Some plant pathogens can survive not only in plants, but also in soil and water.  Crops can become diseased if planted in soil or water containing these pathogens.  Thus, knowing the status of your soil and water is essential for maintaining crop health and yield.

At CAD, we can test soil and water samples for the presence of bacterial and fungal pathogens. Common soil and water pathogens include, but are not limited to:

• Fusarium spp.

• Verticillium spp.

• Phytophthora spp.

• Rhizoctonia spp.

• Pythium spp. 

• Collectotrichum spp.

Our methods of detection include selective media plating, identifying morphological characteristics under the microscope, PCR, RT-PCR. Pathogens can be sequenced for species identification.

For information on how to submit a sample:

Plant parasitic nematodes are recognized as major agricultural pathogens and are known to attack plants and cause crop losses throughout the world. We use the Baermann Funnel method to extract live nematodes and identify them by studying the morphological characters. Further identification down to the species level can be performed via PCR and sequencing.

For information on how to submit a sample:

Microorganisms are present in virtually all environments and are typically the first organisms to react to chemical and physical changes in the environment. Changes in microbial communities are often a precursor to changes in the health and viability of the environment as a whole.  At CAD we can profile these microorganisms and how they change over time using Biolog EcoPlates. 

Biolog EcoPlates have been found to provide a sensitive and reliable index of environmental change. Each plate measures the metabolism of 31 carbon sources per assay, and each assay panel tests in triplicate per plate. This approach, called community-level physiological profiling, has been demonstrated to be effective at distinguished spatial and temporal changes in microbial communities.  These 31 carbon sources are repeated 3 times to give more replicates of the data. Communities of organisms will give a characteristic reaction pattern called a metabolic fingerprint. These fingerprint reaction patterns rapidly and easily provide a vast amount of information from a single plate.

For more information, please contact us and speak to one of our specialists.