FAO 28 January 2016, Rome - Infectious animal-borne disease threats such as Ebola and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) are here to stay, and further painful outbreaks are likely to flare up or new disease threats will definitely emerge in the near future, said Juan Lubroth, FAO's chief veterinarian, querying whether the world is prepared to detect them and prevent their spread.

FAO 28 January 2016, Sana'a - More than half of the total population of Yemen — some 14.4 million people — are food insecure, as ongoing conflict and import restrictions have reduced the availability of essential foods and sent prices soaring, FAO said today.

A research conducted at the University of East Anglia (UEA) showed that oil from genetically modified (GM) oil seed crops could replace fish oil as a primary source of the beneficial Omega-3 fatty acid EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid).

WHO 28 January 2016 -- WHO Director-General, Margaret Chan, will convene an International Health Regulations Emergency Committee on Zika virus and observed increase in neurological disorders and neonatal malformations. The Committee will meet on Monday 1 February in Geneva to ascertain whether the outbreak constitutes a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.

Michigan State University (MSU) scientists are looking at the biochemisty of plants in a research that could lead to plants that are less susceptible to insects. In Professor Robert Last's Laboratory, postdoctoral scholar Pengxiang Fan and undergraduate biochemistry and molecular biology student Abigail Miller were able to reconstruct the pathway of chemical processes that a tomato plant uses to create useful compounds called acyl sugars.

The first field trial of genetically modified (GM) potatoes resistant to potato blight conducted in Uganda from October 2015 to January 2016 has been completed at the Kachwekano Zonal Agricultural Research and Development Institute (KaZARDI) of the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO) near Kabale.

FAO 26 January 2015, Rome - Russia's Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography (Rosreestr) and FAO have agreed to enhance their cooperation aimed at improving the governance of land tenure.

Cassava is a crop that likes a challenge. It can tolerate drought, heat or infertile soils as agriculture intensifies and populations grow. It is a carbohydrate source for 500 million people globally and a staple in Africa, Asia and South America, accounting for 53, 33 and 14 percent of global production respectively.

An international team of researchers, including Kun Yue, Tom Beeckman and Ive De Smet of VIB/UGent, discovered a new cell division regulator that shapes plant root systems, PROTEIN PHOSPHATASE 2A-3 (PP2A-3). Their results could lead to new techniques to improve root architecture for higher crop yields.

Modifying the structure of poplar wood can also alter its endosphere microbiome - the bacteria that reside inside tree tissue. This was recently discovered by a study from the University of Hasselt, University of Gent and Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie (VIB). Researchers looked into how trees with modified wood structure could be used as a basis for the production of bioethanol.