Plant and Animal Health

Two departments, one mission. That’s the reality for scientists working at Plum Island Foreign Animal Disease Laboratory in New York. The island—owned and operated by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)—is critical to the USDA, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s (APHIS) mission to...

In this case it is green, a brilliant emerald green, and it is chomping its way through America's forests. The emerald ash borer (EAB), Agrilus planipennis, may look pretty, but it is killing our ash trees in our forests and backyards. This is Emerald Ash Borer Awareness Week (May 19-25) and the...

USDA Wildlife Services (WS) employees in New Mexico have been fabricating the traps and tools for their jobs for many years. As feral swine management work began in the state, naturally we began to build our own traps and gates to contain this invasive and damaging mammal.

This past March, almost 11 years after being found in New Jersey, federal and state agriculture officials are finally able to say that the state’s long-running battle against the non-native Asian longhorned beetle (ALB) is over. New Jersey is the second state to declare itself free from the invasive...

Even the weather cooperated on February 23, 2013. With a brilliant blue sky overhead and bright sunlight streaming into the warehouse, the first shipment of pears grown in the United States and destined for the Chinese market arrived in Dalian, China. The three containers of pears did not slip into...

A new manual released by the U.S. Forest Service offers solutions for using the millions of dead and dying urban trees infected by invasive insects in the eastern United States. The free publication, developed by the Forest Service Forest Products Laboratory and the University of Minnesota Duluth...

USDA/APHIS’ Animal Care program enforces the federal Animal Welfare Act, which sets standards for humane care and treatment that must be provided for certain animals that are exhibited to the public, bred for commercial sale, used in biomedical research, or transported commercially. Individuals...

USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is celebrating the agency’s 40 th anniversary today. While APHIS’ program activities and responsibilities have grown and evolved since the Agency’s founding in 1972, the mission remains the same: serving the public by protecting the health...

Okay, Times Square, you had your big New Year’s Eve bash. Now it’s time to usher in the Asian Lunar New Year—the Year of the Dragon—which starts on January 23. Many Asian Americans and their friends are looking forward to enjoying traditional foods, gifts, and parades during this holiday of great...

This post is part of the Science Tuesday feature series on the USDA blog. Check back each week as we showcase stories and news from the USDA's rich science and research portfolio. ---------------------------------------------------