Bøger af Mohamed Abdel-Raheem

Entomopathogenic fungi have played a uniquely important role in the history of microbial control of insects. Historical evidence indicated that entomopathogenic fungi were the first to be recognized as microbial disease in insects . Beauveria bassiana, commonly known as white muscardine fungus attacks a wide range of immature and adult insects. Metarhizium anisopliae a green muscardine fungus is reported to infect 200 species of insects and arthropods. Both of these entomopathogenic fungi are soil borne and widely distributed. These fungi have been documented to occur naturally in over 750 species of host insects.

Quinoa is a species of the goosefoot genus (Chenopodium quinoa), Amaranthaceae family. It is closely related to weeds such as common lambsquarters (Chenopodium album) and pigweed (Amaranthus spp.).At the early stages of growth, quinoa resembles common lambsquarters, but the two species can be distinguished based on stem coloration. The color of the base of the quinoa stem is pink to red, whereas common lambsquarters stems usually remain green to gray. Quinoa grows 1.5¿6.5 feet tall and reaches maturity in 90¿150 days, depending on the variety and environmental factors.Disease and pest problems may arise after a crop like quinoa is introduced to a new production area. Viruses found on spinach or beets have been observed in quinoa fields. However, no proper research has been conducted to determine if any of those cause significant damage. A wide variety of insect pests can damage quinoa during seed germination up through harvest and seed storage but Entomologists do not consider insect problems to be a yield-limiting factor for quinoa production at this time.

Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) walp.) has been cultivated in many countries for many countries .It is one of the important food legume crops in the tropical and subtropical regions covering Asia, Africa, Southern Europe, Central and South America. (Sing and Jackai, 1985, Dioul, 2011).Cowpea is an essential component of cropping system in the drier region and marginal areas of the tropics and subtropics (Duke, 1990).It is a drought tolerant and warm weather crop well adapted to the drier regions where other food legumes do not perform well (Singh, 1987). It fixes atmospheric nitrogen through its root nodules and grows well in poor soils with more than 85% sand low organic matter and levels of phosphorus (Caswell, 1981). In addition, it is shade tolerant and therefore compatible as an intercrop with maize, millet, sorghum, sugarcane and cotton. Cowpea is consumed in many forms, young leaves, green pods and green seeds are used in various food preparations with high protein content, Cowpea is an supplement to cereal, root and tuber staples in the diets. Despite its importance in tropical regions, cowpea yield potential and seed quality is often reduced by insect pest¿s damage.

Honeybees have incredibly sensitive olfactory systems, used in the wild to detect nectar in plants that might be in very small amounts and quite far away. Scientists (and sometimes artists) have used this ability to diagnose diseases. This new work in the Netherlands uses a standard Pavlovian method to train bees, which turn out to be more easily taught tricks than one might think. Bees in the experiment were given a sugar solution reward for detecting COVID-19, in this case a sample on a q-tip, drawn from COVID-19-infected mink. The bees would extend their tongues to receive the reward; with enough practice, they¿d extend their tongues when they detected COVID-19 even without the reward. Soon, the bees could return a result within a few seconds. Bees aren¿t the first animals to be used in this way, not even specifically with COVID-19. Dogs have also been trained to detect an infection from sweat samples in humans, although researchers say more peer-reviewed work is needed on that before it can be a viable solution.

Citrus is a major export product of Egypt. The total cultivated area for citrus fruit is about 222,302 ha and total production is estimated at 2,149,349 ton/year. The average volume of citrus exported to various countries during 1997¿2000 ranged from 205,800 to 210,500 tons. The main varieties of citrus grown in Egypt are Baladi Orange, Valencia Orange, Blood Orange, Navel Orange, Jaffa Orange, Youssuf Soleiman Orange, Sweet Orange (Succart or Sukhary), Khalily Orange, Sour Orange, Egyptian Lemon, Grapefruit Ducan and limes. There are also small areas of other citrus such as grapefruit (CAB International, 2000).

Parasitic diseases are a global problem and considered as a major obstacle in the health and product performance of animals. These may be due to endo-parasites that live inside the body or ecto-parasites such as ticks, mites, flies, fleas, midges, etc., which attack the body surface. Ticks are obligate, blood feeding ectoparasites that feed on a wide range of vertebrate hosts. There are currently 896 recognized tick species worldwide , made up of the families Argasidae, Ixodidae (hard ticks) and Nuttalliellidae which contains one species. The Ixodidae family contains approximately 702 species across 14 genera; however these numbers are in constant flux due to advances in molecular methods and their ability to resolve taxonomic disparities. The importance of ticks lies not only in their direct effects (blood loss, damage to skins, debilitation), but usually even more in their role as vectors of pathogens, ticks are able to transmit tick-borne infectious agents to vertebrate hosts which cause major constraints to public and livestock health. The costs associated with mortality, relapse, treatments, and decreased production yields are economically significant.

Subclass Acari, which includes mites and ticks, forms an important part of the arthropodan class Arachnida. Mites have a worldwide distribution; they rival insects in the extent of their hibernation. They live in saline and fresh water, in organic debris of all kinds, and on plants and animals. Their associations with other animals include commensalism, predation and true parasitism. Therefore, they may cause serious damage to agricultural crops, ornamental plants, and stored products (Jeppson et al., 1975). Biological control provides an environmentally safe, cost ¿ effective, and energy ¿ efficient means of pest control, either alone or as a component of integrated pest management (Gerson and Smiley, 1990). The predatory mites in the family phytoseiidae are examples of biological control agents that have been recognized only recently as effective components of agricultural systems. The relative slowness with which this fact was recognized suggested that other mite groups may be overlooked at present but be capable of serving as effective biological control agents (Hoy et al., 1983).

Sugar ¿ beet, Beta vulgaris is one of the most important economic crops in Egypt. Therefore, farmers are encouraged to increase sugar beet production in order to increase the requirements for local sugar production. Sugar- beet plants are liable to infestation by a variety of insects. Some of these insects are key pests of regular occurrence and cause serious damage to their host plants that leads to reduction of crop yield, in both quantity and quality. Sugar is a strategic commodity to many countries of the world, since it comes right after wheat. It has strategic importance to many countries in Europe, Africa. North and South America and Australia, where as it occupies the second position after rice in Asian countries. The production of crystallized sugar in the world depends on two main crops mainly sugar cane, Saccharum officinarum L. and sugar¿beet , Beta vulgaris L. where the percentages of the obtained sugar from cane and beet reached about 60 and 40 % of the total world production of crystallized sugar, respectively.

The red palm weevil, Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Olivier) (RPW) is the most serious pest of date palms in the Middle East. Weevil infestation was first detected in Israel in the summer of 1999 in date plantations in the Jordan Valley, on the west bank of the Jordan River and in the northern area of the Dead Sea. For 2 years following the discovery of the pest, prophylactic insecticide chemical treatments as well as adult weevil trapping were carried out over 450 ha of date palm plantations. Traps loaded with a commercial aggregation pheromone, ferrugineol, supplemented with ethyl acetate and a fermenting mixture of dates and sugarcane molasses, were posted in high trap density (approx. ten traps per ha) in order to monitor weevil infestation and reduce the RPW population by mass trapping.A significant decrease in number of trapped beetles and infested trees was observed in 2001 and continued in the following years. No infested trees have been found since 2002, indicating a decrease in RPW population. The sex ratio of trapped adults during 3 years of study was significantly female-biased (¿2.5:1).

Cotton is cultivated in Egypt years before the B.C. The Egyptian cotton cultivation underwent a sudden development under the enterprising Mohamed Ali (1805-1848) and this extension was really due to an accident. There are several varieties of cotton used in Egypt such as the extra-long staple varieties, (Giza 70, 76, 77, 84, 88 & 92), in Delta; (Giza 75, 81, 85, 86 & 89) in Middle and Upper Egypt; Giza 80, 83 & 90). In the current year the extra-long staple varieties were cultivated in Domiat, Giza 70 and Beheira, Giza 88. More than 1300 herbivorous insects infested cotton. In spite of few of these insects is economic importance. The production of cotton has demanded a lot of insecticides for protection from insects. In the cotton planting farmers used of about 22.5 % of the total used from insecticides.

Forensics is a hot topic, and many youth have seen forensic entomology practiced in movies and on popular television shows (such as ¿CSI¿) as a way to solve crimes such as murder cases. Even for those who are not aware of the current trend, a murder case is something that consistently piques the interest of youth. Is the science that applies Insect Biology in criminal investigations, where insects and other arthropods are used to detect the circumstances of criminal cases? It is noteworthy that the first use of insects in criminal investigations was in China in 1235, when the mystery of the case of the killing of Chinese farmers was exposed by a deep blow to the village, the village leader asked the farmers to bring their wagons, and put them on the ground, and do not work any movement, The flies collected on one of these machetes and revealed the killer; because of the traces of blood and flesh on his sickle which he used for the crime, despite his diligence in cleaning it to hide his crime; flies attracted to the smell.

The continuous increase in the agricultural plot of land in Egypt is a strategic and economic objective and a real challenge for the the different governments in their efforts to expand. The widsprewad use of insecticides induced heritable changes in the insect pests.The fundamental aspects of population dynamics of pest species in the ecosystem are directly affected. Natural enimes population and wildlife species are hardly decreased as a result of intensive use of chemical pesticides. In Egypt, many pesticides became virtually ineffective against pests as a result of insects building resistance against these chemicals. The relationship between pesticide residues and the human teratogenic and carcinogenic effect is one of the most destructive results of the extensive use of chemicals pesticides.