81 

 AnACHMENT TO DR. MURRELL'S PREPARED STATEMEHT 



RESEARCH ACCOMPLISHMENTS FROM 

 THE BELTSVILLE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH CENTER 



RECENT ACCOMPLISHMENTS 



• Discovered a technique using a laser beam to identify and separate X- and Y- 

 Chromosome-bearing sperm of farm animals. Proceclure may permit livestock 

 producers to pre-select the sex of animals at conception for more efficient meat 

 or milk production. Potential high economic impact for dairy industry. 



• Transferred economically important foreign genes into the genome of sv/ine and 

 sheep to improve growth characteristics, increase disease resistance, and pro- 

 duce biological products in the mammary gland. 



• Discovered a new animal parasite, Neospora caninum . that causes widespread 

 illness and abortion in cattle and pets. 



• Discovered that clinical mastitis is reduced 75 percent by inserting abraded plas- 

 tic loops in cows' udders. Reduced infections resulted in increased milk yield av- 

 eraging almost 4 pounds per cow per day. 



• Demonstrated that a new complex carbohydrate from cereals (Oatrim) reduces 

 cholesterol in the blood of humans and aids in weight loss. 



• Demonstrated that decreasing fat in the human diet and increasing the propor- 

 tion of fat from vegetable sources significantly reduces high blood pressure. 



• Developed new techniques for measuring carotenoids (yellow and orange pig- 

 ments) in fruits and vegetables. These techniques will allow scientists to evaluate 

 the importance of food carotenoids in the reduction of cancer risk. 



• Developed technology that uses near-infrared light combined with computerized 

 data analysis to instantly measure percent of body fat, water, and protein with- 

 out harming the subject. 



• Developed multiple-volume treatise of detailed taxonomic information on over 

 13,000 species of North American moths, a group responsible for devastating 

 crop losses. 



• Developed computerized databases and information files on beneficial organ- 

 isms, primarily those of foreign origin, as an aid in biological control of pests. 



• Discovered and helped commercialize rapid immunodiagnostic test for trichino- 

 sis, the first such test for a food-borne parasite. Now in use both in the United 

 States and in foreign countries. 



• Provided research data that formed the basis for the first FDA approval for irra- 

 diation of meat to control a pathogen. 



• Discovered a new synthetic control for fire ants that increases the ratio of drone 

 ants to workers, slowly causing the ant colony to weaken and die. These pests 

 infest 230 million acres in the South. 



• Genetically engineered, in a cooperative effort with private industry, a parasite 

 antigen that stimulates host immunity -- an important first step for a vaccine 

 against coccidiosis, which costs U.S. poultry producers almost $300 million a 

 year. 



• Introduced exotic new impatiens germplasm, and used ovule-culture to develop 

 otherwise impossible hybrids to create new kinds of impatiens, a flower-garden 

 bedding plant, that is now more popular than petunia. 



• Detected nutrient deficiencies in com and soybean from an aircraft or satellite 

 using a nitrogen-gas laser. Plant leaves fluoresce in specific wavelengths that in- 

 dicate their status of specified elements, such as iron, nitrogen, and potassium. 



• Released to plant breeders four snap bean germplasm lines resistant to all 28 

 races of Uromyces phaseoli (fungus that causes bean rust) that occur in the 



