Longmont, Colorado, USA
September 2009
Source: Eurofins STA newsletter
The seed health staff at Eurofins STA Laboratories in Longmont, Colorado hosted a workshop on seed health testing in conjunction with the AOSA/SCST meetings this past early June. The AOSA/SCST (Association of Official Seed Analysts/Society of Commercial Seed Technologists) holds its annual convention every year in a different location within the United States and this past June they met in Ft. Collins, Colorado. They always take the opportunity to hold workshops on various seed subjects either pre or post convention and this year, since they were meeting so close to the ESTA facility in Longmont, they asked if we would host a seed pathology workshop. Always willing to “strut our stuff” and help educate people on seed pathology and seed health testing, the staff jumped at the opportunity.
The workshop was held Monday, June 1st and was attended by 25 AOSA/SCST participants. The attendance limit was set at 25 and the open spots filled fast once the pre-registration was opened up. A full day of demonstrations, talks and hands-on activities were planned that highlighted many aspects of seed pathology and seed health testing. For the actual laboratory demonstrations and work, the participants were divided up into four groups so that concurrent sessions on bacteriology, virology, mycology and bacterial fruit blotch could be conducted. Approximately every hour and 15 minutes these groups were rotated from the session they were in to another session. This way, all of the participants were exposed to all four areas being displayed and demonstrated. Those that wanted to try their hands at various steps of seed health testing could do so – a little practical experience for their resumes.
In addition to the laboratory demonstrations, there were short presentations given to the entire group in the conference room by three different individuals. Lisa Shepherd from the Iowa State Seed Science Center gave a history and description of the National Seed Health System, the USDA administered program that allows Phytosanitary Certificates to be issued based on accredited seed health tests. Karen McGuire of Envirologix gave a presentation on their commercial ELISA plates for Lettuce Mosaic Virus and Squash Mosaic Virus as well as a new seed health technology called NEAR that they are working on and appears very promising for rapid, accurate detection of seed borne pathogens. Last but not least, Sandra Walker from the USDA/AMS gave a presentation about the Accredited Seed Laboratory (ASL) Program that the USDA/AMS has in place. This program is intended to accredit seed labs under a USDA QA program that should help facilitate the movement of seed in the international market place. Perry Bohn (USDA/AMS) who heads up the ASL program was initially scheduled to give this presentation but was not able to make it to the workshop.
The entire workshop was designed to instruct, demonstrate, inform and provide a hands-on atmosphere for the participants to encourage interaction, questions and discussions concerning seed health testing. From the feedback during and after the day, it seems that Eurofins STA Laboratories presented another very successful and informative workshop.
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