, we show that 85 percent of the apples have multiple residues, and we don't know if they are safe for consumption or not," he said, pointing to potential links with cancer and infertility.

If the same apples were sold as processed baby food, 93 percent of the samples would be banned, PAN Europe said, as their pesticide residues exceed the stricter limits set for children under three.

EU rules are tougher for baby foods to protect early development. PAN Europe advised consumers to buy organic apples or peel conventionally grown ones before eating them.

Along with bananas, apples rank among Europeans' favourite fruits, and are the most widely grown in the EU, particularly in Poland, Italy and France.

Apples are also among the most heavily treated fruits, with pesticides used in particular to fight apple scab, the main fungal threat to orchards. More than half of the numerous annual treatments carried out on the fruit -- about 35 on average -- target the disease.

'Forever chemicals' could cost Europe up to 1.7 tn euros by 2050: report
Brussels, Belgium (AFP) Jan 29, 2026 - The continued use of "forever chemicals" could cost Europe up to 1.7 trillion euros ($2 trillion) by 2050 because of their impact on people's health and the environment, an EU-commissioned report said Thursday.

The study assessed different courses of action, as Brussels is already looking to ban per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in everyday consumer goods -- from pizza boxes to clothing.

A total stop of production and use of PFAS -- a family of synthetic chemicals that take an extremely long time to break down -- could lower costs to 330 billion euros, it found.

"The study confirms that addressing PFAS at their source is both crucial and economically wise," European Union environment chief Jessika Roswall said.

"Balancing economic interest with nature and health costs is vital."

A group of more than 10,000 human-made chemicals that repel heat, water and oil, PFAS are used in non-stick pans, stain-proof carpets, and other products -- and often end up tainting food, water and wildlife.

Chronic exposure to even low levels of the chemicals has been linked to liver damage, high cholesterol, reduced immune responses, low birth weights and several kinds of cancer.

Under a business-as-usual scenario, the societal cost of PFAS pollution will reach about 440 billion euros by 2050, most of it linked to health costs, the study said.

A ban would save 110 billion euros, as items already in use slowly reach their end of life.

Costs would instead balloon to more than one trillion euros if Europe decided to go about it by treating polluted soil and water without steps to ban the chemicals at source, it found.

Brussels has said prohibiting the use of many PFAS is a priority.

But a legislative proposal initially promised for the end of 2025 might not come before the end of 2026, pending the completion of two external assessments.

Potential exemptions for some industries are also being evaluated.

Last year Roswall disclosed she had tested positive for "toxic" PFAS after undergoing screening to raise awareness of the health risks linked to the man-made pollutants.

PFAS use is increasingly being restricted across the world due to adverse health effects.

Last year an Italian court sentenced executives at a chemical plant to jail terms of up to 17 years for polluting water used by hundreds of thousands of people with the chemicals.

Traces of the chemicals have been found everywhere from Tibet to Antarctica and contamination scandals have gripped Belgium and the United States among other nations.

]]> Sat, 07 FEB 2026 10:20:07 AEST Beijing (AFP) Jan 29, 2026 - A global recall of potentially contaminated infant formula has heaped scrutiny onto the Chinese firm Cabio Biotech, the supplier of the ingredient suspected of being tainted.

Here's what you need to know:

- Why is it under fire? -

In recent weeks, major firms including France's Danone and Switzerland's Nestle have recalled batches of infant formula that could be contaminated with cereulide, a toxin that can cause diarrhoea and vomiting.

Companies have largely stopped short of naming the source of cereulide contamination.

But French company Nutribio told AFP its recall "follows an alert from Cabio Biotech, an international supplier of the Omega-6 (ARA) ingredient".

ARA, or Arachidonic acid, is a fatty acid used primarily in baby formula and food products.

The French agriculture ministry has also referred to a Chinese supplier at the origin of infant formula recalls by Nestle, along with those by Lactalis and Vitagermine.

On Monday, a French children's advocacy group named the company in a court filing.

In an emergency injunction filed with a Paris court, the Chartres-based Association for Children's Health asked the government to order companies to pull all formula with ARA oil produced by Cabio Biotech within 24 hours.

- What do we know about the company? -

Headquartered in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, Cabio Biotech was established in 2004 and is the largest domestic supplier of ARA products.

ARA contributes to brain and nervous system development during infancy.

As well as ARA, Cabio Biotech's other main products are docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), sialic acid and Vitamin A precursor beta-carotene.

Cabio Biotech claims more than 50 percent of the domestic market, with major Chinese dairy companies such as Mengniu, Junlebao and Yili among its clients.

Company filings show it is also a supplier for Nestle and Danone.

In a statement this month, Nestle said it was conducting ARA oil tests "following the detection of a quality issue in an ingredient provided by a leading supplier".

- What has the reaction been? -

In France, especially, disquiet has grown, with investigators looking into the cause of death of two infants who allegedly consumed Nestle milk.

At this time, there is no established causal link between the formula and their deaths, according to French authorities.

Beijing said this month it attached "great importance" to Nestle's formula recall in Europe and urged the company's domestic arm to promptly recall relevant batches in China.

The State Administration for Market Regulation vowed to "fully ensure the quality and safety of infant formula", a statement said.

Chinese authorities are highly sensitive to food safety issues, and one of the biggest scandals in recent decades involved contaminated baby formula.

In 2008, tainted powdered milk made hundreds of thousands of babies ill and was linked to six deaths in the country.

Roughly 300,000 children were affected, many with renal failure, by milk powder laced with the chemical melamine to give the appearance of higher protein levels.

Melamine is usually used to make plastic.

- What has the company said? -

Cabio Biotech has yet to publicly address allegations its ARA oil was contaminated.

It did not respond to multiple requests for comment by AFP.

The company's share price collapsed in China following the Nestle recalls in early January.

Its stock has fallen by more than 21 percent since January 7, as Nestle's own shares have since dropped by around four percent.

Danone's stock also plunged by 10 percent after the group announced its first recalls.

]]> Sat, 07 FEB 2026 10:20:07 AEST Chongqing, China (AFP) Jan 29, 2026 - Quadriplegic and bedridden in a prefabricated home, 36-year-old Li Xia can only move one finger and one toe -- yet he runs a high-tech farm in southwestern China using sensors, cameras and a computer.

Li, who suffers from a genetic degenerative condition that progressively weakens muscles, relies on a ventilator permanently connected to his windpipe to breathe, but grows celery with the help of his 62-year-old mother.

From his bed, he operates four greenhouses that lie 10 metres (33 feet) away via a programme he created and a computer screen hanging above him on an adjustable arm.

"Through this microcomputer and the programme I developed, and a mobile app, I can monitor various data points from the farm, such as temperature, humidity, nutrient solution concentration, and pH levels," Li told AFP.

"With the cameras, I can see if the water pump is working or if the fans are running."

With the one finger he is able to move, he controls the on-screen cursor using a trackball.

"To click, I use a flex sensor attached to my toe," said Li from his home in Shiping village, near the southwestern city of Chongqing.

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), which he suffers from, is an incurable genetic disease that affects almost exclusively males, at a rate of one in 5,000 births.

Over the years, it causes muscles to weaken, increasing the risk of falls, before paralysis sets in, affecting cardiac activity and breathing.

Until the early 2000s, boys with the condition rarely lived beyond their teens. But with comprehensive care, survival into the 30s and even 40s is possible.

Li, who was once able to get around in a wheelchair, experienced a sudden medical crisis in 2020 when he was 30 years old. He fell into a coma, became incontinent and quadriplegic.

"I was devastated," he said.

"But after a few months, I pulled myself together and looked for things that made sense."

- A way forward -

He discovered hydroponics, an innovative cultivation technique where vegetables are grown not in soil, but in a solution of water enriched with essential nutrients.

Partially automated, it requires little manual labour, allows for crops to be precisely controlled and ensures good yields.

"I grew up in the countryside, so I've always been in contact with seeds, soil and vegetables," he said.

"I also love digital technologies and programming. I realised I could combine the two."

Li taught himself computer programming and learned how to design a circuit board.

His case is in many ways similar to others with severe neuromotor disorders, such as British physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking, who was confined to a wheelchair and could only communicate through a voice synthesiser.

Or Jean-Dominique Bauby, who was paralysed after a stroke and authored his 1997 book "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" by blinking his left eye, the only movement he could still control.

For the farm tasks involving manual labour, Li is reliant on his mother Wu Dimei.

"She is my arms and legs, and I am her brain," he said.

- 'Quite happy' -

Li explains what needs to be done and supervises her work in the greenhouses via a video link to his smartphone.

Wu operates tools, measures out fertiliser, installs equipment and connects cables.

In addition to farm work, she provides for her son day and night, including cooking and cleaning the ventilation tube in his windpipe.

"I don't have time to rest," Wu told AFP.

Even with the help of her daughter, who regularly helps bathe her brother, Wu only sleeps three to five hours a night.

"But it's worth it," said Wu, who is divorced. "It may not seem like it, but our family is quite happy."

They mainly rely on the income of Li's sister, who works, and their mother's pension.

Li said he saw the high-tech farm as a "niche" with "great prospects", and hoped to provide his family with a livelihood.

"If I succeed, it would allow me to fulfil a dream, but also to earn money and improve our living conditions," he said.

They moved to a prefabricated portable home in 2022, and his celery is now sold to a local supermarket chain.

"We're not making a profit yet," said Li, who embarked on his venture in 2022.

"But my dream is to expand this farm, turn it into a successful business, produce more and earn more.

"My motivation is to see our vegetables grow, be harvested, sold and end up on people's plates."

]]> Sat, 07 FEB 2026 10:20:07 AEST Mandera, Kenya (AFP) Jan 27, 2026 - In drought-hit northeastern Kenya, villagers have been forced to drag their dead livestock to distant fields for burning to keep the stench of death and scavenging hyenas away from their homes.

Mandera county along Kenya's borders with Ethiopia and Somalia has seen no rain since May and is now on the point of a full-blown water emergency.

"I have lost all my cows and goats, and burned them here," Bishar Maalim Mohammed, 60, a resident of Tawakal village, told AFP.

In his village, where most are pastoralists relying heavily on their animals, the only remaining bull can no longer stand. He has lain in the same spot for nearly a week, severely dehydrated with bones protruding through his skin, as his owner watches helplessly.

In the nearby town of Banissa, the man-made watering hole that once held 60,000 cubic metres of water is dry, leaving a barren expanse that children have turned into a playground.

Herds of goats, cattle and camels must now trek up to 30 kilometres (20 miles) to the nearest watering hole at Lulis village, jostling for the remaining water that officials are rationing.

"In two weeks this water will be finished... we are in a very bad state," said local resident Aden Hussein, 40.

More than two million people across 23 counties in Kenya are facing worsening food insecurity after the October-December short rains failed, with rainfall two-thirds below average.

The National Drought Management Authority has placed about nine counties on alert, while Mandera County is at the "alarm" phase, one step short of an official emergency.

The Famine Early Warning Systems Network recently said 20 to 25 million people in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia need humanitarian food assistance, more than half because of drought.

"Our children are the next ones who are going to die," said Maalim Mohammed in Tawakal.

- 'No milk at all' -

At Banissa's main hospital, an influx of severely malnourished children -- some arriving from neighbouring Ethiopia -- has overwhelmed the paediatric ward.

During a recent visit, AFP saw eight children suffering from severe malnutrition, including a 32-month-old girl weighing just 4.5 kilograms and another child who had been readmitted after returning to a household with no food.

"Children are not getting an adequate diet because of this drought...they depend on camel and goat milk but there is now no milk at all," said hospital nutritionist Khalid Ahmed Wethow.

The hospital, which serves around 200,000 people, has only eight tins of therapeutic milk remaining in its paediatric unit, which were expected to run out this week.

The unit depends on donations from organisations such as the World Food Programme, but with Western countries slashing aid budgets over the past year, it has not received any supplies in six months.

The Kenyan government and aid groups such as the Red Cross have increased water-trucking efforts, food assistance and cash support, but say they cannot keep up with demand.

- 'Tried to escape' -

In desperation, Bishar Mohamed, no relation to the first villager, travelled more than 150 kilometres with his herd of 170 goats in search of pasture. Around 100 died along the way and the rest died after he returned home to Hawara village.

"We have tried to escape in search of better places and failed," he told AFP, standing in a field where the carcasses of his goats were piled up. "I have been moving by foot... my head is severely in pain... we are thirsty."

In nearby Jabi Bar village, enrolment at a nearby school has dropped by more than half, headteacher Ali Haji Shabure told AFP.

"Only 99 children are in school, most of them have left with their parents," Shabure said.

The next rains -- if they come -- are not due before April.

Bishara Maalim, a mother of 10 in Hawara, has only one hope for her children: "May God save them."

]]> Sat, 07 FEB 2026 10:20:07 AEST London, UK (SPX) Jan 22, 2026 - Europe and western North America face more frequent and intense agricultural droughts this century as rising temperatures dry out soils faster than additional rainfall can replace lost moisture, according to new research led by scientists at the University of Reading. The study shows that even regions projected to receive more rain will see soils become drier during key growing seasons, increasing the risk of crop failures in major food-producing areas.

The research team focused on soil moisture during the main growing seasons rather than on annual average rainfall or soil moisture, which can conceal critical seasonal patterns that drive crop outcomes. By combining historical climate data with computer model simulations, the scientists identified emerging hotspots of agricultural drought under climate change, highlighting western Europe, including the United Kingdom and central Europe, western North America, northern South America and southern Africa as regions of particular concern.

Professor Emily Black, lead author at the University of Reading, said: "Climate change is heating the air, which makes more water evaporate from soil and plants. This dries out fields even when more rain falls, especially during spring in Europe and North America." She added that the timing of drying is crucial for agriculture because it affects plant growth and yield during sensitive stages of crop development.

The study finds that soil moisture levels in spring, at the start of the growing season, play a decisive role in determining drought risk later in the summer. Warmer conditions increase evaporation from soil and vegetation, so even where spring precipitation increases, the extra heat can remove water more quickly than rainfall can replenish it. As a result, spring drying persists into summer, leaving crops exposed to longer and more severe dry spells.

Recent severe European droughts, including the events in 2003, 2010 and 2018, all followed unusually dry conditions in spring or early summer, illustrating how early-season soil moisture deficits can set the stage for damaging summer droughts. The new analysis indicates that as global temperatures continue to rise, this pattern is likely to repeat more often, amplifying drought frequency and severity in the coming decades across regions that produce a significant share of the world's food.

The researchers also examined how different greenhouse gas emissions pathways influence future drought risk. They report that following lower-emission climate trajectories would lessen the increase in agricultural drought frequency across vulnerable regions compared with higher-emission scenarios, but would not fully prevent more frequent and intense drying of crop soils. This finding underscores the importance of both climate mitigation and adaptation strategies for global food security.

According to the authors, farmers and policymakers will need to plan for a future in which agricultural drought becomes a more common challenge even in areas where mean annual rainfall does not decline. Adaptation options highlighted by the study include developing and deploying crop varieties that can tolerate drier conditions and improving water management practices, such as more efficient irrigation and better soil moisture conservation.

By focusing on growing-season soil moisture rather than annual averages, the research reveals drought risks that traditional precipitation-based assessments may miss. The results suggest that climate risk assessments and agricultural planning should explicitly account for seasonal soil moisture changes under warming, especially during spring, when conditions can lock in the likelihood of summer droughts.

The study, published in Nature Geoscience, provides a framework for identifying regions where warming-driven soil drying will outpace any gains in rainfall. The authors conclude that without substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions combined with targeted adaptation in agriculture and water management, many of the world's key food-producing regions are likely to face increasingly challenging drought conditions over the course of this century.

Research Report:Emerging hotspots of agricultural drought under climate change

]]> Sat, 07 FEB 2026 10:20:07 AEST Paris, France (AFP) Jan 15, 2026 - The EU-Mercosur free trade agreement, set to be signed on Saturday, reignites debate over pesticides banned for European farmers but widely used in Latin America -- a major export market for EU agrochemical companies.

AFP compared Brussels rules with those in Brazil to illustrate the differences in pesticide standards between the two blocs, which traded more than EUR15 billion worth of agricultural goods in 2024.

Brazil accounts for 80 percent of the EU's trade with Mercosur countries (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay).

As of late November, it had authorised the use of 330 active substances.

Sixty percent of them had not been approved in the EU, 37 percent had been approved, and 3 percent were under review, according to data cross-checked between the Brazilian health regulatory agency (Anvisa) and the European Commission.

Conversely, of the 421 active substances approved in the EU, 73 percent had not been greenlighted in Brazil.

However, these figures come with caveats.

EU member states can temporarily allow national use of substances banned at the European level.

In France, for instance, the herbicide flufenacet -- classified as an endocrine disruptor and withdrawn from the EU market in December -- has been granted a grace period allowing one more year of use.

A country may also ban a substance authorised by Brussels if it deems the environmental or health risks are too high.

Acetamiprid, a neonicotinoid highly toxic to bees, is currently banned in France but allowed elsewhere in the EU.

- Residues -

Although imports from Mercosur must legally meet EU standards, European farmers argue that controls are too weak to prevent unfair competition.

Critics of the EU-Mercosur deal point in particular to the EU's tolerance of pesticide residues below defined safety limits, even though the substances themselves are banned in the EU.

In response, the European Commission pledged in early January to completely ban imports containing residues of three fungicides: carbendazim, benomyl and thiophanate-methyl.

The first two are already banned in Brazil, but thiophanate-methyl -- withdrawn from the EU market in 2021 over health concerns -- remains authorised in the Latin American state.

Some countries have gone a step further. France has suspended imports of products containing residues of mancozeb and glufosinate, in addition to the three fungicides targeted by Brussels.

Mancozeb, used on avocados, mangoes and peppers, is classified as an endocrine disruptor by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), and is suspected of reproductive toxicity and carcinogenicity, according to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA).

Glufosinate ammonium, an herbicide widely used on potatoes, is also classified for presumed human reproductive toxicity.

Banned in the EU, these substances rank among the best-selling in Brazil: mancozeb is the second most marketed active ingredient, glufosinate the sixth.

- Banned in Europe, exported to Mercosur -

European chemicals companies have historically manufactured such pesticides and shipped them to Mercosur countries.

In 2024, groups like BASF, Corteva, Syngenta and Bayer exported 18,000 tonnes of pesticides prohibited for use within the EU, according to data compiled by Swiss NGO Public Eye and Greenpeace UK's investigation unit Unearthed, drawing from the ECHA and national authorities.

More than 80 percent of these exports went to Brazil, the world's second-largest market for these EU-made pesticides after the United States.

Leading the list was picoxystrobin, a fungicide used on cereals and soybeans, banned in the EU since 2017 over genotoxic and environmental risks.

Soybeans -- of which Brazil is the world's top exporter -- reach the EU mainly as soybean meal to feed livestock. In 2024-25, Europe imported over 20 million tonnes of Brazilian soybean meal.

Regarding the substances targeted by Brussels and Paris last week, European companies filed export notifications for 2,300 tonnes of glufosinate, 260 tonnes of thiophanate-methyl and 250 tonnes of mancozeb to Mercosur in 2024, according to figures published in September 2025.

Several environmental NGOs hit out at the EU for what they called a "double-standard policy" that bans certain pesticides in Europe while exporting them abroad.

]]> Sat, 07 FEB 2026 10:20:07 AEST Binghamton NY (SPX) Jan 06, 2026 - Finding one tick on your body is scary enough - tick-borne diseases are serious - but what if you found more than 10 on yourself in just one month? That's the plight of some farmers as the threat of ticks and tick-borne diseases grows, according to new research featuring experts at Binghamton University, State University of New York.

New research led by Mandy Roome, associate director of the Tick-borne Disease Center at Binghamton University, State University of New York, reveals that farmers and outdoor workers in the Northeast are facing an escalating threat of tick-borne diseases, which could be devastating to their livelihoods.

Ticks are surging and spreading throughout the United States, causing alarm for all who fall within their path, especially those in the Northeast. Farmers, who spend a substantial amount of time outdoors, in habitats ideal for ticks, face an even greater threat.

"Not much has been done in the Northeast United States with outdoor workers and tick-borne diseases since the early 90s," said Roome. "Ticks and tick-borne diseases were a very different risk in the early 90s than they are now. We wanted to figure out how we can help some of our most vulnerable workers."

Roome and her team connected with 53 individuals, representing a total of 46 farms in Southern Vermont, an area chosen for its high incidence rates of Lyme disease, high level of agricultural activity and abundance of tick habitats. The questionnaire collected data on tick bites, health history, prevention practices, farm activities and more.

"As you would imagine, tick encounters are generally higher than what we see for ourselves," said Roome. "Some of them, especially if they're doing something like fence repair in the spring, they're inundated with ticks, unfortunately. So we wanted to try and identify something quick and easy for them. And we talked about different farm activities: mowing, plowing the fields, mowing the lawn around the farmhouse."

The survey revealed some surprising results:

+ 12% of respondents reported ever being diagnosed with a tick-borne disease

+ Over the previous 6 months, participants reported an average of three tick encounters

+ Some workers reported as many as 70 encounters

+ There was a marginal association between grazing livestock and increased tick sightings

"Anyone who's had a tick-borne disease before, or who knows someone who has - whether it was a fellow farmer, or someone in their family - they kind of notice how debilitating it can be," said Roome. "They have a lot of priorities on a farm. They've got a lot to deal with to run a farm like that, but that's kind of something that's always in the back of their minds."

One farmer in the study had contracted Lyme carditis, a serious bacterial infection of the heart, for which he eventually needed to have open-heart surgery.

"These are the things that we would like to prevent," said Roome. "For anybody that's detrimental. But especially for a farmer, not being able to do that work can have massive consequences on the whole farm."

The research is part of a larger project aimed at testing an environmental intervention. Roome and her team are trialing tick control tubes that will help kill ticks on mice, which are the number-one reservoir for transmitting pathogens to humans.

"We're trying to identify something effective and easy for farmers to do. Any outdoor worker, you're in tick habitat. So 'avoid tick habitats' is really not the solution for them," said Roome.

Research Report: Ticking Time Bomb: The Escalating Threat of Tick-Borne Diseases in Rural Farming Communities

]]> Sat, 07 FEB 2026 10:20:07 AEST Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 01, 2026 - Remote sensing and artificial intelligence are reshaping how breeders measure crop performance in the field, with new studies in maize and peanut showing how drone-based phenomics can both strengthen genetic analyses and automate trait extraction across large breeding trials. Researchers report that statistical phenomic prediction models using full multispectral and thermal traits can outperform single vegetation indices for disease phenotyping in maize, while a separate team demonstrates that a foundation vision model can segment peanut canopies from drone imagery to deliver plot-level architecture traits without manual tracing.

In maize, scientists working with field trials of common rust used an unmanned aerial vehicle platform equipped with multispectral and thermal sensors to monitor disease expression across multiple populations and years. Instead of relying on a single vegetation index such as NDVI or a green to red reflectance ratio, they trained statistical and machine learning models on a suite of 15 remote sensing traits to predict expert visual scores of disease severity.

The team first benchmarked performance by correlating each individual trait with human-assigned visual scores across six population by year datasets, finding that the green to red reflectance ratio was the strongest correlate in five cases and NDVI in one. Building on this reference, they compared a basic ordinary least squares model using only five spectral wavelengths with models that incorporated all traits and applied regularization or nonlinear learning.

A simple five-wavelength model matched or exceeded the best individual index in almost half of 30 out-of-set prediction scenarios, and it often delivered stronger genome-wide association study signals for the main rust resistance locus than the single best index. When the researchers expanded to all 15 traits without regularization, performance deteriorated due to overfitting, with good fits confined to the training data and weak generalization to new populations or environments.

Regularized models corrected that weakness. Ridge regression and LASSO models trained on all traits exceeded the benchmark vegetation index in most prediction cases and improved GWAS signal strength in many comparisons, while nonlinear artificial neural networks provided only limited additional gains and gradient boosted trees performed poorly on the phenotypic data. These results indicate that using the full phenomic feature set with appropriate regularization is more effective than searching for a single best index.

The most pronounced improvement came when the team replaced raw phenotypes with genomic estimated breeding values, which isolate additive genetic effects and reduce environmental noise in the trait values. Phenomic prediction models trained on these genomic breeding values delivered markedly stronger and more consistent GWAS signals, with ridge regression outperforming the benchmark index in nearly all comparisons while still identifying the same key resistance loci with higher statistical power.

Binomial tests confirmed that genomic breeding value based phenomic models systematically outperformed phenotype based approaches across the evaluated scenarios. The authors conclude that breeding and genetics programs should treat phenomic models as flexible, data driven indices tuned to specific traits and populations rather than focusing efforts on a single vegetation index, particularly in situations where symptoms are subtle or confounded by stress and canopy structure.

In parallel, peanut researchers have developed an end to end, drone based phenotyping workflow that uses Meta's Segment Anything Model to automatically delineate individual plots and canopies in high resolution images. Their system ingests UAV imagery from breeding nurseries, applies SAM to segment peanut plants from soil and background, and then calculates plot level canopy and architecture metrics such as cover, shape, and height proxies.

This segmentation pipeline removes the need for manual plot boundary tracing and many hand measured traits that historically consumed substantial time and introduced observer bias. Once the model is calibrated, the same workflow can be applied across different fields and seasons, generating consistent trait outputs that breeders can feed into selection decisions, genomic analyses, or yield prediction models.

The peanut workflow illustrates how foundation vision models can be adapted to agricultural phenotyping, where plot geometry, overlapping canopies, and heterogeneous backgrounds often complicate classical image processing. By treating segmentation as a general vision task rather than a crop specific rule set, the approach can potentially transfer to other species and breeding programs with limited retraining, especially when combined with crop specific post processing to compute relevant traits.

Together, the maize and peanut studies show that drone based phenomics is moving from index centered metrics toward integrated pipelines that span image capture, model based trait prediction, and statistical genetics. In maize, the focus is on using phenomic prediction to sharpen genetic signal and improve disease resistance mapping, while in peanut, the emphasis is on automating trait extraction to reduce labor and increase throughput in field nurseries.

Both efforts underscore the importance of handling large, complex datasets in a way that preserves biological information rather than compressing it into a few indices. As similar workflows are deployed more broadly, breeders are likely to gain faster, more precise measurements of disease responses and canopy architecture across environments, improving their ability to identify and deploy useful alleles in crops facing climate and production challenges.

Research Report:Comparing statistical 'phenomic prediction' models for remote-sensing-based phenotyping of maize susceptibility to common rust

]]> Sat, 07 FEB 2026 10:20:07 AEST Sydney (AFP) Jan 1, 2026 - Australia's government is "disappointed" with China's decision to impose new beef import tariffs, with one industry group warning the move could damage trade worth over AU$1 billion between the two countries.

China announced it would impose additional 55 percent tariffs on some beef imports from countries including Brazil, Australia and the United States that exceed a certain quantity for the next three years.

The country also said it would suspend part of a free trade agreement with Australia covering beef.

"We are disappointed by this decision," Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell said in a statement.

"We have made it clear to China that Australian beef is not a risk to their beef sector, and that we expect our status as a valued free trade agreement partner to be respected."

"Our beef is world-class and high in demand, and we will continue to advocate for and support our beef industry."

China is Australia's second-most lucrative beef export market, behind the United States.

Under the new rules, Australia faces a quota of around 200,000 tons for 2026.

The tariffs follow China's beef price trending downwards in recent years, with analysts blaming oversupply and a lack of demand as the world's second-largest economy has slowed.

At the same time, Chinese beef imports from countries such as Brazil, Argentina and Australia have surged.

Investigators found that beef imports had damaged China's domestic industry, Beijing said.

The Australian Meat Industry Council said in a statement the new restrictions had the "potential to reduce Australian beef exports to China by about one-third compared to the last twelve months -- trade worth over A$1 billion".

The council's executive officer Tim Ryan warned the tariffs would have a "severe impact" on trade flows to China and "restrict the ability for Chinese consumers to access safe and reliable Australian beef".

The relationship between the two countries has improved in recent years with Beijing lifting a slew of bans on Australia's most lucrative export commodities.

Tensions began in 2018 when Canberra excluded telecommunications giant Huawei from its 5G network on security grounds and later passed laws on foreign interference.

Then in 2020, Australia called for an international investigation into the origins of Covid-19 -- an action China saw as politically motivated.

Australia has spent much of the past few years trying to insulate the vital trade relationship with China -- its biggest trade partner -- from geopolitical headwinds.

Australia is part of a loose US-led alliance that has aggressively pushed back against China's bid for influence in the Pacific region.

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