5 February 2003. Revised 13 January 2006. This company Web site offers public policy, regulatory and risk assessment information pertaining to agricultural biotechnology. Amongst the resources it offers are two databases: Biotech Crop Database and Bibliography Database. The Biotech Crop Database provides safety information about genetically engineered plants or plants with "novel traits" resulting from "accelerated mutagenesis or plant breeding." Entries include the scientific and common name of the plant, trait, trait introduction method, proposed use, the company that produced it, a summary of regulatory approvals (covers Canada, Mexico and the United States) and detailed description. Bibliography Database contains citations (some full-text) to literature on "the environmental, human food, and livestock feed safety of GM [genetically modified] crops." 13 August 2002. Revised 15 October 2004. Maintained by the University of Minnesota, AgEcon Search contains full text copies of scholarly research in agricultural economics, including agribusiness, food supply, natural resource economics, environmental economics, policy issues, agricultural trade, and economic development. Search by author, title, keyword, institution or journal to find bibliographic information about papers in the database. Each record includes a link to the paper in PDF as well as author contact information. If you click the What's New link in the menu, you will receive a list of papers recently added to the database. 12 November 2001. Revised 15 October 2004. The National Agricultural Library provides access to its catalog of books and other resources as well as its articles database. The articles database contains bibliographic information about articles, book chapters, reports and other materials published since 1982. A relatively new feature enables searching both the book and articles database simultaneously. You can search by keyword, subject, title, author or other criteria. You can also browse the contents of both databases by title, subject, author or other criteria. 3 December 2002. Revised 13 January 2006. The National Agricultural Library (NAL), land-grant universities and other agricultural organizations partner to provide this Web site on resources and news pertaining to agriculture and veterinary medicine. It covers a wide range of veterinary and environmental science topics. Use it to find high quality resources, as well as the law pertaining to agricultural issues. 18 June 2003. The law firm of McLeod, Watkinson & Miller offers this site devoted to agriculture law. Find news summaries and newsletter articles in addition to links to related statutes, regulations, legislation and more. 12 November 2001. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) offers this database of bibliographic information about world literature pertaining to agricultural issues. The current database covers 1996 to present. For older articles, access the Archive (1975-1995). I recommend use of the site's thesaurus -- Agrovoc -- prior to initiating a search. It will reveal how your keywords are indexed (e.g., search "Johne's disease" as "paratuberculosis"). 29 January 2002. CABI Publishing and Ingenta join to provide access to abstracts and full text articles about animal health and production. The abstracts derive from the database, CAB ABSTRACTS, and include articles, conference proceedings, reports, and other materials published since 1973. Ingenta provides full text documents online, when available. Search options range from the simple (keywords, authors, dates) to the complex (CABICODEs -- classification codes developed by CABI Publishing, Chemical Abstracts Registry Numbers).
In addition to the articles database, animalscience.com publishes reviews on emerging topics. It also provides copies of review articles from Animal Breeding Abstracts, Nutrition Abstracts and Reviews Series B, Pig News and Information, and Veterinary Bulletin. Searchers also will find news and brief commentary (called Spotlights) about current issues. Spotlights comprise a particularly useful research tool. They provide a concise overview of an issue, a bibliography complete with links to article abstracts, links to related Web resources, and links to published full text articles available online.
The site offers a 30-day full-access free trial. 25 March 2004. The Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition of the Food and Drug Administration offers a handbook of basic facts about foodborn pathogens and natural toxins. Compiling information from the Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control, the USDA Food Safety Inspection Service and the National Institutes of Health, the handbook covers pathogenic bacteria, enterovirulent escherichia coli (EEC), parasitic protozoa and worms, viruses and more. Each section defines the organism, explains the nature of the disease and reveals how it is diagnosed, what foods are associated with it, its relative frequency, complications and target populations. Sections also provide information about selected outbreaks. 23 January 2002. CDMS, Inc. (Crop Data Management Systems, Inc.) offers product labels and MSDS (material safety data sheets) from over 80 manufacturers. You can browse the list of manufacturers or search by product or brand name. 25 March 2004. Developed by scientists with the U.S. Agricultural Research Service and the United Kingdom's Institute of Food Research, ComBase provides information on how pathogenic bacteria respond to different environmental conditions in food. Search by environmental condition, type of organism and type of food to find information describing the conditions under which the food became contaminated. The description includes published source information. 10 April 2007. The County of Sacramento, California, offers a food safety inspections database. Search by facility name or location to find the inspection reports. The database supports partial name searching. Information provided includes the name and address of the food facility, identification of any major violations, date of the last inspection or re-inspection and the period of closure (if applicable.) In addition, the food inspection report itself is available (in Adobe Acrobat format) for most inspections since July 1, 2002. 13 August 2002. Search the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) database of recently completed research projects in agriculture, food and nutrition, and forestry. An assisted search feature facilitates limiting criteria to one or more of the many database fields. For example, enter "johne's disease" (without quotations) as a keyword search and then limit results to those dealing with "animal health." The database returns information about the research, including project time period, investigator, performing institution, objectives, approach, and a helpful non-technical summary. 12 April 2002. The NASA Solid Earth and Natural Hazards Program offers this subject index of disaster-related resources. The classification of resources in this collection follows the guidelines set forth in the Disaster services section of the Taxonomy of Human Services. The collection cover disaster management (mitigation, preparedness, etc), disciplines (climates, communications, etc), organizations (FEMA, universities, etc), specific types of disasters (earthquakes, fires, etc), and more.
30 May 2006. Now owned by PRIMEDIA, EquiSearch serves as the online partner for its equine magazines -- EQUUS, Dressage Today, Practical Horseman, Horse & Rider, Arabian Horse World, Discover Horses at the Kentucky Horse Park, Everything for Horse & Rider and Growing Up With Horses. You will find news, articles and online forums. A keyword search feature helps you find articles. A weekly electronic newsletter is also available. 26 May 2004. Revised 5 May 2008. A statistical database of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAOSTAT covers topics such as production, trade, land use, population, fertilizer and pesticides, exports and more. To begin, select a broad category--agriculture, nutrition, fisheries, forestry or food quality control. Then choose one of the data collections. The next screen to appear contains options for the type of statistical data you desire. You can, for example, discover the number of live animal stocks (by type of animal) in specific countries or regions. 2 February 2004. Revised 5 May 2008. The Drug Information Laboratory of the Veterinary Medical Informatics Program at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine provides access to the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine's database of approved animal drug products as well as related information products. Search by a variety of criteria to find information about FDA approved drugs for animals. Taken from the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), the information provided includes source citations and links. Other databases cover suitability petitions (new drug petitions and resulting action), sponsors (animal drug companies), Green Book updates (see The Green Book below) and others. 2 December 2003. Revised 5 May 2008. Tall Timbers Research Station in Tallahassee, Florida offers a database of literature pertaining to wildfires. It contains bibliographic references to a broad range of publications from countries around the world. The majority of literature, however, comes from North American, and in particular, the southeastern United States. Many references include abstracts. The site also offers a thesaurus that you can browse to find references by subject. By installing additional software, you can download the results of a query. 25 June 2002. FOI Services, Inc., a document retrieval company specializing in the retrieval of Food & Drug Administration (FDA) documents under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), offers a searchable library of over 150,000 documents it has collected since its inception during 1975. Search the library for free. Purchase individual documents, many of which are available online. To find FOIA documents pertinent to specific companies, query the company name omitting inc, co, ltd, etc. Database coverage includes documents pertaining to drugs, devices, food, veterinary medicine, and biologics, guidelines, inspection reports, and Espicom Market Research Reports. 5 February 2003. Revised 5 May 2008. The Forest Service Library Network offers its online catalog containing bibliographic records of natural resources literature, including Forest Service Research publications. Some of the records provide links to full-text publications. Search by keyword, or a variety of other criteria, to find articles, books, research reports, and more housed in the collections of various Forest Service Research Stations. 1 March 2002. The Department of Commerce's National Technical Information Service and the National Information Services Corporation join to provide subscription-based, single-point access to multiple government databases, including NTIS (government sponsored research in a variety of industries), AGRICOLA (agricultural and life sciences), Energy Science and Technology (basic and applied scientific and technical research literature), Federal Research in Progress (ongoing federally funded projects in the fields of the physical sciences, engineering, and life sciences), AgroBase (agriculture), Nuclear Science Abstracts (international nuclear science and technology literature), RTECS (toxicological information) and NIOSHTIC (occupational safety and health literature). While some of these databases appear elsewhere on the Web for free, there may differences in date coverage and usability. 22 February 2002. Revised 5 May 2008. Published from information in a database maintained under a cooperative agreement between the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, the Green Book provides information about approved animal drugs. Chapters cover brand names and NADA numbers, active ingredients, patent information, exclusivity periods, products hearing notice, voluntary withdrawals, suitability petition actions and monthly updates. The Center for Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Polytechnic Institute provides search access to the monthly updates as well as other relevant databases (animal drug products, suitability petitions). 8 June 2003. Revised 5 May 2008. The University of Nebraska Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources provides its catalog of more than 800 publications. The catalog gives bibliographic information, including in some cases extensive summaries. You cannot search it by keyword or other criteria. Rather, you browse the catalog by categories. 9 October 2002. Pennsylvania State University offers a database of annotated bibliographic citations to journal articles, book excerpts, conference proceedings, and research reports about pests. For the broadest possible query, use the Advanced Search button and specify "all non-indexed fields." This qualifier appears to query the full-text of the bibliographic record, including indexed fields. 26 November 2001. Revised 6 May 2008. Formerly known as VetGate, this site evaluates and classifies Internet resources in animal health. Search or browse the database. It utilizes both the Library of Congress classification scheme and CAB keyword headings. The site also offers a helpful tutorial on finding resources in veterinary medicine.
17 November 2003. Created by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture in cooperation with the Pennsylvania Department of Education, Marketplace for the Mind provides agricultural education materials as well as information about the state's agriculture and agribusiness. Follow the link for "In the News" to find articles and reference materials about current issues like the West Nile Virus, rabies, Johne's Disease and more. Search the Agricultural Resource Library to find educational materials on animal, plant and food science, agricultural mechanics, agricultural business and environmental agriculture, including brochures, books, CDs, fact sheets and other information. The records offer bibliographic information as well as reading levels, languages, reproduction information, and online sales availability. 9 October 2002. Merck & Co., Inc. makes available its reference source for animal care information. Browse or search the manual by disease name, With respect to diseases, the manual contains information about etiology and pathogenesis, diagnosis, control, and more. It also provides information about prenatal management, common diseases, and lameness in animals. Useful features include search term highlighting, an index, and an abbreviation guide. 11 January 2002. The National Agriculture Safety Database (NASD) is a collection of information about health, safety and injury prevention in agriculture. Sources include state and federal agencies as well as national organizations. Find OSHA and EPA Standards, extension publications, abstracts and ordering information for ag safety-related videos, a NIOSH bibliography with abstracts for over 500 scientific publications, training materials, posters, sample new releases, and public service announcement scripts. 4 September 2003. Revised 6 May 2008. Animal Health Australia maintains this database of animal health data, which it collects from commonwealth, state and territory governments, as well as industry groups and other interest organizations. The provides information about animal diseases, epidemiology, Australian regulations, control measures and key references. Search by disease or condition (select from pre-established terms) to find a description of the disease, which includes its distribution worldwide, history in Australia, epidemiology, clinical signs, pathology, diagnosis and prevention and control. 24 August 2005. The National Animal Identification System (NAIS) is a national program intended to identify specific animals in the United States and record their movement over their lifespans. It is being developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and State agencies, in cooperation with industry, to enable 48-hour traceback of the movements of any diseased or exposed animal. 17 November 2003. Created by Congress during 1987 and affiliated with the National Agricultural Library, the Center conducts legal research into critical issues facing agriculture and food today. It also publishes scholarly articles, notes, case summaries and other materials. The Web site provides summaries of agriculture-related judicial decisions and regulatory changes, articles on a variety of agricultural law issues, current USDA decisions and an extensive guide on finding agricultural law on the Internet. 12 April 2002. The Earth Sciences Directorate and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center maintain this bibliographic database covering literature pertaining to the use of satellite remote sensing for disaster mitigation. Browse by subject, or search by keyword, to obtain bibliographic citations to professional literature.
15 May 2003. Sponsored by the Center for New Crops & Plant Products at Purdue University, NewCROP offers several utilities for finding information about crop plants. Use CropINDEX provides scientific and common names for crops as well as links to full-text and bibliographic resources where you can find information about specific crops. CropSEARCH lets you query the online resources by keyword. Famine Foods Database provides information about plants that usually are not considered crops, but are consumed in times of famine. Other site utilities include a crop map, a crop expert directory, a list of crop reference sources, and more. 24 June 2002. Revised 5 May 2008. Multiple federal agencies join to offer this portal to their nutrition-related information. The site provides access to federal government information on nutrition, healthy eating, physical activity, and food safety. 22 March 2005. Revised 5 May 2008. The Production Estimates and Crop Assessment Division (PECAD) of the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service provides three XML-based feeds for information pertaining to production of agricultural. The feeds cover current and older top stories, as well as world agricultural production. They consist of linked headlines. 15 May 2003. The National Plant Data Center provides this database containing information about plants. Search by common name, scientific name or symbol to find a plants profile, which contains at least some of the following information: plant scientific name, common name, symbol, group, family, growth habit, duration and U.S. nativity. Additional features include plant classification reports, which show the scientific kingdom and plant source and reference materials, which provide bibliographic information about source materials for the information in the database as well citations to references for more information about the plant entered. Revised 5 November 2001. The National Library of Medicine provides access to MEDLINE -- a database of bibliographic information about articles in the medical sciences published since about 1966 -- and citations to newer publications not yet appearing in MEDLINE.
8 January 2003. This site serves as a portal to scientific and technical information and databases available from U.S. government agencies. Browse the collection of resources by subject or search multiple databases simultaneously. Topics include agriculture, veterinary medicine, biology, computers, energy, environment, health and medicine, math, and more. 2 April 2001. Elsevier offers this search engine devoted to finding scientific information. Powered by FAST (alltheweb.com), Scirus collects, indexes, and retrieves information pertaining to agricultural and biological sciences, biosciences, chemistry, Earth and planetary sciences, environmental sciences, life sciences, medicine, pharmacology, social and behavioral sciences, and more.
Using the simple search feature on the home page, searchers may enter a phrase, or string several words together with the Boolean "and," and limit the search to a particular field of science. The advanced search page offers more options including the ability to limit a query so that it retrieves articles only. From the results list, searchers also may select "more like this result" to retrieve items similar to one on the hit list.
Because the engine also indexes information from fee-based subscription services, searchers will find peer-reviewed journal articles. Retrieving these articles (called Membership Sources) requires a subscription to Science Direct.
30 May 2006. The Horse magazine offers news, commentary and peer-reviewed articles on equine health care. Browse an index (called Topic Search) of articles by subject or conduct a keyword search. Also find a weekly electronic newsletter that contains news on diseases, veterinary research, health events, and in-depth articles on common equine health conditions and what you can do to recognize, avoid, or treat them. 23 January 2002. The Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA) offers weekly export sales data "as a timely early warning system on the possible impact of agricultural obligations on U.S. supplies and prices." In addition to the complete report, the site offers highlights, summary activity, and a cotton summary as well as export sales reporting regulations, an export performance indicator, and individual commodity reports. 26 May 2004. FASOnline, a Web site of the Foreign Agricultural Service, which is part of U.S. Department of Agriculture, provides a database of qualified U.S. suppliers of food, farm, seafood and forest products to foreign buyers. Search by product or company to find detailed contact information. Company name queries can be conducted only from the text search box, which appears at the bottom of the page. The information provided includes the name of the company, its address, phone, contact, fax, email, Web site, D&B number, annual sales, number of employees, type of firm, products exported, and more. 2 February 2004. The Mann Library at Cornell University provides a single interface for searching reports and datasets from the economic agencies of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The database is international in scope and covers topics like farm sector economics, field crops, food, land, water and conservation, livestock, dairy and poultry, trade issues and more. Search by keyword to find reports or datasets issued by the Economic Research Service, National Agricultural Statistics Service and World Agricultural Outlook Board. 4 September 2003. The Department of Agriculture makes available information about nutrients in foods. Enter the name of a food to find the proximates (water, energy, protein, sugar, etc.), minerals, vitamins and lipids its contains. Depending on the food, you can based a report on various measurements, including grams, a cup, a fluid ounce, a quart, serving, etc. 10 April 2007. Virginia Department of Health provides a link page for finding inspection reports pertaining to restaurants, fast food operations, delis, cafeterias, and other types of food service establishments inspected by local health departments. First, select the relevant county from the left-hand menu. Then drill down the alphabet to find the food service of interest. 10 April 2007. Revised 18 April 2008. Washington State Department of Health provides a page of links to county food safety/restaurant inspection databases. Restaurant health inspection reports are public record in Washington. The Web site explains that the public may review inspection reports on-site at the relevant local county office. But a handful of Washington counties also make the reports available online. 7 May 2002. The Water Quality Information Center at the National Agricultural Library offers several databases and resources pertaining to water and agriculture. Find, for example, the Database of Online Documents Covering Water and Agriculture (electronic publications of several federal agencies), AgNIC (Internet-accessible resources selected by the National Agricultural Library), Selected Water-Resources Abstracts (abstracts of about 10,000 water resources published since 1977), Water Expert Directory (water professionals), and more.
14 November 2000. Subtitled "Science Behind the News," this site sponsored by the University of Wisconsin, explains scientific facts and theories behind historical and current events in the news. What caused the Edmund Fitzgerald to sink in the Great Lakes? Is such a tragedy likely to happen again? What are scientists learning about the source and fate of new infections (HIV, Ebola, West Nile, Lyme)? Are genetically altered foods safe? To find these articles, the site offers a subject index and keyword search feature. 27 March 2003. Revised 12 March 2004. Formerly a single database sponsored by the U.S. Geological Survey and entitled Contaminant Exposure and Effects (CEETV), this resource now comprises the database and two utilities. CEETV provides information about contaminant exposure and effects for terrestrial vertebrates (birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles) that reside in estuarine and coastal habitats along the Atlantic, Gulf, Pacific, Alaskan and Hawaiian coastal regions. A second component of the site offers information about biological and ecotoxicological characteristics of birds, reptiles, mammals and amphibians. Another section lets you rank terrestrial vertebrates by their susceptibility to specific contaminants. 24 August 2005. The database contains information about bird species, including taxonomy, identification, range, population, ecology, threats, conservation and more. Compiled by BirdLife International, a global alliance of conservation organizations, it also provides information about Important Bird Areas (IBAs) and Endemic Bird Areas (EBAs). To begin searching, select an option from the left-hand menu (and not the search box at the top of the page). 2 December 2003. The Wyoming Department Of Agriculture offers two databases for finding feed and fertilizer products and the companies that register them for sale. Search by full or partial company or brand name to find the company name, address, permit number and product list. The product list provides the brand name and number as well as the permit expiration date. |
![tvceditor [at] virtualchase [dot] com](../images/editor_882_sm.jpg){kind=small}