• Title/Summary/Keyword: agricultural worker

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Molecular Cloning and Characterization of Chymotrypsin Inhibitor and Chitin-Binding Protein Homologs from the Bumblebee Bombus terrestris

  • Qiu, Yuling;Yoon, Hyung-Joo;Jin, Byung-Rae
    • International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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    • v.25 no.1
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    • pp.115-121
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    • 2012
  • The bumblebee Bombus terrestris is widely used in greenhouses to pollinate crops. Here, we report the molecular cloning and characterization of chymotrypsin inhibitor and chitin-binding protein homologs from B. terrestris. Two cDNAs encoding chymotrypsin inhibitor (Bt-CI) and chitin-binding protein (Bt-CBP) homologs were cloned from B. terrestris. Gene sequence analysis showed that Bt-CI gene consists of three exons encoding 75 amino acids, including a predicted 20-amino acid signal peptide, while Bt-CBP consists of two exons encoding 78 amino acids, including a predicted 26-amino acid signal peptide. The mature Bt-CI and Bt-CBP peptides contain ten and six conserved cysteine residues, respectively. Database searches using the deduced sequences of Bt-CI and Bt-CBP showed similarity to those from B. impatiens (96% peptide sequence identities). Bt-CI and Bt-CBP were expressed in both the venom gland and fat body of B. terrestris worker bees. The recombinant Bt-CI and Bt-CBP peptides were expressed in baculovirus-infected insect cells. Taken together, our findings describe the molecular characterization of Bt-CI and Bt-CBP from B. terrestris.

Remote Honey Bee Breeding Centre: A Case Study of Heligoland Island in Germany

  • Meyer-Rochow, V.B.;Jung, Chuleui
    • Journal of Apiculture
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    • v.34 no.4
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    • pp.285-293
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    • 2019
  • The honey bee queen shows extreme polyandry and controlling the mating partners can only be possible either by artificial insemination or having remote isolated mating locations. Here we report on the German North Sea island of Heligoland. Because of its location 60 km from the mainland, the lack of a local population of honey bees, its size of just 1.4 ㎢ and suitable weather conditions during the months of May to July, it is considered an ideal location for controlled inseminations of high-quality virgin queen bees with drones deemed genetically superior to others. Methods how to rear virgin queen bees are described and information is provided on the numbers of queen bees, their supporting workers and drone bees that are taken to the island in the mating season. The bee most commonly involved in the Heligoland mating trials has become Apis mellifera carnica strain "Baltica". In one summer, for example, 80 virgin queens (belonging to beekeepers from nine different locations in northern Germany) each with about 600 worker bees plus two drone populations of around 2,000 drones were taken by ship to Heligoland. On their return to the mainland no later than 3.5 weeks after the mating exercise, the beekeepers could register a mating success rate of 80%. This information can help operation management of the new remote mating centre of Weedo Island, Jeonbuk in Korea, which is currently under construction.

Honeybee Acute and Residual Toxicity of Pesticides Registered for Strawberry (딸기용 농약의 꿀벌에 대한 급성독성 및 엽상잔류독성)

  • Kim, Byung-Seok;Park, Yoen-Ki;Lee, Yong-Hoon;Joeng, Mi-Hye;You, Are-Sun;Yang, Yu-Jung;Kim, Jin-Bae;Kwon, Oh-Kyung;Ahn, Young-Joon
    • The Korean Journal of Pesticide Science
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    • v.12 no.3
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    • pp.229-235
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    • 2008
  • Lack of honey bee toxicity data for most pesticide products used for strawberry restricts to predict the adverse effects to foraging honey bee after treatment of pesticide in plastic house. This study was conducted to evaluate the actual risk of worker honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) through acute contact toxicity test, acute oral toxicity test and toxicity of residues on foliage test with 21 pesticide products. The mortality of honeybee sprayed with 6 pesticides including dichlofluanid WP showed significantly different from control at recommended application rate in acute contact toxicity test at 24 hours after treatment. Fenpropathrin EC and milbemectin EC treatment groups showed more than 25% mortalities at recommended application rate in acute oral toxicity test. In toxicity of residues on foliage test, only fenpropathrin EC treatment group showed more than 25% mortalities at 10 days after treatment at recommended application rate. It was concluded that the most toxic route to exposure for honey bee is direct contact exposure to sprayed pesticides. Safety interval for honey bee was established by concerning the results of these tests.

Risk Assessment of Agricultural Worker's Exposure to Fungicide Thiophanate-methyl during Treatment in Green Pepper, Cucumber and Apple Fields (고추, 오이 및 사과 재배 중 살균제 Thiophanate-methyl 살포 시 농작업자의 노출 및 위해 평가)

  • Choi, Hoon;Kim, Jeong-Han
    • Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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    • v.57 no.1
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    • pp.73-81
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    • 2014
  • The present study was carried out to assess exposure and risk to thiophanate-methyl wettable powder for agricultural worker during mixing/loading and application with power sprayer in green pepper, cucumber and apple fields. Dermal exposure was measured with patches, gloves, socks and masks, while inhalation exposure was evaluated with personal air pump and solid sorbent. Those methods were full validated before experiment. During mixing/loading, dermal exposure amount in green pepper, cucumber and apple fields was $24.0{\pm}6.7$, $4.5{\pm}1.5$ and $18.5{\pm}0.6mg$, corresponding to mean 0.007, 0.001 and 0.005% of prepared active ingredient, respectively. The major exposed part for mixer/loader was hands (78-92%). Dermal exposure amount for applicator in green pepper, cucumber and apple fields was $84.9{\pm}14.0$, $34.0{\pm}20.8$ and $30.7{\pm}9.1mg$, corresponding to mean 0.024, 0.016 and 0.013% of applied active ingredient, respectively. The main body parts of exposure in apple field were hands, while thighs and shins in other fields. Inhalation exposure amount in green pepper, cucumber and apple fields was $1.5{\pm}2.2$, $52.7{\pm}48.9$ and $4.0{\pm}4.9{\mu}g$ during mixing/loading and $0.2{\pm}0.1$, $23.2{\pm}12.4$ and $0.4{\pm}0.6{\mu}g$ for applicator, respectively. These results were suggested that main factors affecting dermal exposure were contact frequency to the plants, foliage density, hygienic behavior, work type, and working environment, while inhalation exposure was affected mainly by working environment, especially wind. In risk assessment, margin of safety for thiophanate-methyl in all cases was over 1. However, during application in green pepper field, margin of safety was close to 1.

The proposal for pesticide exposure estimation of Korean orchard farmer (과수 농작업자 농약노출량 산정법 제안)

  • Hong, Soon-Sung;Lee, Je-Bong;Park, Yeon-Ki;Shin, Jin-Sup;Im, Geon-Jae;Ryu, Gab-Hee
    • The Korean Journal of Pesticide Science
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    • v.11 no.4
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    • pp.281-288
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    • 2007
  • This research was carried out to propose the Korean method for estimating the agricultural occupational pesticide exposure level in orchard. The UK-POEM (UK-Predictive Operator Exposure Model) was proposed as a bench-marking model and analysed its performance properties. To extrapolate the Korean agricultural conditions, application equipment, application method, work rate per day, application volume and spraying time of pesticide was surveyed for Korean 204 orchard farmhouse. This survey indicate that the major application equipments are speed sprayer(64.9%) and motor sprayer(33.9%). When they spayed the pesticide with a speed sprayer, they worked for more than 4 hours on area of 4 ha per day. In case of using motor sprayer, they worked for more than 4 hours on area of 1 ha. Based on the above survey result, Korean method for estimating the pesticide exposure level of agricultural worker was proposed finally.

Development of IoT-based non-cleaning water quality measuring equipment

  • Kim, Heung Soe;Ko, Woori;Ko, Kyoung Hak
    • Agribusiness and Information Management
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    • v.9 no.1
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    • pp.18-22
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    • 2017
  • It takes lots of time and labor if a worker have to measure the water quality at a certain but designated time every day in an un-automated aqua farm. In addition, if the equipment is soaked in the sea water consistently, it will be contaminated by diverse floating matters and barnacles, and it often becomes mal-functional within 2~3 months. Therefore, we need to develop a system with which the sensed data could be checked in real time and operated automatically, while preventing the contamination of the sensor, a crucial component for water quality measuring equipment, as much as possible, and increasing the replacement cycle. We have developed a non-cleaning water quality measuring equipment and its software which are used in the fishery household of offshore aqua farms. By providing the workers with a mobile application which has a function of monitoring the water quality in real time, they can check the situation directly without going to the fishery household.

Development of an Automated Ordering and Packing Units for Sweet Persimmons (단감 자동정렬 포장장치 개발)

  • 김진현;최중섭;김태욱
    • Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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    • v.27 no.5
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    • pp.399-408
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    • 2002
  • The sweet persimmons are producted 227,394 tons per year in Korea. They are preserved at cold storage after wrapping them in packing vinyl to maintain quality. Using conventional handwork, a skillful worker could probably produce only 1,000 packings a day. Hiring many skilled-labors to wrap sweet persimmons in packing vinyl seems to be difficult because of the recent rural crisis. Therefore, it was necessary to be developed for the automated ordering and packing unit that is convenient and laborsaving. This study were summarized as follows : Success rates of 99%, 100%, and 88% were observed for ordering parts, sealing and cutting films, and sealing films in the inlet part, respectively. The time required per 1 cycle was 16 seconds and the developed unit performed 225 cycles an hour. The unit showed an ability of 1,125 pieces per hour. Therefore, the productivity was 10 times greater than that of skillful handwork.

Identification of Uncharacterized Anti-microbial Peptides Derived from the European Honeybee (꿀벌 Apis mellifera에서 유래 한 특성화 되지 않은 항균성 펩티드의 동정)

  • Park, Hee Geun;Kim, Dong Won;Lee, Man-Young;Choi, Yong Soo
    • Journal of Life Science
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    • v.30 no.1
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    • pp.64-69
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    • 2020
  • The European honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) has multiple anti-microbial peptides, but many were unknown and demands for their characterization have increased. This study therefore focused on identifying novel anti-microbial peptides (AMPs) from A. mellifera L. To obtain high-throughput transcriptome data of the honeybee, we implemented next-generation sequencing (NGS), isolating novel AMPs from total RNA, and generated 15,314 peptide sequences, including 44 known, using Illumina HiSeq 2500 technology. The uncharacterized peptides were identified based on specific features of possible AMPs predicted in the sequencing analysis. AMP5, one such uncharacterized peptide, was expressed in the epidermis, body fat, and venom gland of the honeybee. We chemically synthesized this peptide and tested its anti-bacterial activity against Gram-negative Escherichia coli (KACC 10005) and Gram-positive Bacillus thuringiensis (KACC 10168) by anti-microbial assay. AMP5 exhibited anti-bacterial activity against E. coli (MIC50=22.04±0.66 μM) but not against B. thuringiensis. When worker bees were injected with E. coli, AMP5 was up-regulated in the body fat. This study therefore identified AMP5 in adult European honeybees and confirmed its anti-bacterial activity against Gram-negative E. coli.

Assessment of Working Posture Using RULA and REBA in Small Plants with Agricultural Products (소규모 작업장 작업자들의 인간공학적 평가 및 정량적 부하 평가 -한과작업장을 중심으로-)

  • Koo, Hye Ran;Kim, Hyo Cher;Shin, Yong Seok;Lee, Kyung Suk
    • Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
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    • v.19 no.4
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    • pp.1021-1039
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    • 2012
  • Based on the ergonomic evaluation of workers in the domestic traditional Korean sweet manufacturer, one of the small scale agricultural product manufacturers, the purpose of this study is on estimating the specific works and muscles that have possibility of musculoskeletal disorder through an EMG experiment for quantitative evaluation. The method followed in an order: works that have musculoskeletal disorder risk were extracted through ergonomic assessment tools, RULA and REBA, and then EMG experiment on the postures was carried out with six healthy adult male patients. As an ergonomic evaluation result, work posture during the drying process had the greatest musculoskeletal disorder risk, and EMG activity in the cleansing work posture scored the highest among the drying, cleansing, and coating work postures. In particular in the drying work, relatively high EMG activities were shown in the two muscles in the lower body: biceps femoris muscle, and gastrocnemius, than any other muscles. Therefore, during the traditional Korean sweet workplace design in future, the workplace requires a posture that deeply bow wrist for a long time should be avoided.

Methodology for Quantitative Monitoring of Agricultural Worker Exposure to Pesticides (농작업자에 대한 농약 노출의 정량적 측정 방법)

  • Kim, Eun-Hye;Lee, Hye-Ri;Choi, Hoon;Moon, Joon-Kwan;Hong, Soon-Sung;Jeong, Mi-Hye;Park, Kyung-Hun;Lee, Hyo-Min;Kim, Jeong-Han
    • The Korean Journal of Pesticide Science
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    • v.15 no.4
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    • pp.507-528
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    • 2011
  • Agricultural workers who mix/loads and spray pesticide in fields expose to pesticide through dermal and inhalation routes. In such situation, exposed amount should be measured quantitatively for reasonable risk assessment. Patch, gloves, socks and mask will be good materials for monitoring for dermal exposure while personal air monitor equipped with solid adsorbent and air pump will be a tool for inhalation exposure. For extrapolation of absorbed amount in dermal exposure matrices and of trapped amount in solid sorbent to total deraml or inhalation exposure, Korean standard body surface area and respiration rate were proposed in substitution of EPA data. Important exposure factors such as clothing and skin penetration ratio of dermal and inhalation exposure were suggested based on Spraying time for exposure monitoring must be long enough that the amount of pesticide to get absorbed/trapped in exposure matrices results in reasonable analytical value. In domestic case for the both of speed sprayer and power spray machine, spraying time of 20~40 minutes (0.1~0.2 ha) will be reasonable per single replicate before extrapolating to 4 hours a day with triplicates experiment.