Working with Agriculture/Weights and Measures

Working with the Department of Agriculture / Weights and Measures
Robert Atkins, Agriculatural Commissioner & Sealer of Weights and Measures

Patricia Nolan, MS, County Plant Pathologist, Left

David Kellum, PhD, County Entomologist, Right

The County Veterinarian and the Department of Agriculture has had a long history of working together. Plants and animals share similar types of problems. Both have bacterial, viral, and parasitic diseases, the identification of which use the same basic procedures and laboratory equipment. When agricultural pesticides or herbicides are used and an animal dies shortly thereafter, regardless of its nature, the chemical is sometimes blamed. Necropsy almost always provides another explanation. In the case of a burro, it was chronic liver failure. In another case it was "Hardware Disease" that killed a cow. The cow had eaten a short piece of bailing wire that penetrated the animal's second stomach and pierced the heart, a condition that takes weeks to develop. In another case in which the Dept.of Agriculture sprayed the edges of a road, the property owner complained of becoming immediately ill. The next time only water was used. She again became immediately ill. This shows how easily people jump to unfounded conclusions regardless of its nature.

Shared Electron Microscope

Dr. Mahoney demonstrating shared electron microscope
Working with the Plant Pathology division of the Department of Agriculture/Weights and Measures allows us to share the use of expensive equipment, technicians and supplies. This microscope is used for both plant and animal viruses.
Healthy plants and animals are very important to San Diego's economy and for the health of our residents.

"My dog just got wormed, and now look what he's got."

Perhaps that's what he got "wormed" with. Actually he was "dewormed". Nevertheless, after finding one of these worms in the dog's water dish, the owner was sure the dog still had worms. While easily recognized as a non animal parasite, it was our relationship with the County Department of Agriculture that made identification easy. It was a Land Planarian, a free-living worm that lives on slugs, and insect larvae, and are voracious predators on earthworms, and a considerable nuisance in earthworm rearing beds. During certain times of the year they are common in San Diego, where moisture accumulates under flowerpots that set directly on the ground.

Fat Inkeepers
This is another case where working with the Department of Agriculture paid off in identifying these creatures.

Fat Innkeepers showing anal bristles