Dissertation
ON-FARM BIODIVERSITY AS A TOOL TO SUPPRESS FOODBORNE HUMAN PATHOGENS
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
01/2018
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/117952
Abstract
Farmland biodiversity generally benefits pollination, biological control, and other key ecosystem services. Food safety has been seen as an exception to this broader pattern, as diverse farmlands can attract wildlife that vector foodborne human pathogens. Resulting mitigation efforts thus often seek to deter wildlife by removing natural habitats, while also excluding vertebrate livestock. However, surprising recent evidence suggests that farm simplification actually increases the likelihood that produce will be contaminated with human pathogens.
In this dissertation, I introduce readers to my research focus in Chapter 1 and review the impact of arthropod biodiversity on ecosystem services in Chapter 2. In Chapter 3, I consider the possibility that intensified agriculture harms feces-feeding (coprophagous) beetles and bacteria, which may contribute to heightened food safety risk. I found that organic and integrated crop-livestock management encourage Escherichia coli suppressive species better than conventional management. In Chapter 4, I examine the role of dung beetles in suppressing pathogen-transmitting flies. I found that dung beetles reduce vector emergence and subsequently, the amount of pathogenic E. coli which gets transmitted to produce. To better understand the impacts of invasion on dung beetle-mediated ecosystem services, I initiated a long-term study in order to capitalize on the recent dung beetle introductions to NZ and this dataset is reported in Chapter 5. Chapter 6 closes the dissertation with a guide for farmers to better maximize the dung-beetle mediated ecosystem services on their farms throughout the west coast.
The approaches presented in this dissertation provide a detailed understanding of several mechanisms underlying how on-farm biodiversity can be used as a tool for ecologically-based pathogen suppression. It is my hope that these chapters might serve as a guide for better incorporating the coprophage community in future agroecological decision-making.
Metrics
3 File views/ downloads
24 Record Views
Details
- Title
- ON-FARM BIODIVERSITY AS A TOOL TO SUPPRESS FOODBORNE HUMAN PATHOGENS
- Creators
- Matthew S Jones
- Contributors
- William E Snyder (Advisor)John Reganold (Committee Member)David Crowder (Committee Member)Thomas Besser (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Department of Entomology
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 172
- Identifiers
- 99900581507801842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation