Inter-row mechanical cultivation was proposed as a supplement to or substitute for conventional weed control methods currently used in snap bean, carrot and lettuce production. Several types of cultivators were assessed and compared. The effect of mechanical cultivation on crop yield and quality was studied by counting, weighing and grading bean pods, carrot roots and lettuce heads. The effect of mechanical cultivation on disease incidence was studied by surveying fields during the season and by determining the number and weight of diseased pods, roots and heads at harvest. The relationship between the level of Cercospora blight on carrots and potential impacts on yield was also investigated by measuring plant characteristics and the amount of force needed to separate carrot foliage from root. The effect of mechanical cultivation on the phenology of snap bean flowering was studied by determining how long it took for a plant to produce 50% of its flowers and counting how many flowers and pods a plant produced. In general, mechanical cultivation did not affect normal crop production and may be used to replace or complement conventional weed control methods. There was little variation among different cultivators within one season, but cultivator effects differed among crops and from one year to the next.

Many applications of remote sensing in agriculture have been developed since 60 years but mostly since the launch of Landsat 1 in 1972. With time, improvements in spatial, spectral and temporal resolution have been made and generated a resurgence of remote sensing popularity. Combined with agricultural systems modelling, remote sensing data such as weather radar measurements can help to obtain an accurate tool in real-time for agricultural decision-makers. Indeed, precipitation and relative humidity (RH) could become available for the agricultural decision-makers using the McGill Doppler S-band radar. At present, precipitation measurements are available with a spatial resolution of 1 km up to a range of 240 km and RH data could be available with a resolution of a few kilometres up to a range of 40 km. Both weather variables could be available with a time scale of 5 min if requested. These measurements would compensate for the actual lack of a dense weather station network prevailing in southern Quebec. / So far, the reliability of weather radar measurements has been tested by the scientific community for precipitation data but has never been tested for the RH data. In this study, a comparison between RH measured at three weather stations and RH calculated from weather radar measurements was made using consecutive time interval of 240 hours in 1997 and 336 hours in 1998. A valid t-test designed for simple linear regression analysis with two time series as dependent and explanatory variable, and based on the first-difference ratios (FDR) of the time series clearly showed that RH calculated from radar measurements is comparable to the one measured at weather stations. Thereafter, the possibility of integrating weather radar measurements (precipitation and RH) in a geographic information system (GIS) to map the variability of a crop disease was verified. Results indicated the potential of weather radar measurements in agriculture.

Common ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia L., Asteraceae) is an annual herbacious weed that is a troublesome pest in carrot fields of Southwestern Quebec. Over the past decade, ragweed has shown resistance to linuron, the only herbicide that is registered for post-emergence control of this weed in carrots. In this research, the degree of resistance to linuron was investigated for a ragweed biotype collected from a carrot field in Sherrington, Quebec, where a decreased performance of linuron had been noted. This biotype showed a linuron resistance ratio (I50) of 9.09, when compared with ragweed plants collected from a field never sprayed with this herbicide. The fungal pathogen Phoma sp., which had been initially isolated from diseased ragweed leaves in 1993, was considered as a potentially effective biological agent for the control of common ragweed. The pathogenicity of Phoma sp. was re-evaluated during the current research. This fungus was found not to have any appreciable virulence towards common ragweed; it is likely that virulence was lost during storage. Hence, twenty other fungal species were isolated from diseased common ragweed plants and assayed to determine their potential as biological agents against this noxious weed. Varying dew periods, temperatures, spore concentrations, host growth stages, and different types of carrier were evaluated. Only isolates ATT#9, INNA4a, INNA4b, ATT#10, ISO#65, and ISO#68 were able to induce lesions on ragweed foliage at spore concentrations of 106 to 107 spores ml-1, but only after an extended dew period of 48 hrs. No interaction effects on the degree of ragweed control were found when combining five fungal isolates and the insect, Ophraella communa LeSage. However, a possible interactive effect was detected when the fungal isolate ISO#65 and linuron were used in combination.

Orientadores: Kil Jin Park, Jose Maria Monteiro Sigrist / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Agricola / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-04T08:24:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Spagnol_WigbertoAntonio_D.pdf: 1868736 bytes, checksum: 6f96b6c038ec83ef28aec9e47331b2bc (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005 / Resumo: Apesar dos consumidores associarem frutas e hortaliças como uma dieta saudável, por outro lado, estão mais exigentes, requerendo o aprimoramento da qualidade e a praticidade para seu consumo. Para atender esta expectativa dos consumidores, as hortaliças processadas minimamente necessitam de aplicação de tecnologias, a fim de evitar a perda de qualidade causada pelas várias operações unitárias inerentes ao processamento. O presente trabalho teve como finalidade caracterizar os efeitos da temperatura, da modificação da atmosfera através da aplicação de filme plástico e de atmosferas ativas com altos teores de O2 e CO2, visando atingir a segurança, a alta qualidade e a conveniência no consumo de produtos processados minimamente (PM). O conceito de aplicação de fatores de preservação combinados envolve um enfoque mais amplo da preservação da qualidade, tanto na prevenção do crescimento de microrganismos de deterioração e/ou tóxicos, mas também para a conservação de outros atributos (cor, sabor, odor, textura). Em cenoura e vagem processadas minimamente, considerando um sistema com fluxo de ar contínuo, um acréscimo de 10ºC na temperatura causou um aumenta na taxa respiratória de 3,0 vezes em cenouras e, para vagens aumentou de 3,78 a 4,71 vezes. As condições climáticas de produção, verão e inverno, afetaram a taxa de respiração de vagens, sendo em torno de 50% maior para as vagens colhidas na época de inverno em relação às vagens colhidas no verão. O sintoma de dano pelo frio foi constatado à temperatura de 1ºC, sendo possível mantê-las a esta temperatura no máximo durante 4 dias. Foi observada uma diferença de 3 ciclos logUFC.g-1 no atraso de crescimento de microrganismos de deterioração a 1ºC quando comparado a 11ºC, para as cenouras embaladas em filmes plásticos. A aplicação de altos teores de O2 e CO2 em cenoura e vagem PM, considerando um sistema experimental aberto, com fluxo da mistura de gases contínuo, causou uma diminuição do crescimento de bactérias aeróbias psicrotróficas e mesófilas em torno de 2 ciclos log ao longo do período de 10 dias de armazenamento tanto para as cenouras mantidas a 11ºC como para as vagens a 5ºC. O alto teor de CO2 (30 kPa) em sinergia com alto teor de O2 (50 a 60 kPa) apresentou uma maior eficiência na inibição do crescimento das bactérias. A presença de altos teores de CO2 também evitaram a ocorrência de escurecimento enzimático nas vagens, evitando a perda de sua coloração verde durante o período de armazenamento / Abstract: Although the consumers associate fruits and vegetables to a healthy diet, they are more demanding about their quality and facility, on the other hand. The minimally processed vegetables need some technology to satisfy the consumer's expectations and in order to avoid the loss of the quality caused by many different operations concerned to minimally processing food. This work has the purpose to characterize the temperature effects, to modify the atmosphere by using plastic films and active atmospheres with high concentration of CO2 and O2. It aims to get safety, high quality and the convenience in consuming minimally processed products.The combination of preservation factors applied to minimal processing of foods concept involves a wider focus of quality preservation as prevention of the microorganisms deterioration growth and toxics microorganisms: and also for the conservation of other qualities (color, flavour, odor, texture). The minimally processing carrots and snap beans submitted to an open experimental system with the continuous air flux, an increase of 10ºC in the temperature has caused an increase of the respiration rate from 2 to 3 times in carrots and from 4 to 5 times on snap beans, being around 50% higher to snap beans harvested in the summer. The chilling injury symptoms on the snap beans were verified at the temperature of 1ºC. It is possible to maintain then at this temperature during only four days. It was observed a difference of 3 cycles log UFC.g-1 in the growth lag of deterioration microorganisms at 1ºC when compared to 11ºC, for the plastic films packaged carrots. The application of high concentration on the MP carrots and snap beans considering an experimental open system, with mixture flux of continuous gases, caused a decrease of psicotrofic and mesofile aerobic bacteria around 2 cycles log during 10 days of storage either carrots at 11ºC or snap beans at 5ºC. The high concentration of CO2 (30kPa) in synergy with high level of O2 (50 to 60 kPa) presented bigger efficiency in inhibition of the bacteria growth. The presence of high concentration of O2 also CO2 also avoided the occurrence of enzymatic browning on the snap beans, besides the loss of the green coloration during the storage period. The high concentration of O2 and CO2 didn¿t caused statistics alteration on C vitamin when compared to the air / Doutorado / Tecnologia Pós-Colheita / Doutor em Engenharia Agrícola

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Food-borne illness outbreaks are occasionally associated with fresh-vegetable consumption, in part due to lack of a microbial inactivation step before consumption. Raw manure or improperly composted manure applied as soil amendments is an established source of pathogenic bacterial contamination. However, less is known about whether such soil amendments could serve as a source of transmission of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) or antibiotic-resistance genes (ARGs) via fresh produce. As such knowledge is developing, it is useful to identify strategies for mitigating ARGs and ARB on vegetable surfaces, especially those that are synergistic with known benefits in terms of general pathogen reduction on fresh produce. Sanitizers play an important role in post-harvest processing of vegetables, especially in terms of disinfecting the wash water and preventing cross-contamination. Further, temperature and time of storage of vegetables are critical to prevent the growth of microorganisms. To provide a background inoculum representing potential pre-harvest carryover of ARB and ARGs, carrots or romaine lettuce leaves were dipped in a slurry derived from composted manure from dairy cows previously dosed with antibiotics and further inoculated with multi-drug resistant E. coli O157:H7, a human pathogen, and a spoilage-associated and opportunistic pathogenic strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Inoculated carrots (n=3, 25 g) were washed with water containing different sanitizers (sodium hypochlorite or peroxyacetic acid) or unwashed (control), packaged and stored at 10ºC for 7d or 2ºC for up to 60 d. Inoculated lettuce leaves (n=3, 100 g) were washed with sodium hypochlorite, packaged in modified atmosphere conditions (98% nitrogen), irradiated (1.0 kGy) and subsequently stored at 4ºC for 14 d. The effect of post-harvest treatment were compared at various times by enumeration on selective media. In addition, cultureindependent techniques were also performed to determine changes to the surficial carrot and lettuce microbiota by sequencing bacterial 16S rRNA gene amplicons. The effect of post-harvest treatments on the types and relative abundance of ARGs, also known as the “resistome,” were profiled by shotgun metagenomic sequencing and qPCR. Addition of a sanitizer during wash, storage temperature, and duration of storage affected the bacterial community structures on carrots, represented by the weighted Unifrac distance matrices (ANOSIM, R=0.465). Storage of sanitizer-washed carrots at 10ºC was associated with an increase in relative abundance of Pseudomonadaceae compared to 2ºC storage for 7 d (Wilcoxon, p<0.05). Increase in storage temperature from 2ºC (optimum) to 10ºC (temperature abuse) of sanitizer-washed carrots resulted in enrichment of ARGs conferring resistance to the following antibiotic classes: multidrug, peptide, polymyxin, quinolone, triclosan, aminoglycoside, bacitracin, β-lactam, and fosfomycin. Irradiation resulted in significant reductions (~3.5 log CFU/g) of inoculated antibiotic-resistant E. coli O157:H7 and Pseudomonas sp. on lettuce surfaces (ANOVA, p<0.05). The lettuce resistome, represented by the Bray-Curtis similarity of ARG occurrence, was affected by irradiation (ANOSIM, R=0.406). Irradiation of lettuce followed by 14 d of storage at 4ºC resulted in 2-4-fold reductions in relative abundance of ARGs encoding resistance to the following antibiotic classes: triclosan, quinolones, multidrug, polymyxin and β-lactam (Wilcoxon, p<0.05). No additional increase or reduction of the tet(A) gene present on inoculated P. aeruginosa was evident after 14d storage at 4ºC on irradiated samples. Results of this study suggest that inclusion of a sanitizer in wash water, irradiation, and storage at optimum refrigerated temperatures may offer effective strategies to combat proliferation of antibiotic resistant bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes on fresh produce. Further research is needed develop interventions that can mitigate tet(A) and other ARGs on produce that were not significantly reduced by irradiation. This study will guide future research on microbiome and metagenome of processed produce and assessment of critical control points to reduce the risk of antibiotic resistance from farm-to-fork. / PHD / Post-harvest interventions; such as washing, irradiation and cold storage, are employed to provide safe and wholesome fresh vegetables to consumers. Washing of vegetables in water that includes a sanitizing agent, such as chlorine or peroxyacetic acid (POAA), removes soil from the surface, reduces the bacteria in wash water and prevent cross-contamination between vegetables. It has an additional benefit to reduce microorganisms on produce surfaces that may cause the vegetables to spoil or result in illness in humans. Low temperature storage of produce, usually 0-5ºC, decreases the respiration rate of vegetables and reduces growth of microorganisms during storage. Some of the spoilage and/or pathogenic bacteria may also be antibiotic-resistant, which are commonly termed as antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB). Antibiotic resistance is a significant public health concern that leads to ineffective medical treatments, prolonged duration of illnesses and increased hospitalization costs. Antibiotic resistance is encoded by genes that confer resistance to wide range of antibiotic classes, including antibiotics used to treat human illnesses. These genes are termed as antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). In this study we examined the effect of three common post-harvest interventions, washing with sanitizers, gamma irradiation, and cold storage to reduce antibiotic-resistant bacterial pathogens and antibiotic-resistant spoilage bacteria on carrots and lettuce. Storage temperature, inclusion of sanitizer in wash water, and length of chilled storage significantly influenced the diversity of bacteria found on carrot surface. Inclusion of either sanitizer in the wash water significantly reduced the populations of antibiotic-resistant E. coli O157:H7 (a pathogenic bacterium that causes a dangerous form of gastrointestinal illness) and Pseudomonas sp. (a bacterial species that commonly causes food spoilage). Storage at recommended temperature (2ºC) did not allow these bacteria to regrow and also reduced total ARGs on carrot surfaces. Washing of lettuce with sodium hypochlorite followed by irradiation (1.0 kGy) and storage at recommended temperature (4ºC) were effective in reducing the populations of antibiotic-resistant E. coli O157:H7 and Pseudomonas sp., and additionally reduced the number of some ARGs conferring resistance to select classes of antibiotics, including triclosan, quinolones, multidrug, polymyxin and β-lactam antibiotics on the lettuce surface. A novelty of this research is that it employed new, cutting-edge “metagenomic” DNA sequencing technique to identify and track antibiotic resistance through the various post-harvest interventions. Overall results of this research suggest that inclusion of sanitizer in wash water for fresh produce, followed by storage at refrigerated temperatures below 4ºC may reduce the risk posed by antibiotic resistant bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes on produce.

Ce travail de thèse porte sur l’étude de l’effet du traitement par champs électriques pulsés (CEP) sur différents procédés de séchage et de friture à partir de produits végétaux (pommes de terre et carottes). Les interactions entre différents modes de séchage et de prétraitement ont été étudiées. L’impact du traitement par CEP et du pré-séchage par l’air chaud ou pré-séchage par le vide sur la cinétique de friture et sur la qualité des produits frits ont été analysés. Le prétraitement par CEP entraîne une électro-perméabilisation des membranes cellulaires, ce qui favorise l’accélération des cinétiques de perte en masse (humidité). Les résultats montrent que le temps de séchage a été réduit significativement dans tous les procédés étudiés (séchage par l’air chaud, séchage par microonde, séchage sous vide). L’avantage du traitement par CEP se manifeste également par une diminution au niveau de la température interne du produit séché. Cette température basse présente un avantage notable dans la préservation des composés sensibles à la chaleur (caroténoïdes…). La couleur des échantillons prétraités par CEP puis séchés, gardent mieux la coloration initiale et présente une déviation réduite en termes de couleur après réhydratation. En ce qui concerne le procédé de friture, l’application du traitement par CEP montrent un avantage en termes de temps de friture mais également en termes de la teneur en huile absorbée. En effet, cette teneur en huile est moins élevée pour le cas des échantillons traités électriquement comparés aux échantillons non traités. La combinaison du CEP et du pré-séchage à l’air chaud (ou du pré-séchage sous vide) montre une réduction importante du temps de friture et également en terme de teneur en huile absorbée. / This research project focuses on the effect of pulsed electric field (PEF) treatment on various drying and frying processes from plant products (potatoes and carrots). Interactions between different drying modes and pretreatment have been studied. The impact of PEF treatment and pre-drying by hot air or pre-drying by vacuum drying on frying kinetics and the quality of fried products were analyzed. PEF pretreatment results in electro-permeabilization of the cell membranes, which favors the acceleration of mass transfer processes. The results showed that the drying time was significantly reduced in all processes (hot air drying, microwave drying, vacuum drying). The advantage of the PEF treatment was also manifested by a decrease of the internal temperature of the product during drying. This lower temperature has a significant advantage in the preservation of heat-sensitive compounds (carotene, etc.). The dried sample pretreated by PEF could better retain the initial product color and had a reduced color deviation after rehydration. In regards to the frying process, the application of the PEF treatment showed not only an advantage in terms of the frying time but also in terms of oil content absorbed. The oil content of PEF treated sample was lower compared to untreated ones. Moreover, the combination of the PEF pretreatment and hot air pre-drying (or vacuum pre-drying) showed a synergistic efficiency on frying time and also in terms of oil content absorbed.

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