Fruit and Vegetable Growers Conference Jan 9-11

The Southeastern Regional Fruit and Vegetable Conference will be Jan. 9 -11 in Savannah, Ga. Sponsored by the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association and South Carolina Peach Conference, it offers classes and demonstrations designed to bring relevant information to the fruit and vegetable industry.

“This year’s educational program is outstanding,” said Beth Bland, GFVA education program coordinator. “Featuring everything from methyl bromide updates to blackberry fundamentals for new growers, the 2009 conference offers something for everyone.”

Friday and Saturday, there will be sessions for commodities like peach, vegetable, Vidalia onion, watermelon, muscadine, pecan, blueberry and strawberry. There will be sessions for organic production, food safety and roadside markets, too.

Sparked by the tomato safety scare in 2008, a special food-safety forum will take place Friday and feature several speakers including Tom Stenzel, the president of United Fresh Produce Association, Reggie Brown, executive vice president of the Florida Tomato Commission, and Washington legislative representatives.

Congressman Jack Kingston (R -GA) will speak Saturday morning at the general session.

The conference includes a trade show with 180 booths, a spouse program and an industry roundtable to discuss issues of mutual concern to growers and suppliers.

Continuing education credits for pesticide application license will be available.

For more information, call (800) 453-3070 or send an e-mail to chall@asginfo.net .

-----
www.fayettefrontpage.com
Fayette Front Page
www.georgiafrontpage.com
Georgia Front Page

Gators and Snakes, and Oh My!

It's been a few years since we had stopped to tour the Edisto Island Serpentarium on Edisto Island, South Carolina. So, on this trip, we came back for an encore visit. What a treat this place is. That is, if you are interested in learning about snakes and reptiles!

While I am not a personal fan of these slithery creatures or the prehistoric looking reptiles, I can appreciate their beauty and niche in the world.

The Edisto Island Serpentarium is a family owned operation and worth a stop. The owners truly care about the animals and teaching others about conservation in the ACE basin. If I remember correctly, their collection of alligators all have local roots. These guys are not afraid to go and catch them, or to teach others. Feeding time is interesting as the alligators see the owner with the bucket of treats and literally all line up for feeding. It's truly amazing to see how fast these guys can move when there is food involved. I do have to admit the close proximity of these guys to my family did make my tummy get a little queasy.

In addition to the alligators, there are plenty of snakes to view. Some are in some really big pits just kind of lying around. That is, I hope they are! It was surprising to realize that their snakes can also get dirty and have to have their open pits cleaned. One of the pits was closed on this particular visit until they could finish cleaning it out. No matter as there are plenty of others to see.

There is also the snake show which teaches the visitors about these creatures. Once again, I have to sit on the back row, but I always see it. As much as I am not a fan of the snakes, I do understand the need to be able to distinguish between the good and the bad boys.

The guys at the Serpentarium not only care for the animals, they also collect the venom so anti-venom can be made. Good job, mates!


There are also plenty of iguanas on display. These overgrown lizards don't hurt anyone (that I know of) and are rather prehistoric looking in their own right.

When you are in the area, take a break from the beach and spend a few hours at the Serpentarium. You'll come out knowing a little more about these animals. Perhaps, you'll even appreciate their watchful beady, oh I mean beautiful, eyes.

I'm proud to say that we came out with all of our fingers and toes intact!

Until next time,
Sandy Toes
While on Edisto

-----

www.georgiafrontpage.com
Georgia Front Page

Sandy Toes Learns about Loggerhead Sea Turtles on Edisto

GFP Note: Loggerhead Sea Turtles are an endangered species. Thanks to efforts up and down the east coast, these guys are being given a fighting chance for their survival. The Georgia Sea Turtle Center on Jekyll Island is a great place to learn more about these graceful creatures. Click here to visit their site and see how you can become involved.

Having just arrived at our destination, we were quick to grab our swimsuits and fall out the door onto the sand of Edisto Beach, South Carolina. Slather on some sunscreen and let the vacation begin. While our expectations were high for the week, we stumbled across other finds that show us high hopes for the future.

Surrounding our beach house on the water side were two areas of orange tape. Looking closely, we could see indentations in the sand and the signs placed by the volunteers who watch the Loggerhead Sea Turtle. We sat smack down in between two turtle nests. One had been there for about 40 days and the other one about 10 days according to beach patrol Gary. Gary, who patrols the beach and is a volunteer loggerhead watcher, was eager to teach us landlubbers about the turtles.

The gracious ladies who come ashore to lay their eggs between May and August are coming home to the island of their birth. These gentle creatures can be up to three feet in size and weigh several hundred pounds. They come ashore at night to lay the ping pong ball sized eggs. Their flippers serve as a shovel and it can take an hour or more for the female to complete her nest. A typical nest will contain approximately 60-180 eggs.

The turtles are easily distracted from the work at hand. Should there be lights on the beach, or animals in the vicinity, the turtle may just crawl up and crawl back, thus exhibiting a "false crawl," whose track shape resembles a horseshoe. Gary told us she would then just abort the eggs into the ocean. A "true crawl" is one where the volunteers who walk the beach at night can locate the nest, and it has two distinct tracks.

Our second morning on the beach was thrilling. Here were new turtle tracks. Our trusty guide Gary showed us how to read the turtle tracks. In front of the nest was a huge "x" as in "x marks the spot." Gary explained the turtle patrol who had watched the turtle during the night placed the "x" to alert him of a new nest. He then placed an orange flag in the center of the nest.

Over the incubation period of the next 50-60 days, Gary and the other turtle watchers will keep a close eye on the nest. As time nears for the eggs to hatch, the sand will start to settle. A shell is then placed on top of the nest to show how much it is sinking. Experienced eyes can read those shells and determine about when the hatchlings will make their appearance. The hatchlings will boil out of the nest and head towards the ocean. The watchers are there in hopes that all of the young will make it there. Imprinting happens as soon as those hatchlings emerge. They follow the light of the moon to the ocean. If there are any lights on at the houses, the little tykes become confused and head towards the road.

Once the turtles go into the water, the males will never again touch land. Only the females will return in about 20 years or so.

Gary explained the process where the turtle watchers verify a nest. The nest will be about 18 to 24 inches down in the sand. A stick is used to verify the eggs' location. From the explanation, a gentle hand is used during this process.

Sometimes the eggs are too close to the high tide mark and have to be moved. Should the nest be moved, each egg must be individually moved without rotating the angle at which it was found. If the eggs are turned, the turtles will not hatch, or they will be deformed. While we were there, the oldest nest in front of our house had to be moved. There was an extremely high tide one night and the front part of the nest would not have been above the water line for more than a few days at most. The patrol moved the eggs about 30 feet. While this nest only had a few weeks left to go in its incubation phase, it was the only way any of the eggs will have a chance to hatch.

According to Gary, the female turtles will come ashore three or four times during the season to lay their eggs. The survival rate of the little tykes from the laying to adulthood is only about 1 in a thousand.

These animals can survive for close to 200 years. Full of grace and beauty, they are on the endangered list. Survival from predators who are natural and non-natural have severely depleted this turtle population. Over development on beaches and the loss of sandy beach for their nests have also taken their toll.

Protect the sea turtle. Give them hope. Give us hope.

Until next time,
Sandy Toes on Edisto

-----
www.fayettefrontpage.com
Fayette Front Page
www.georgiafrontpage.com
Georgia Front Page
Community News You Can Use

Public Health Response to a Rabid Kitten --- Four States, 2007

Includes Georgia...

On July 24, 2007, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC) was notified by the North Carolina Division of Public Health (NCDPH) of a stray, rabid kitten that had been handled by players on several girls' softball teams during a tournament in Spartanburg County, South Carolina. This report summarizes the public health response to exposure to the rabid kitten and highlights the importance of multistate collaboration in a rabid animal investigation.

During July 13--15, 2007, the South Atlantic Summer Showdown softball tournament was held at a recreational complex in Spartanburg County. Softball games were held at four recreational facilities. Approximately 60 teams of approximately 12 players each from multiple states participated in this tournament. Spectators at the tournament included families and friends of the softball players and tournament coordinators and staff members.

On July 14, a softball coach from a North Carolina team found an apparently healthy and alert kitten in a barrel-shaped garbage bin located near one of the playing fields at which the tournament was held. The kitten was placed in a box and later brought to at least six different games played at two recreational facilities that same day. That evening, the kitten was transported by the coach in her private vehicle to her home in Buncombe County, North Carolina. On July 15, the kitten began behaving abnormally and became increasingly lethargic. The coach's housemate brought the kitten to an emergency animal hospital in Buncombe County for care. Although further investigation would reveal that the housemate had been bitten by the kitten, she did not disclose this to the attending veterinarian at the time of the visit. After evaluation indicated that the kitten was severely ill, the kitten was euthanized and held for cremation, planned for July 18. Rabies was not suspected by the attending veterinarian.
On July 18, the mother of a softball player from North Carolina, after learning from the coach that the kitten had become ill and was subsequently euthanized, contacted the emergency animal hospital and asked whether the kitten had been tested for rabies. The mother had been bitten while trying to feed the kitten during the tournament. Rabies testing had not been planned by the animal hospital because the coach's housemate had signed a routine release form indicating the kitten had not bitten anyone during the preceding 10 days. The mother went to the clinic, requested the cat's body, and took it in her private vehicle to her local health department. On July 20, the local health department sent the body to the North Carolina State Laboratory for Public Health for rabies testing. On July 23, the kitten had rabies diagnosed by direct fluorescent antibody testing. The rabies virus was identified as the eastern United States raccoon variant by rabies monoclonal antibody typing.

The mother provided her travel history to NCDPH, which then contacted SCDHEC on July 23 to alert the department about the possible human rabies exposures in Spartanburg County. NCDPH and SCDHEC obtained a roster of teams from the tournament organizer and discovered that Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee all had teams participating in the tournament. NCDPH and SCDHEC contacted CDC and state public health authorities in Georgia and Tennessee, and all four states subsequently initiated contact investigations; these investigations sought to identify and locate potentially exposed persons and ensure that only persons with actual exposures (i.e., contact with saliva, either through a bite, a lick on the oral or nasal mucosa, or a claw scratch) received postexposure prophylaxis (PEP). SCDHEC coordinated the interstate investigation and led its own intrastate investigation to locate persons, assess exposures, and prescribe PEP as warranted; in South Carolina, PEP is provided by the state to exposed persons as determined by SCDHEC.

To locate potentially exposed persons, each state issued advisories (e.g., through daily e-mails) to local health departments; additionally, South Carolina, Georgia, and North Carolina used local news media to alert the public and solicit responses from potentially exposed persons. South Carolina also activated the state's 2-1-1 telephone information system, which uses media channels to advise the public to call a dedicated state telephone number (2-1-1) for information related to specific public health emergencies.

The multistate contact investigations and interviews of persons who had potentially been exposed to the kitten revealed that at least two other stray kittens of similar age as the rabid kitten were found in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant near the garbage bin where the rabid kitten was found. These stray kittens, which were possibly from the same litter as the rabid kitten, were reported by interviewees to also have been present throughout the length of the softball tournament; several softball players had handled them. These kittens were never located by public health authorities. Interviewees were questioned about their handling of all of the kittens to assess potential exposure to rabies.

Health department personnel relied on the point-of-contact for each team, usually the coach, to identify persons who might have been exposed to the kitten. If players reported exposure, they were interviewed by health department personnel. Anecdotal evidence indicated that no tournament spectators had handled the kitten; investigators were unable to contact spectators because neither documentation nor recorded entry of persons to any of the recreational facilities was available.

Of the approximately 60 teams participating in the tournament, 38 had players and associated family and friends who reported exposure to the rabid kitten. From these teams, 27 persons were identified as having exposures that warranted PEP: one from South Carolina, 15 from Georgia, and 11 from North Carolina; Tennessee reported no exposed persons. All recipients of PEP had reported actual exposure to a kitten's saliva, either through a bite, a lick on the oral or nasal mucosa, or a claw scratch. No reports of human rabies or adverse reactions to PEP were reported.