張老邪叨嗶叨：
圖片下方的“犬”不是用的dog , 而是canine；文中的柑橘樹也不是orange tree 你注意到了咩？文中提到的植物疾病 citrus greening 是柑橘屬黃龍病，由革蘭氏陰性細(xì)菌引起的，會導(dǎo)致葉片黃化。細(xì)菌隨篩管運(yùn)輸至全株，導(dǎo)致樹體衰亡，大規(guī)模減產(chǎn)，甚至柑橘園荒蕪。ε=(´ο｀*)))唉 我真的超愛橘子的啊，一口氣可以吃3斤的那種真愛！希望這個新研究成果能世界推廣叭~
Detector canine "Bello" works in a citrus orchard in Texas, searching for citrus greening disease, a bacteria that is spread by a tiny insect that feeds on citrus trees. (Gavin Poole/USDA via AP)
Transcript
New research suggests that dogs might be able to help save diseased citrus trees.
A group of scientists trained dogs to use their sense of smell to detect a crop disease called citrus greening. The disease has affected orange, lemon and grapefruit trees in the American states of Florida, California and Texas.
The dogs can detect the disease weeks to years before it appears on tree leaves and roots, the researchers report. A study on their findings was published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The report says using dogs is also faster, less costly and more exact than having people collect hundreds of leaves for lab analysis.
Timothy Gottwald is a researcher with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and a co-writer of the study. He told The Associated Press, “This technology is thousands of years old – the dog’s nose. We’ve just trained dogs to hunt new prey: the bacteria that causes a very damaging crop disease.”
Citrus greening is caused by a bacteria that is spread by a tiny insect that feeds on the leaves and stems of citrus trees. Once a tree is infected, there is no cure.
The disease has also hurt citrus crops in Central and South America and Asia.
In one experiment involving grapefruit trees in Texas, trained dogs were correct 95 percent of the time in telling the difference between newly infected trees and healthy ones.
“The earlier you detect a disease, the better chance you have at stopping an epidemic” by removing infected trees, Gottwald said.
Matteo Garbelotto studies plants at the University of California, Berkeley. He says the new research shows that dogs can detect an infection well before current methods. Garbelotto has been involved in similar research but had no part in the new study.
Laura Sims is a plant scientist with Louisiana Tech University. She praised the steps taken to find out if the dogs were detecting the bacteria itself or a plant’s reaction to an infection.
To do that, the researchers infected different kinds of unrelated plants with the bacteria in a laboratory. The dogs were still able to pick out the infected plants.
Gottwald said, “You’ve seen dogs working in airports, detecting drugs and explosives. Maybe soon you will see them working on more farms.”
I’m Jonathan Evans.
Words in This Story
citrus – n. a juicy fruit such as an orange, grapefruit, or lemon that has a thick skin and that comes from a tree or shrub that grows in warm areas
detect – v. to discover or notice the presence of something that is hidden or hard to see, hear, taste, etc.
epidemic – n. an occurrence in which a disease spreads very quickly and affects a large number of people
stem – n. the main stalk of a plant that develops buds and shoots and usually grows above ground
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