denise manker
Denise Manker with Bayer CropScience provides an update on Bayer’s collaborative effort with the Citrus Research and Development Foundation to seek solutions for HLB. Her presentation came during the recent Florida Citrus Industry Annual Conference in Bonita Springs.
Manker told the audience there will not likely be a “silver bullet” that will provide a solution to the disease. “I think that’s a really realistic outcome, is that we will not find a single solution that will completely eradicate the disease,” she says. “But we hope to come up with things and tools that we can put together with other kinds of findings that can help us manage to continue to produce.”
She summarizes Bayer’s areas of research. “We’re looking to develop a validated screening process for discovery that can be used over time so that in the future we can continue to find new leads for this disease,” she says. She adds that scientists are seeking synthetic compounds that can turn on a tree’s defense mechanisms, as well as antibacterial microorganisms that could be registered quickly through the Environmental Protection Agency.
“We’re 13 months into the project, and it’s a three-year funded project with the potential to extend it to five years if we find some interesting leads and we are out in the field and getting some response,” Manker says.
Hear her report:
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