Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information 2024 at 7:00 AM ESTBookmarkSaveA boom in Brazil’s agriculture sector sparked a rush of investments with the $7 billion market for agribusiness funds luring people from all walks of life in the past three years But with bumper crops across the globe sending prices plunging and Brazilian farmers filing for bankruptcy at alarming ratesBloomberg Terminal, the retail investor is paying the price. Tim WallIn a land renowned for wild animals, household pets also have a place in Brazil. The Brazilian pet food industry is the largest in South America, according to Mordor Intelligence The Brazilian pet food market may reach US$9.37 billion in 2024 After deciding to stay in the pet food industry in 2023 BRF remained Brazil's top pet food company in 2024 These 4 Brazilian companies appear in Petfood Industry’s Top Pet Food Companies database BRF Pet SA Brands: BRF became a major player in the Brazilian pet food market in 2021 with the acquisitions of established manufacturers Hecosul and Mogiana The company paid R$1.35 billion (US$234 million) for the two companies The company said the acquisitions would give it 10% of the Brazilian pet food market Special Dog Brands: Special Dog Premium Special Cat Premium Special Dog Ultralife Special Cat Ultralife Special Dog Prime Special Cat Prime Special Dog Company launched in February 2001 in the city of Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo The company quickly reached the rank of one of the largest in its segment in Brazil The brand operates in more than 38,000 points of sale in eight Brazilian states and the Federal District Premier Pet Gourmet Vitta Natural; PremieR: Natural Selection owned by agricultural corporation Grandfood Industry and Trade sells dog and cat food through pet shops and veterinary offices Premier Pet is located on a large campus in the state of Sao Paolo The Instituto PremieRpet is the company's nonprofit arm studies and actions that aim to promote health quality of life and longevity of dogs and cats in addition to supporting several social causes Total Alimentos SA Total Alimentos, owned by ADM Animal Nutrition, uses technology to create wet food flavors in its dry food Total Alimentos has its own label partnerships with many large corporations DentaClean and Kelko. Total Alimentos also has a line of animal feed for a wide range of species By submitting this form, you acknowledge that use of your data is governed by our Privacy Policy. you agree to receive texts or calls regarding your subscription or other WATT products and services Please call +1 (847) 400-5960 for custom support A farmer stands on a truck filled with soybeans during a harvest in Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo 2024 at 1:40 PM EDTBookmarkSaveA selloff in Brazil’s currency over the past month is shielding farmers in the world’s top soybean exporter from this year’s price plunge Faisal Al-Hmoud, Texas Tech ’22 has been elected as external vice president (based on electoral success) of Texas Tech University’s Student Government Association (SGA). He assumes office May 1. Brother Al-Hmoud is currently enrolled in the Honors College at Texas Tech University and studies economics with plans to obtain a law degree. Since becoming involved with SGA, Faisal works on the initiation and maintenance of policies and programs designed to enhance the quality of student life. In doing so, his role is to provide student-initiated perspectives to faculty, staff, and administration, such as the creation of a petition regarding pass/fail grading standards that ultimately received 8,000 signatures in two hours and eventually impacted academic policy. Before that, Faisal involved himself on campus as student senator and as a member of the budget and finance committee. He also served as the academic chair for the Texas Epsilon Chapter of Phi Delta Theta at Texas Tech, and further as the director of academics for the Texas Tech University Interfraternity Council. In those capacities, Faisal was awarded as Texas Tech University’s Interfraternity Council Member of the Year as well as Phi Delta Theta’s Outstanding Undergraduate Award. Some of Brother Al-Hmoud’s previous part time posts include work as a student assistant with TTU student government and with TTU’s Visitors Center, where he oversaw and coordinated the logistics and daily tasks of the respective offices to maintain the operations of hundreds of student organized events. In the summer of 2019, Faisal interned as an assistant analyst with JLL MENA in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where he worked with various directing managers in the department of consulting to compile and analyze data of the commercial real estate (office, residential, retail, and hospitality) markets in Dubai, Riyadh, Jeddah, and Cairo. Know a Phi Delt who is doing extraordinary things? Nominate him for the Pursuit of Greatness for a chance to see him featured! 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Volume 16 - 2025 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2025.1504244 Phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) directly impact final crop productivity by playing essential roles in photosynthesis Compared with nutrient application to soil the nutrients are applied directly to leaves provides a faster response because the nutrients enter plant metabolism more quickly Foliar fertilization with nutritional supplements can intend to increase crop yields and little is known about its ability to reduce oxidative stress This study evaluated the effects of foliar fertilization on crop recovery from phytotoxicity induced by herbicide exposure and cotton plants by applying the herbicide carfentrazone-ethyl (at V3 which induces the accumulation of reactive oxygen species in the cytoplasm leading to membrane rupture and the appearance of chlorotic spots on leaves Phytotoxicity induction was followed by the foliar application of monoammonium phosphate (MAP) as a source of N and P MAP supplementation increased chlorophyll content and RuBisCO activity by up to 20.5% (maize) and 16.2% (cotton) resulting in higher net photosynthetic rates (26.3%; cotton) and carboxylation efficiency (45%; cotton) The activities of antioxidant enzymes also increased and the concentrations of oxidative stress indicators decreased (H2O2: 33.7% and MDA: 28.3%; soybean) the productivity of all three crops increased suggesting that foliar application of MAP is an efficient strategy for attenuating phytotoxicity symptoms in crops ● Foliar application of soluble MAP improves gas exchange and antioxidant parameters ● Foliar application of soluble MAP significantly increases chlorophyll content and RuBisCO activity ● Targeted nutrient supplementation enables crop recovery from phytotoxicity while also increasing productivity The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of foliar application of soluble monoammonium phosphate (MAP) in mitigating herbicide-induced oxidative stress in soybean we evaluated the effects of MAP supplementation on physiological and biochemical parameters such as chlorophyll content and oxidative stress indicators to determine whether this practice can enhance crops productivity by reducing the phytotoxic effects of the herbicide carfentrazone-ethyl The study encompassed the 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 growing seasons of soybean (between the months of October and March) and cotton (between the months of December and June) and the 2021 and 2022 growing seasons of maize (between the months of February and June) Each crop was grown in a different location in the state of São Paolo Brazil: soybean at the Lageado Experimental Farm in Botucatu Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo (maize): This site is located at 22° 50′ 7″ S and the temperature rarely drops below 11°C The average temperature range is 15 to 31°C and the annual precipitation is approximately 1236.5 mm Riolândia (cotton): This site is located at 19° 56′ 36.9″ S Temperatures range between 12°C to 33°C and the annual precipitation is approximately 1221 mm Figure 1 presents the monthly average temperature and precipitation at the locations during the study period. The soil at each location was analyzed after the harvest in 2021, and the results are presented in Table 1 Average monthly temperatures and precipitation (mm) during the first and second growing season of soybean in Botucatu The map shows the locations of each of the three municipalities in the state of São Paulo Soil characteristics at a depth of 0–20 cm prior to the 2021 growing season at the three study locations Timing of phytotoxicity induction and foliar application of soluble MAP during the soybean The experiments were conducted in a randomized block design with three crops three experiments with a total of 28 plots each plot contained seven 11-m-long rows with an inter-row spacing of 0.50 m (11 m long × 3 m wide In the maize experiment (Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo) each plot contained seven 11-m-long rows with an inter-row spacing of 0.45 m (11 m long × 2.70 m wide each plot contained four 7-m-long rows with an inter-row spacing of 0.90 m (7 m long × 2.70 m wide The seven treatments included two controls: an absolute control (Ac) with no application of carfentrazone-ethyl or MAP and a phytotoxicity control (Pc) with application of carfentrazone-ethyl but no application of MAP. Four of the treatments comprised phytotoxicity induction plus the application of MAP at a single specific growth stage (labeled according to the growth stage; see Table 2) The final treatment (All Ps) included phytotoxicity induction and the application of MAP at four growth stages The growth stage at which phytotoxicity was induced was selected based on the sensitivity of each crop: V3 for soybean (Fehr and Caviness, 1977) and maize (Ritchie et al., 1993) and V4 for cotton (Marur and Ruano, 2004) These growth stages are critical developmental phases in which plants are actively expanding their leaves and beginning to form essential structures for photosynthesis and nutrient assimilation Focusing on these early stages ensured that the response to MAP was evaluated at a crucial moment for the formation of the photosynthetic apparatus and antioxidant pathways maximizing the relevance of the final productivity results Response of various parameters — (A) chlorophyll a (C) total chlorophyll and (D) starch — as a function of foliar soluble MAP application in soybean leaves Bars for the same crop with different letters are significantly different by Fisher’s protected least significant difference (LSD) test at p ≤ 0.05 Growing seasons were considered random effects was carried out with a constant pressure (CO2) backpack sprayer equipped with a 3-m-long boom with 6 fan nozzles (AXI 11002) spaced at intervals of 0.50 m The spray volume and pressure were 150 L ha-1 and 1.80 bar Soybean cultivar NEO 580 IPRO was planted at 16 plants m-1. Before planting, the seeds were treated with the fungicides carboxin + Tyrant® (100 g + 100 g active ingredient/100 kg seeds-¹) and a liquid inoculant containing Bradyrhizobium japonicum (Moretti et al., 2018, 2020, 2024) Base fertilization was carried out with 200 kg of granular MAP (11-52-00) applied to the sowing furrow and 70 kg of potassium applied to the soil surface Maize hybrid P3707VYH DuPont Pioneer was planted at 3 seeds m-¹ the seeds were treated with the fungicides carboxin + Tyrant® (100 g + 100 g active ingredient/100 seeds-¹) The maize plants were fertilized with 280 kg ha-¹ of 28-08-16 in the sowing furrow 172 kg ha-¹ of urea and 25 kg ha-¹ potassium were applied to the soil surface Cotton cultivar TMG 81 was planted at 9 plants m-¹ The seeds were treated with the fungicides carboxin + Tyrant® (100 g + 100 g active ingredient/100 kg seeds-¹) and the cotton plants were fertilized with 310 kg-¹ of 20-08-20 applied in the seeding furrow 204 kg of urea was applied to the soil surface For nutritional analysis and evaluations of oxidative stress leaf samples were collected from soybean plants at phenological stage R4 (fully developed pods) maize plants at stage R2 (white grains with a water bubble appearance) and cotton plants at stage C5 (opening of the first boll on the 5th branch) PP Systems) was used to determine the net photosynthetic rate (A) (µmol m-² s-¹) stomatal conductance (gs) (mol m-² s-¹) carbon concentration in the substomatal chamber (Ci) (µmol mol-¹) transpiration (E) (mmol m-² s-¹) carboxylation efficiency (A/Ci) and water use efficiency (A/E; WUE) samples were taken from the central leaflet of the fully expanded third leaf and the intact trifoliate leaf from the apex of the main stem plant from 5 plants per plot All evaluations were performed in the morning with a constant ambient CO2 of 390 µmol mol-¹ the readings were performed five days after the last application of MAP; thus the readings were performed at R3+5 for soybean Proline content was determined according to Torello and Rice (1986). The absorbance at wavelengths of 647 and 664 nm was determined in a spectrophotometer, and the results were expressed per gram of FW (µmol g−1 FW) (Mauad et al., 2016) The same leave samples used in the nutritional analysis were used to analyze the contents of reducing sugars, total sugars, starch, and sucrose (Nelson, 1944) pods and grains per plant were determined from 10 plants in sequence in each plot at the R8 phenological stage The 100-grain weight (13% moisture on a wet basis) and grain productivity were determined from a 4-m2 area in each plot and converted to kg ha-1 (13% moisture on a wet basis) 100-grain weight and productivity (13% moisture on a wet basis) were measured at physiological maturity by harvesting 10 ears per plot The 100-grain weight was subsequently converted to bags per hectare The useful area of each cotton plot (2 m in 2 central rows) was harvested manually, and the final population, plant height, number of fruiting stems, and number of bolls per plant were measured. In addition, the boll mass and plume and seed productivity were determined and converted to kg ha-1. The seeds were separated from the plumes to analyze fiber quality (micronaire, length, resistance, and % short fiber) (Fonseca and Santana, 2002) The evaluations were carried out with the aid of a High-Volume Instrument (HVI) Since no significant effects of growing season or interactions between factors were observed the averages of the two growing seasons are presented for each treatment Soybean leaf P and N contents were not significantly different between the treatments (Supplementary Table 1). Compared with Ac, the induction of phytotoxicity (Pc) in soybean significantly reduced chlorophyll content, APX activity, and grain yield and significantly increased starch content, H2O2 content, and MDA content (Figures 3–5) The foliar application of soluble MAP eliminated these effects of phytotoxicity induction Response of various parameters – (A) H2O2 (C) SOD and (D) APX activity’s — as a function of foliar soluble MAP application in soybean leaves Soybean grain yield as a function of foliar soluble MAP application in soybean leaves Bars with different letters are significantly different by Fisher’s protected least significant difference (LSD) test at p ≤ 0.05 Growing season was considered a random effect Regardless of timing, the application of soluble MAP reduced starch production by approximately 23% compared with Pc (Figure 3D). The contents of reducing and total sugars did not differ significantly between the treatments (Supplementary Table 3) All gas exchange parameters and RuBisCO activity were not significantly different between the treatments (Supplementary Tables 3, 4) Compared with Pc, All Ps increased the soybean grain yield by 6.0% (Figure 5). Regardless of timing, foliar MAP application rescued the decrease in plant height caused by phytotoxicity induction (Supplementary Table 6). Plant population, 100-grain weight, and number of branches were not significantly different between the treatments (Supplementary Tables 6, 7) Maize leaf P and N contents were not significantly different between the treatments (Supplementary Table 8). Compared with Ac, Pc significantly reduced chlorophyll content, carotenoid content, sucrose content, RuBisCO activity, A, gs, A/Ci, WUE, SOD activity, 100-grain weight, and grain yield of maize and significantly increased starch content, E, Ci, and MDA content (Figures 6–10) Similar to the effects observed in soybean the foliar application of soluble MAP reversed these effects of phytotoxicity induction (C) total chlorophyl and (D) total carotenoids — as a function of foliar soluble MAP application in maize leaves Response of various parameters — (A) sucrose and (B) starch — as a function of foliar soluble MAP application in maize leaves Response of various parameters — (A) A and (G) RuBisCO activity — as a function of foliar soluble MAP application in maize leaves Response of various parameters — (A) H2O2 (B) MDA and (C) SOD activity’s — as a function of foliar soluble MAP application in maize leaves Maize grain yield as a function of foliar soluble MAP application in maize leaves Compared with Pc, All Ps increased chlorophyll a content by 15.1% (Figure 6A), chlorophyll b content by 24.8% (Figure 6B), total chlorophyll content by 20.5% (Figure 6C), and carotenoid content by 26.9% (Figure 6D). The contents of these photosynthetic pigments were not significantly different between All Ps and Ac (Supplementary Table 9) These increases in activity were accompanied by decreases in H2O2 (Figure 9A) and MDA (Figure 9B) contents of 27.8% and 22.6%, respectively. APX and CAT activities and proline content did not differ significantly between the treatments (Supplementary Table 13). Compared with Pc, All Ps significantly increased the activity of the antioxidant enzyme SOD (Figure 9C) by 23.3% The application of soluble MAP significantly increased productivity compared with Pc, with a 12% boost in grain yield (Figure 10). The final plant population, plant height, number of rows per ear, number of grains per row and 100-grains weight were not significantly different between the treatments (Supplementary Tables 14, 15) The leaf P and N contents of cotton were not significantly different between the treatments (Supplementary Table 16). Compared with Ac, Pc significantly reduced chlorophyll content, carotenoid content, sucrose content, RuBisCO activity, A, gs, A/Ci, WUE, plant height, boll weight, and cotton fiber yield but significantly increased starch content, Ci, H2O2 content, and MDA content (Figures 11–15) MAP application generally eliminated these effects of phytotoxicity induction consistent with the results for soybean and maize (C) total chlorophyl and (D) total carotenoids — as a function of foliar soluble MAP application in cotton leaves Response of various parameters — (A) sucrose and (B) starch — as a function of foliar soluble MAP application in cotton leaves (E) WUE and (F) RuBisCO activity — as a function of foliar soluble MAP application in cotton leaves Response of various parameters — (A) H2O2 and (B) MDA — as a function of foliar soluble MAP application in cotton leaves Response of various parameters — (A) plant height (C) boll weight and (D) cotton fiber yield —as a function of foliar soluble MAP application in cotton leaves Compared to Pc, All Ps increased sucrose content by 38.2% (Figure 12A; Supplementary Table 18) and reduced starch content by 33.1% (Figure 12B; Supplementary Table 19). Reducing sugar and total sugar contents were not significantly different between the treatments (Supplementary Table 18) Compared with Pc, All Ps decreased the leaf contents of H2O2 (Figure 14A) and MDA (Figure 14B) by 13% and 14.3%, respectively, and the contents of H2O2 and MDA in All Ps were not significantly different from those in Ac. The activities of antioxidant enzymes and proline content did not differ significantly between the treatments (Supplementary Table 21) Our results demonstrate that foliar fertilization with MAP can restore chlorophyll production after oxidative stress These effects of foliar MAP fertilization are part of a chain linked to the recovery of chlorophyll levels Throughout the photosynthetic process, CO2 plays the role of substrate. It diffuses into plant cells through the stomata; thus, plants with higher stomatal conductance have a greater capacity to balance CO2 uptake with water loss through transpiration (Taiz et al., 2017) Our results were obtained during a period following P and N supplementation To obtain a better understanding of the effects of foliar fertilization with N and P on gas exchange and photosynthetic processes studies throughout the entire crop cycle are needed our effects illustrate the benefits of foliar MAP application for improving photosynthetic efficiency and optimizing water use and gas exchange processes in crops These results highlight the positive impact of MAP application on boosting antioxidative enzymatic activity and mitigating oxidative stress This study evaluated the ability of foliar fertilization with soluble MAP (containing N and P) to mitigate oxidative stress induced by the herbicide carfentrazone-ethyl in soybean Foliar supplementation with MAP alleviated symptoms of phytotoxicity regardless of the timing of MAP application yields were highest when soluble MAP was applied in a total of four phenological stages Phosphorus and N enhance plant defense and cellular recovery under stress by supporting energy transfer ultimately improving resilience and productivity The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/Supplementary Material Further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research The first author received a scholarship from the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) #grant: 88887.513750/2020-00 The tenth and eleventh authors would like to thank the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) for an award for excellence in research The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest The author(s) declare that no Generative AI was used in the creation of this manuscript All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2025.1504244/full#supplementary-material Mechanisms of silicon-mediated alleviation of heavy metal toxicity in plants: A review Physiological responses of wheat to drought stress and its mitigation approaches Crossref Full Text | Google Scholar Foliar application of phosphorus enhances photosynthesis and biochemical characteristics of maize under drought stress The effect of drought and ultraviolet radiation on growth and stress markers in pea and wheat doi: 10.1046/j.1365-3040.2001.00778.x Crossref Full Text | Google Scholar Protective role of antioxidant enzymes under high temperature stress Köppen’s climate classification map for Brazil Crossref Full Text | Google Scholar Response of antioxidant enzymes to transfer from elevated carbon dioxide to air and ozone fumigation in the leaves and roots of wild-type and a catalase-deficient mutant of barley doi: 10.1034/j.1399-3054.1998.1040217.x Application of various herbicides on controlling large and narrow leaf weeds and their effects on physiological and agronomic traits of wheat Efficacy of fall-applied residual herbicides on weedy rice control in rice (Oryza sativa L.) 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This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited in accordance with accepted academic practice distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms *Correspondence: Carlos Alexandre Costa Crusciol, Y2FybG9zLmNydXNjaW9sQHVuZXNwLmJy Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher 94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or goodLearn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish Storms in Brazil have sparked floods and caused a hydroelectric dam to collapse, with at least 29 people dead and 60 missing. Shocking images and video show people wading through chest-high muddy water and huge swathes of land submerged in the state of Rio Grande do Sul in the country's south.  The region has since declared a state of emergency with the death toll expected to rise and a desperate search underway for dozens of missing people among collapsed homes, bridges and roads.  Storm damage has affected nearly 150 municipalities in the state, also injuring 36 people and displacing more than 10,000. Part of the structure of the hydroelectric dam '14 de Julho' located between the town of Cotipora and the city of Bento Goncalves has also collapsed on Thursday, raising the level of water in the Taquari river.  The downpour started on Monday and was expected to last through Friday. In some areas, such as valleys, mountain slopes and cities, more than six inches of rain fell in 24 hours, according to Brazil's National Institute of Meteorology, known by the Portuguese acronym INMET, on Tuesday. Governor Eduardo Leite said Rio Grande do Sul was dealing with 'the worst disaster in [its] history', and he added: 'We are living a very critical moment in the state.' 'With the deepest pain in my heart, I know it will be even more,' the governor said of the death toll. President Lula, who has blamed the torrent on climate change, arrived in the town of Santa Maria in the morning with a delegation of ministers and held a working meeting with Leite and other officials to coordinate rescue efforts, the government said. The president promised 'there will be no lack of human or material resources' to 'minimize the suffering this extreme event... is causing in the state.' The federal government, he added, 'will be 100 percent at the disposition' of state officials. Central authorities has already made available 12 aircraft, 45 vehicles and 12 boats as well as 626 soldiers to help clear roads, distribute food, water and mattresses, and set up shelters, a press statement said. As the rains continued, forecasts warned the state's main Guaiba River, which has already overflowed its banks in some areas, would reach an extraordinary level of three meters (9.8 feet) by Thursday and four meters the next day. Entire communities in Rio Grande do Sul state have been completely cut off as persistent rains have destroyed bridges and blocked roads, and left towns without even telephone or internet services. Rescuers and soldiers have been scrambling to free families trapped in their homes, many stuck on rooftops to escape rising waters. 'I came here to help people, to get them out of the flooding because it is very dangerous. The current is very strong,' said fisherman Guilverto Luiz, who was helping rescue efforts in Sao Sebastiaio do Cai, about 70 km from Porto Alegre, the state capital.  'I've never seen anything like this... it's all under water,' said Raul Metzel, a 52-year-old machine operator in the municipality of Capela de Santana. Authorities have urged people to avoid areas along state highways due to a risk of mudslides, and those who live near rivers or on hillsides to evacuate. Hundreds of thousands of people have been left without access to electricity and drinking water, while classes have been suspended state-wide. On Wednesday, the state's deputy governor, Gabriel Souza, said damages have been estimated at £16million.  Mayor Sandra Backes of Sinimbu said the situation in her town was 'a nightmare.' 'Sinimbu is like a war zone, completely destroyed... All the stores, businesses, supermarkets - everything is devastated,' she said in a video posted on Instagram. Elsewhere, in Santa Cruz do Sul, lifeguards used boats to transport residents, many of them children, to safety. The region's rivers had already been swollen from previous storms. 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Where 'soft-touch' Britain's asylum seekers are REALLY coming from Brazil storms spark floods and cause hydroelectric dam to collapseCommenting on this article has endedNewest{{#isModerationStatus}}{{moderationStatus}} The dates displayed for an article provide information on when various publication milestones were reached at the journal that has published the article activities on preceding journals at which the article was previously under consideration are not shown (for instance submission All content on this site: Copyright © 2025 Elsevier B.V. Metrics details We investigated the sylvatic yellow fever (SYF) diffusion process in São Paulo (SP) between 2016 and 2019 We developed an ecological study of SYF through autochthonous human cases and epizootics of non-human primates (NHPs) that were spatiotemporally evaluated We used kriging to obtain maps with isochrones representative of the evolution of the outbreak and characterized its diffusion pattern Two outbreak waves were identified: one from West to East (2016 and 2017) and another from the Campinas region to the municipalities bordering Rio de Janeiro and Paraná and those of the SP coast (2017–2019) The SYF outbreak diffusion process was by contagion The disease did not exhibit jumps between municipalities indicating that the mosquitoes and NHPs were responsible for transmitting the virus There were not enough vaccines to meet the population at risk; hence health authorities used information about the epizootic occurrence in NHPs in forest fragments to identify priority populations for vaccination unvaccinated humans are accidentally infected when they enter or live nearby the habitat of the infected mosquito vector usually inside or around remained forest sites and the increase of vaccination coverage is aimed to protect the human population but cannot blocks the transmission and propagation Maps of municipalities and Regional Disease Surveillance (RDS) with the occurrence of yellow fever (human autochthonous cases the vaccination coverages in the immediately preceding year Map (E) presents the localization of the state of São Paulo in Brazil and South America Maps created using the Free and Open Source QGIS The aim of this study was to describe and characterize the process of YF diffusion in SP between 2016 and 2019 We intend to broaden our understanding of this outbreak and contribute to the expansion of knowledge about disease surveillance and control The identification of the diffusion type involved in this outbreak allows a discussion on the extent to which the vaccination strategy adopted by SES-SP was relevant Understanding how the process of YF diffusion in SP occurred may be useful for future preventive action possibly eliminating or mitigating health damage in vulnerable populations Ten municipalities of the state of São Paulo with more autochthonous human cases of yellow fever and ten with more epizootics between 2016 and 2019 (Ma Mairiporã Autochthonous human cases, per month of symptom onset, and epizootics, per month of notification, of yellow fever and the two outbreak waves; precipitation and mean temperature; state of São Paulo, 2016 and 2019. Map (A) with the date (month and year) of the first occurrences of yellow fever (YF) (autochthonous human cases epizootics and both) in the municipalities of the state of São Paulo during the first outbreak wave Map (B) presents the Regional Disease Surveillance affected epizootics and both) in the municipalities of the state of São Paulo during the second outbreak wave Mensal isochrones of the diffusion process of the yellow fever (YF) first and second waves in the state of São Paulo (A); Regional Disease Surveillance (RDS) with YF human cases and epizootics in the state of São Paulo and its bordering States (Minas Gerais previous levels of vaccination coverage were insufficient in preventing or minimizing the YF virus transmission Although our analyses are limited by the fact that we used the municipality as a spatial study unit this spreading pattern can also be observed at the intra-municipal level Our findings (Fig. 2) showed important differences in human cases and epizootics that occurred in SP during the second wave reflecting the degree to which municipalities have adopted the vaccination strategy advocated by the SES-SP what happened in Mairiporã and Atibaia (37% of the total human cases between 2016 and 2019) could also have occurred in municipalities such as Jundiaí If the YF vaccination strategy had not been adapted for the emergency situation during the second wave we could have had a worse outcome than that observed These possible scenarios could be the subject of future studies the increase in the probability of detecting human SYF cases in December may be related to the greater degree of exposure among unvaccinated people due and to the fact that this occurs simultaneously with the transmission of the YF virus sustained by NHPs such as the use of secondary surveillance data which are subject to both notification and underreporting errors Examples of these problems are the need to eliminate three municipalities from wave modeling and the NHP epizootic underreport The unavailability of the exact probable site of infection for human cases and epizootics obliged us to consider the centroids of the municipalities and the months of the year These limitations provide a partial view of the outbreak and did not allow us to investigate the characteristics of the places where the cases and epizootics occurred Another limitation was that vaccination coverage was based only on vaccination data for children under 5 years of age this study has strengths that contribute to its internal and external validity Among them are the use of both information about sylvatic human cases Another strong point was the use of kriging geostatistics to assess the spread of SYF and the use of kriging allowed us to consider the autocorrelation of the phenomenon in space–time and numerically represent it throughout the SP area which occurred in SP between 2016 and 2019 can be characterized as a contagion diffusion process did not exhibit spatial jumps between municipalities and its spatiotemporal dispersion occurred from the affected municipalities to those located in the immediate vicinity Municipalities located at shorter distances from those with YF virus transmission were more likely to be affected first These results indicate that mosquitoes and NHPs are a route of viral transmission in epizootic waves This process showed general spreading speeds of approximately 1.0 km per day Considering that predicting the spatiotemporal risk of the SYF occurrence is challenging the strategy used by SES-SP to identify priority areas for vaccination and to anticipate the arrival of the virus was appropriate the validity of this initiative is directly related to the outbreak process occurring through diffusion by contagion wherein the vector and NHPs were responsible for viral dissemination It is noteworthy that this strategy probably prevented the SYF outbreak in SP from resulting in a higher magnitude of human cases and deaths than that observed This ecological and descriptive study was conducted in SP (Fig. 1) between 2016 and 2019 We included all YF autochthonous human cases and confirmed epizootics among NHPs in the state during the period considered An epizootic event might be only one dead animal or few dead animals found in the same site since the NHP species of importance in YF surveillance live in group and may be affected in the same period of time Since these data only contained coverage information among children under 5 year of age they were used as a proxy for the entire population’s vaccine coverage Data from precipitation and mean temperature of SP was obtained on the Integrated Agrometeorological Information Center (CIIAGRO) of the State Department of Agriculture and Supply of São Paulo the number of confirmed SYF autochthonous human cases and epizootics was computed according to the probable infection site which refers to the municipality where the YF infection probably occurred For each municipality with SYF autochthonous case(s) and/or epizootic(s) between 2016 and 2019 the month and year of the first occurrence(s) were recorded the occurrence of human cases and epizootics was jointly considered as a proxy for the month of initiation of the YF transmission occurrence in a given municipality We obtained the total number of autochthonous human cases as well as the fatality rate of SYF for SP between 2016 and 2019 The numbers of SYF human cases and epizootics were attributed to the centroids of the municipalities according to months and years Thematic maps were produced for the municipalities with information about the occurrence of human only cases and on the vaccination coverage of the previous year This kind of data presentation was adopted because we considered 1-year coverage as a gold standard protection measure for preventing the occurrence of SYF human cases in the following year The number of human cases and NHP epizootics was calculated with respect to the month to present the temporal evolution of YF characterize its seasonal behavior in relation to precipitation and mean temperature and identify possible waves of development of this process we constructed a database containing the following information for each municipality with the autochthonous SYF transmission: Cartesian coordinates (in the Albers flat coordinate reference system) of the municipality centroids and the month and year of the first occurrence of the SYF autochthonous human case and/or epizootic the data was placed in increasing order of months and years and we created a variable called space–time evolution to represent the evolution of the human cases and/or epizootics At the municipality corresponding to the first month of occurrence the value one was assigned; during the second month The SYF propagation is borne by epizootic events and human beings are accidentally infected during the process the epizootics increase the number of infected mosquitos what increases the number of human cases we used the data of epizootics and human cases to compound the dataset of the analyses since both are temporally and spatially connected representing the combination of epizootic and epidemic events For the characterization of the SYF diffusion in SP and the identification of its type we chose a geostatistical interpolation technique capable of representing the spatiotemporal evolution of this outbreak process The ordinary kriging technique was therefore used to interpolate the spatiotemporal evolution of the outbreak in each wave This technique requires that the variable to be interpolated have a normal distribution and stationary behavior the variable was modeled squarely according to the coordinates of the municipal centroids and the kriging was performed from the residues obtained with a good approximation for the distribution of normal probability and for a stationary trend This procedure allowed the spatiotemporal evolution of the SYF outbreak to have numerical representation on the entire surface of the study area in each of the identified waves which allowed the construction of maps with an isochronous representation it was possible to identify the type of diffusion that occurred and observe the directions in which the outbreak evolved beyond calculating the speeds of its dispersion in kilometers per month The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request Risk of re-emergence of urban yellow fever in Brazil Critical aspects of yellow fever control in Brazil Haemagogus leucocelaenus and Haemagogus janthinomys are the primary vectors in the major yellow fever outbreak in Brazil Genomic surveillance of yellow fever virus epizootic in São Paulo Re-emergence of yellow fever in the neotropics—quo vadis? 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Cidades e Estados. (2021). https://www.ibge.gov.br/cidades-e-estados/sp.html DATASUS-Departamento de Informática do SUS. Imunizações. (2021). http://tabnet.datasus.gov.br/cgi/dhdat.exe?bd_pni/cpnibr.def QGIS-QGIS Geographic Information System. QGIS Association. (2020). http://www.qgis.org Ribeiro-Jr, P. J., Diggle, P. J., Schlather, M., Bivand, R., Ripley, R. geoR: Analysis of Geostatistical Data. R package version 1.8-1. (2020). https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=geoR R Core Team. R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. (2020). https://www.R-project.org/ Download references This article was funded by Brazilian National Research Council Grant Research Fellow of Brazilian National Research Council-CNPq (Grant Number: 306025/2019-1) São Paulo Research Foundation-FAPESP (Grant Number: 2020/01596-8) School of Public Health-University of Sao Paulo Priscilla Venâncio Ikefuti & Francisco Chiaravalloti-Neto Alexandre Vranjac” of the Health Secretariat of the State of São Paulo All authors reviewed and approved the manuscript The authors declare no competing interests Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations Download citation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-95539-w Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article. Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily. Bats are critical to maintaining healthy ecosystems and many species are threatened primarily due to global habitat loss. Bats are also important hosts of a range of viruses, several of which have had significant impacts on global public health. The emergence of these viruses has been associated with land-use change and decreased host species richness. Yet, few studies have assessed how bat communities and the viruses they host alter with land-use change, particularly in highly biodiverse sites. In this study, we investigate the effects of deforestation on bat host species richness and diversity, and viral prevalence and richness across five forested sites and three nearby deforested sites in the interior Atlantic Forest of southern Brazil. Nested-PCR and qPCR were used to amplify and detect viral genetic sequence from six viral families (corona-, adeno-, herpes-, hanta-, paramyxo-, and astro-viridae) in 944 blood, saliva and rectal samples collected from 335 bats. Our findings suggest that deforestation may drive changes in the ecosystem which reduce bat host diversity while increasing the abundance of generalist species which host a wider range of viruses. Volume 12 - 2022 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fcimb.2022.921950 Introduction: Bats are critical to maintaining healthy ecosystems and many species are threatened primarily due to global habitat loss Bats are also important hosts of a range of viruses several of which have had significant impacts on global public health The emergence of these viruses has been associated with land-use change and decreased host species richness few studies have assessed how bat communities and the viruses they host alter with land-use change we investigate the effects of deforestation on bat host species richness and diversity and viral prevalence and richness across five forested sites and three nearby deforested sites in the interior Atlantic Forest of southern Brazil Nested-PCR and qPCR were used to amplify and detect viral genetic sequence from six viral families (corona- saliva and rectal samples collected from 335 bats Results: We found that deforested sites had a less diverse bat community than forested sites but higher viral prevalence and richness after controlling for confounding factors Viral detection was more likely in juvenile males located in deforested sites we also found a significant effect of host bat species on viral prevalence indicating that viral taxa were detected more frequently in some species than others viruses from the Coronaviridae family were detected more frequently in generalist species compared to specialist species Discussion: Our findings suggest that deforestation may drive changes in the ecosystem which reduce bat host diversity while increasing the abundance of generalist species which host a wider range of viruses This suggests that increasing and/or novel interactions among hosts vectors and pathogens following land-use change are significant contributors to disease emergence Few empirical studies have taken a community approach to examine how viral assemblages in host communities vary with land-use change as well as significant emerging diseases of people while no bat viruses have emerged from the Atlantic Forest to our knowledge we chose this region as our study site because of the high biodiversity it contains and the large-scale deforestation it has undergone Our study focuses on three questions: (1) Does bat abundance and diversity differ in forested versus non-forested areas (2) Does viral prevalence differ between bat communities in forested versus deforested areas (3) What biological and ecological factors determine the likelihood of viral detection This study was carried out with animal handling permits issued from the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment (#33078-4) Animal handling ethics approval was provided by the University of California Bat handling followed strict personal protection and biosafety requirements and short capture times to minimize stress on individual animals All captured individuals were released at the point of capture The forested study sites were chosen to control for similar characteristics including elevation We sampled bats and viruses at five intact forested sites (>200ha) and three nearby deforested sites located 3-5km away and defined as areas where more than 20% of forest cover has been removed and converted from the original forest to agrarian reform settlements located in the Pontal do Paranapanema region Bat surveys (yellow and red circles) were undertaken across forested (n=5) and deforested sites (n=3) Bats were sampled during April to November of 2014 At each site we sampled a 100m x 100m grid using eight horizontal mist nets (9m x 3m) one canopy mist net (6m x 3m) and one harp trap (1.5m x 1.5m) At least 150 individuals were collected from deforested sites and from forested sites each Additional sampling effort was required in the forested areas due to lower catch rates Bats were captured for a period of five consecutive nights at each site totaling 2040 m2/270 hours capture effort across all sites Mist nets were opened at sunset and remained open for six hours Nets were checked at 30-minute intervals and bats processed immediately each individual was marked with a non-toxic pen to determine the rate of within-trip recapture This was used to ensure that the same bat was not re-sampled within sampling trips Primers used for viral screening in this study Statistical analysis was performed using R 3.5.1, with ggplot2 for graphing. To compare estimated bat species diversity between forested and deforested sites, we calculated abundance-based diversity profiles with Hill numbers (effective number of species) using the iNEXT package based on the parameter q (Chao and Jost, 2015) This parameter controls the relative emphasis placed on rare or common species In addition to providing information on species richness this diversity profile estimator also accounts for species abundances to differing degrees the weight of dominant species increases in the calculation of species diversity We used three widely used species diversity measures: Species richness (number of observed species; q=0) Shannon diversity (number of typical species; q=1) and Simpson diversity (number of most common species; q=2) We then applied a bootstrap method (1,000 bootstraps) using observed detections to obtain approximate variances of the proposed profiles and to construct the associated confidence intervals These estimations take into account the effect of undetected species in samples Estimated viral diversity could not be explored using these methods due to limited sample sizes However we compared viral species richness and overall viral prevalence across treatments using a Fisher’s Exact Test To account for the uneven number of captures per bat species we used Bartels rank test of randomness to determine whether viruses were randomly distributed among bat host species by examining whether viral prevalence significantly differed among species Due to low detection rates in other viral families our analysis was limited to the coronaviridae family Table 1 Description of predictor variables used in the generalized linear models measures of diversity that incorporate abundance information) the forested sites were found to be more diverse than deforested sites When correcting for the bias introduced by the non-detection of species in the samples bat diversity was reduced in deforested sites; species richness was slightly higher in forested areas (n=15 species) compared to deforested areas (n = 11 species) this difference in community diversity was statistically significant as reflected by the two non-overlapped confidence intervals Figure 2 Estimated diversity profiles for bat species data in forested (green line) and deforested (red line) sites for q between 0 and 3 with 95% confidence interval (shaded areas based on a bootstrap method of 1000 replications) The numbers show the estimated diversities for q = 0 After accounting for the number of captures per bat species by looking at viral prevalence as opposed to number of positive detections we found a significant effect of host bat species on viral prevalence indicating that viral taxa were detected more frequently in some species than others viruses from the Coronaviridae family were detected more frequently in generalist species compared to specialist species (P<0.01 Viral prevalence also differed among viral families; Coronaviridae had the highest prevalence of 3.6% Herpesviridae (0.9%) and Hantaviridae (0.3%) Table 2 Total captures of bat species and total viral detections in forested and deforested habitat in the Interior Atlantic Forest Figure 3 Overall viral prevalence by bat species with sample sizes Error bars represent the 95% Clopper-Pearson binomial confidence intervals Treatment (forested vs. deforested), sex and age were the only significant predictors of overall viral detection (presence/absence) (P < 0.05, df = 1) (Table 3). This result was supported by the logistic regression model with the lowest AIC value (Table 4) which demonstrates that the odds of a positive viral detection decreases in forested habitat Table 3 Best model of viral detection with different categories of land-use change Table 4 Logistic regression model selection table comparing top four models based on lowest AICc viral prevalence in deforested sites (9.3%) was significantly higher than in forested sites (3.68%) (P<0.05 Deforested sites also had higher viral richness (n = 13 unique viral taxa) compared to forested sites (n = 2) higher bat host diversity is not associated with higher viral prevalence or richness Despite lower bat host species richness in deforested areas viral richness and prevalence is significantly higher This result does not appear to be associated with the abundance of bat hosts which was not significantly different (based on mist-net capture frequency) in deforested versus forested areas bats accounted for 73% (n=16/22) of all viruses detected after accounting for the number of captures per bat species in part because of changes in host and vector abundance in human-modified areas which is more than 30 years post-fragmentation and fully converted the Sabah study sites are still ongoing active deforestation and fragmentation which may result in delays in species’ responses these findings provide further evidence that anthropogenic land use change can in some cases lead to increased abundance of reservoirs that harbor a higher diversity and prevalence of potential pathogens As pressures on the environment continue to grow further research is needed on viral and host ecology and how they are structured across varying landscapes The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/Supplementary Material This study was carried out with animal handling permits from the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment (#33078-4) Davis (#16048) and by the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Zootechnics at the University of Sao Paulo All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version This study was made possible by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Emerging Pandemic Threats PREDICT program (cooperative agreement no. 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This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) *Correspondence: Elizabeth H. Loh, ZWxvaEB0cmFuc3kuZWR1; Alessandra Nava, bmF2YXZldGVyaW5hcmlhQGdtYWlsLmNvbQ== a ferocious storm tore through Brazil’s southernmost state The wind flattened numerous outdoor pavilions at the Expoagro exhibition in Rio Pardo to close the event for a day and repair the damaged stands the tempest brought relief from the heat wave that had been making life tough for those toiling in the region’s numerous fields and leaf processing facilities But while Expoagro reopened to large crowds and the temperature dropped to more tolerable levels in the wake of the storm other pressures on the industry continued unabated throughout the selling season Alliance One Brazil Leaf Production Director Samuel Streck who has worked in the business for two decades described this year’s crop as the most challenging in his career and his view was echoed by many other industry veterans throughout the Brazilian tobacco sector during Tobacco Reporter’s visit to the region in March A significantly smaller-than-expected crop acute labor shortages and record-high prices along with heightened scrutiny of tobacco farming in the wake of the 10th Conference of the Parties (COP10) to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) have kept the Brazilian leaf sector on its toes this year When planting for the 2023-2024 crop started in May last year the industry predicted a volume increase of about 10 percent over the previous season when the country’s growers harvested some 605.7 million kg of all tobacco types the weather conditions appeared to validate that assessment which typically boosts precipitation in South America had been anticipated but turned out much more intense than normal El Nino dumped unprecedented volumes of rain on southern Brazil the wet conditions depressed yields not only in Rio Grande do Sul but also in Santa Catarina and Parana the three southern states that together account for 98 percent of Brazil’s tobacco production (The remaining volumes grow primarily in Bahia and are used to make cigars.) the industry was now looking at a 20 percent drop in volume from 2023 Afubra was expecting about 470 million kg of flue-cured Virginia (FCV) and roughly 40 million kg of burley But even as the excessive rainfall slashed yields High oil levels give this year’s leaf a better visual appearance than in 2023 What in the previous year was predominantly light orange to orange is this year orange to deep orange observed Kohltrade in a recent crop report in my opinion,” said Kohltrade Account Executive Simone Velasques And it’s not just looks that set this crop apart; the tobacco smokes exceptionally well “That’s also the feedback we are getting from customers,” he said the rain also suppressed nicotine levels in this year’s tobacco the excess rainfall has resulted in below-average chemistries across the board Because the wet season followed three consecutive dry ones the gap in nicotine levels between the current crop and the previous one is greater than normal which may challenge some customers in creating their desired blends according to that country’s Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board has been stable for three years at just below 140 million kg The shortage has been aggravated by the fact that last year some customers didn’t buy everything they needed because they were expecting cheaper tobacco this year many customers adopted a wait-and-see approach carefully managing their stocks to avoid buying at high prices those who didn’t buy last year had to buy this year Brazil’s leading tobacco buyers alone needed more leaf than the entire volume that was expected to come to the country’s market in 2024 Japan Tobacco International and China Tobacco—were buying far above list prices paying top rates for all grades and leaving independent traders with no choice but to follow their lead The result has been an unprecedented escalation of leaf prices and an acceleration of deliveries farmers were receiving up to $5.50 per kilogram of green tobacco customers were paying up to $9.50 for grades that cost perhaps $5 only three years ago up,” observed Afubra President Marcilio Drescher who grows 2.7 hectares of tobacco in Vale do Sol said he has never in his time on the farm witnessed such high prices and such fierce competition his phone rang nearly daily with representatives from other companies asking him to sell his leaf to them instead “It doesn’t matter how much they offer; the tobacco is just not there,” he said Merchants have been telling their customers a similar story “there is no tobacco” as a price negotiation tactic this season it is simply a statement of fact The scramble for tobacco has also greatly accelerated the purchasing process leaving some receiving stations struggling to keep up with the influx of leaf leaf merchants were expecting farmers to run out of tobacco by the end of April—two months earlier than in 2023 “Customers who come late to Brazil may not find what they are looking for,” warned Velasques the 2024 marketing season has been a mixed bag the additional income may not make up for the reduced weight that they are bringing to market who suffered a 26 percent drop in yield from last year said that as long as the companies continue paying above list prices his operation will remain profitable this year While the cost of inputs such as fertilizer have been coming down from their Covid-19-induced and Ukraine war-induced spikes a long-running shortage of labor has worsened in recent years impacting both farmers and tobacco factories But whereas tobacco buyers can mechanize operations such as rack loading and stripping With an average property size of 10.5 ha and an average area devoted to tobacco of only 3.29 ha the typical tobacco farm in southern Brazil is simply too small to justify the investment in equipment many of the tobacco growing activities lend themselves poorly to mechanization There are no machines for delicate tasks such as sucker control and topping farmhands have started driving harder bargains they have organized themselves in collectives forcing farmers to negotiate with groups instead of individuals To guarantee a group’s labor throughout the growing season he must pay a premium on top of the already inflated salaries Determined to control their cost of production carry out many of the tobacco farm activities when the leaves are still thin and easily damaged and speed is of the essence “If we don’t harvest quickly during that time allowing the Kohls to harvest by themselves and save money on labor Their workload has been lightened a bit by a recent switch from bundles to loose leaf growers in Brazil would classify their tobacco according to quality and color and then tie the leaf into bundles—a laborious process that could take up to two months some buyers told farmers to skip this step and deliver the tobacco in loose form instead The practice spread rapidly and has now been adopted by all merchants the farmer can take his tobacco directly from the barn to the bale and put it on a truck not only saving time and labor but also greatly accelerating the speed of delivery While some buyers at first worried about how the new practice would impact processing those concerns turned out to be manageable “Loose leaf is not necessarily the best way to receive tobacco in terms of the feeding table and the presentation of each grade but we quickly realized it’s possible,” said Streck “You can still tip and thresh the leaf because it is straight laid.” The Kohls are happy with the change to loose leaf as it allows them to focus on other farm activities they are occasionally joined by their oldest son of 34 who has no interest in farming but feels a duty to help on some evenings after he’s done with his day job Their middle son (25) by contrast “does not even want to see the tobacco,” according to Kohl while their youngest (8) is too little to work on the farm (Brazilian law requires tobacco workers to be at least 18 years of age and following intense industry-led awareness campaigns the country’s sector today is considered a role model in in eradicating child labor.) The Kohls’ family dynamics hint at another challenge facing Brazil’s tobacco business: farmer succession many rural youngsters in Brazil aspire to work in the city which has led to an exodus of skills and talent from the countryside “Keiner will die Finger mehr dreckig machen”—nobody wants to soil their fingers anymore—observes Solange is more conversant in German than English as a foreign language A 2023 survey conducted by the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul at the request of the Interstate Tobacco Industry Union (SindiTabaco) revealed that with an average monthly income of BRL11,755.30 ($2,234.75) tobacco farming families in southern Brazil are relatively well off earning considerably more than the average Brazilian family well-built home equipped with plenty of conveniences and some luxuries the golden leaf continues to generate the best returns contradicting the narrative pushed by certain nongovernmental organizations that tobacco leaves growers in poverty But while the earnings from tobacco farming exceed those of other crops the farmer cannot just plant it and watch it grow “The weather can change things very quickly,” he said it puts the leaves on the plants and—boom—they become big overnight And if you don’t go in and take the flowers off and the wind comes With no one lined up to take over the farm the Kohls’ tobacco volumes will disappear from Afubra’s production statistics after they retire According to the University of Rio Grande do Sul study 27 percent of the growers in southern Brazil have no succession plan Acutely aware of the demographic drain, the tobacco industry has been looking for ways to keep young adults in the countryside. Originally set up by SindiTabaco and its associate companies to help combat child labor in rural Brazil, the Growing Up Right Institute (also see “Alternatives for Adolescents,” Tobacco Reporter April 2021) now also runs programs educating young people on the verge of adulthood about the opportunities on the farm By teaching youngsters how to optimize farm operations through technology and professional management the institute hopes to convince them that they can live good lives in the countryside According to program manager Nadia Fengler Solf many students have a completely new perspective on the possibilities in the countryside Some decide to develop their family properties investing in new technologies and diversifying their business while others elect to pursue degrees in agriculture But even as the industry is working to keep farmers interested in tobacco delegates vowed to step up action on Articles 17 and 18 of the treaty which call for the promotion of economic alternatives for tobacco workers and the protection of the environment and health of tobacco workers According to a speaker at this year’s Americas Regional meeting of International Tobacco Growers’ Association in Santa Cruz do Sol the Panama COP could be the first to have a direct impact on the farm SindiTabaco President Iro Schunke dismisses the talk about alternative crops in Southern Brazil as unrealistic “If we had another crop that generates the same income farmers would have switched long ago on their own accord,” he said is the small average size of farm properties “To replace the money from one hectare of tobacco you need to grow 7 hectares of soybeans or 10 hectares of maize.” The pressure for diversification “Tobacco farmers in Brazil are diversified already,” he said While generating between 60 percent and 70 percent of the average grower’s income tobacco claims only 20 percent of their property Part of the money earned from tobacco is used to plant supplemental crops Some suspect the government’s position is driven partially by ignorance, with bureaucrats in faraway Brasilia unaware of how much rural communities in the south of the country depend on the golden leaf. “Although hostility against tobacco from agencies all over the globe is the new status quo and the path of least resistance, the fact is, the economic impact to the communities where tobacco is prevalent is very significant,” says Barker. Santa Cruz do Sul Mayor Helena Hermany believes that Brazil’s national health surveillance agency, Anvisa, grossly underestimates and misrepresents the industry’s economic significance. More than 50 percent of the city’s revenue comes from tobacco, she told participants in the ITGA Americas meeting. “If tobacco does well, we all do well,” she said. It terms of sustainability, the tobacco industry is also performing much better than it is given credit for. “We are doing quite well in terms of soil protection, reforestation and the prevention of child labor,” said Drescher. For example, Brazilian farmers are self-sufficient in curing energy, sourcing wood from dedicated plantations rather than indigenous trees. According to Renner, sustainability is already an integrated part of everything the tobacco industry does. “Whatever we supply must cover these three capital letters,” he said, referring to the environmental, social and governance considerations that the abbreviation stands for. “What we do for our people, our clients, in our operations and in the communities we work with … our suppliers need to do for us.” As they prepare for next season in the wake of this year’s short crop, industry stakeholders are keen to avoid a wild swing in the other direction. Emboldened by the high prices and keen to recover their lost volumes, many growers are likely to increase their plantings for the 2024–2025 season. Kohl, by contrast, is cautious, worrying that a surplus next year will depress prices, and he plans to plant the same hectarage as last year. ©2025 Nicotine Resource Consortium Print Kenzi Shiokava who died June 18 at the age of 82 from chronic conditions exacerbated by injuries related to a recent car accident became a sculptor more by chance than intention and he was completing his fourth year of undergraduate studies at the Chouinard Art Institute When he’d enrolled at the school, Shiokava had set his sights on becoming a painter. But a graduation requirement obligated him to complete a course in sculpture. The very idea filled him with doubt. “Two weeks went by and I didn’t have a single idea of what to do,” Shiokava told The Times in a 2016 profile Obituaries Martinez wrote ‘500 Años del Pueblo Chicano/500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures,’ a bilingual photo book with copious captions that illustrated the history of Chicanos in the Southwest He ended up finding the answer in his own backyard as he tidied up the garden of his Highland Park home he came across several pieces of wood he had accumulated including an old railroad tie from the Angel’s Flight funicular in downtown Los Angeles “I started cleaning some of the wood and I realize: ‘That’s it I was so excited — nothing else mattered.” along with the other pieces of wood he had gathered totemic figures that he displayed in Chouinard’s gallery in 1972 gallerist Joan Ankrum who gave the artist a solo show Shiokava became a breakout star of the show — profiled in international media and name checked in W magazine It was an unlikely turn for the artist who throughout his life had operated at the margins of the Los Angeles art world And who had made his living not as an artist who counted one of Shiokava’s pieces in his personal art collection Entertainment & Arts When artist Kenzi Shiokava received a telephone call from a pair of curators organizing this year’s “Made in L.A.” biennial at the Hammer Museum he says he had little clue of the meteoric effect it would have on his life all he wanted to do was to be in his studio,” says Moshayedi currently the Robert Soros curator at the Hammer Works would hang out there in various states of incompletion for decades .. and new objects would enter the studio and they may or may not become parts of works that were sitting in various states of dormancy.” Even after the Hammer exhibition began to draw the attention of the media and museums and galleries “He had willfully decided after that attention to remain working in the way that he had established for himself,” says Moshayedi “He was not going to get caught up in the speed and intensity of the contemporary art world.” Kenzi Shiokava’s studio gathered the objects with which he crafted his assemblages: organic matter objects he found in thrift stores or on the street (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) Before the Hammer exhibition Shiokava had steadily shown his sculptures and assemblages in museums and in galleries around Southern California including shows at the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles the Oceanside Museum of Art and Jack Tilton Gallery in Culver City And while the occasional collector would materialize in his studio But the biennial catapulted him into institutional consciousness As part of the Hammer exhibition, he received the $25,000 Mohn Public Recognition Award he was included in a Pacific Standard Time exhibition at the Japanese American National Museum: “Transpacific Borderlands: The Art of Japanese Diaspora in Lima Ben Maltz Gallery at the Otis College of Art and Design staged a solo survey of his work “the continuity between matter and spirit can be viscerally felt when standing before these fellow vertical bodies rising from the earthly plane.” The artist always expressed deep gratitude for the attention he received late in his career. As he told KPCC in a 2016 interview: “Now I know my work is going to survive me.” A detail of an assemblage by Kenzi Shiokava photographed in his Compton studio in 2016 shows how the artist found ways of giving the discarded new life (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) Kenzi Shiokava was born on Aug he said he saw something “sacred” in art but never imagined it might become a career in 1964 after a friend in the Brazilian military offered him a free seat on a military flight to Los Angeles On the strength of a few paintings and sketchbooks he was accepted at Chouinard (which later became CalArts) where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts in 1974 He went on to complete a master’s degree in fine arts at Otis in 1974 Shiokava produced sculptures and assemblages that were inspired by Brazilian and Japanese motifs as well as influences he encountered in Los Angeles — namely a generation of Black American assemblage artists such as Betye Saar he was the subject of a solo show at the Watts Towers Arts Center The curators for the Hammer’s biennial found Shiokava’s work after seeing his name listed in a group show that had occurred more than a decade prior then doing some serious sleuthing to track down his whereabouts and a phone number He was right where he had been for years: living and working out of a studio in Compton In a 2016 interview with The Times, Walker, who is now director at the arts nonprofit LAXART said Shiokava’s under-the-radar profile could be attributed to his reticence toward self-promotion but also the nature of his work and the communities he was part of very regional area — a region within a region,” he said Sculptor Kenzi Shiokava (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) To support his artistic career Shiokava worked as a gardener for much of his life — a day job he far preferred over teaching “Gardening is much more interesting to me.” It was in that line of work that he got a gig cleaning a fish pond at a fancy home in the Hollywood Hills for whom he would labor for more than 20 years you make me so happy,’” Shiokava later told KPCC he met another prominent Hollywood collector: Jack Nicholson Shiokava kept the wooden crate that the work had been transported in so that he might transform it into something new “I think he was ahead of society because he believed that you could use trash to make art,” says Reed “It was important for us to see beauty in the things people throw away There is beauty in everything — you just have to look for it.” Entertainment & Arts Kenzi Shiokava, born 1938, has an academic résumé that reads like those of many established L.A. artists: bachelor’s in fine arts from Chouinard (later CalArts), MFA from Otis College of Art and Design. After retiring from gardening, Shiokava focused exclusively on his art — working out of his Compton studio for more than two decades. In addition to Reed, he is survived by three sisters — Lourdes Larkins, Miyoko Hilton, Lucia Teraishi — all based in Los Angeles, as well as a brother, Airton Shiokava, who lives in Brazil. Also among his surviving family members are his niece Hime Dequeiroz and a nephew, Glen Teraishi. In 2016, when Shiokava was asked by KPCC reporter John Rabe if he was religious, the artist explained that he was Catholic. “I have lots of faith,” he said, pointing at the sky. “Because now I’m more there than here.” Carolina A. Miranda is a former Los Angeles Times columnist who focused on art and design, with regular forays into other areas of culture, including performance, books and digital life. World & Nation Television Sports Subscribe for unlimited accessSite Map Brazil -- Freakish tobacco plants that explode from the soil in this remote river valley grow huge leaves on stalks as thick as Louisville Sluggers Crazy not just because it grows so big and so fast Crazy because it has been genetically altered by one of the world's largest tobacco companies to pack twice the nicotine of other commercially grown leaf The farmers of Brazil's southernmost state are growing it by the ton for the world market though it could not be learned for certain which countries are importing the nicotine-rich leaf Fumo louco -- the farmers' generic term for several related strains of high-nicotine tobacco -- is the offspring of a genetically altered plant created in U.S laboratories for Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. The seed was then secretly shipped to Brazil in violation of U.S the AP has observed its cultivation and harvest on small farms all over the state of Rio Grande do Sul to Neury de Oliveira's 20 mist-shrouded acres in the high country Some of these varieties are so high in nicotine that smokers might get sick smoking them in their pure form weaker tobaccos to make cigarettes with nicotine levels that satisfy smokers Fumo louco blends give cigarette makers a new tool for adjusting nicotine levels in their products Food and Drug Administration with a new argument for the assertion that the tobacco industry intentionally manipulates nicotine levels to "hook" smokers At stake is the question of whether the FDA should have the power to regulate nicotine as a drug The FDA has been aware that a high-nicotine tobacco had been developed but did not know that it is being cultivated in large commercial quantities 18 Brazilian farmers openly acknowledged they are growing the high-nicotine leaf by the ton and many said they have been growing it for more than five years "It's weird stuff," Oliveira said in his native Portuguese The nicotine content is so high that "just the crazy smell of it gets you dizzy it comes up like nothing you've ever seen." Farmers estimated that half of the roughly 40,000 acres under tobacco cultivation in the region are devoted to the high-nicotine leaf That means an area about one-and-a-half times the size of the island of Manhattan is covered in fumo louco The farmers said they sell their high-nicotine tobacco to Souza Cruz the same British conglomerate that controls Brown & Williamson Brown & Williamson spokesman Mark Smith said that "it would be inappropriate for us to comment" because of pending government investigations Justice Department has convened grand juries in Washington and New York state to investigate whether tobacco companies and their officials lied to the government about manipulating nicotine levels in their products After farmers sell their fumo louco to Souza Cruz it goes to the company's processing plant in Santa Cruz do Sul Souza Cruz boasts it is the world's biggest About a third of the tobacco processed at the plant is high-nicotine leaf and several former Souza Cruz technical experts Souza Cruz mixes it with other tobaccos to form some of its blends Souza Cruz is among the world's biggest exporters of tobacco and about a fifth of its production goes to cigarette makers in the United States Japan and Germany are also major customers The company does not use high-nicotine leaf in cigarettes marketed in Brazil The FDA learned in 1994 that Brown & Williamson had developed a nicotine-rich plant code-named Y-1 and that limited quantities had been grown in Brazil in the early 1990s Some of it was imported by Brown & Williamson which used it as an ingredient in five cigarette brands sold in the United States in 1993 and 1994 the FDA was concerned enough about the implications to disclose its findings to Congress in July of 1994 Brown & Williamson executives responded by assuring the agency that they had dropped the project and stopped using Y-1 in their Raleigh Lights Viceroy Lights King Size and Richland King Size cigarettes The AP has learned Y-1 cultivation began in Brazil in 1983 -- years earlier than the FDA realized shipped nearly 8 million pounds of Y-1 to the United States for Brown & Williamson between 1990 and 1994 -- nearly double the amount the FDA knew had been imported Souza Cruz's own experiments with Y-1 have produced hundreds of new strains of high-nicotine tobacco some of which are being grown commercially in Brazil Months after the FDA's Y-1 disclosure to Congress the company ordered farmers to stop cultivating high-nicotine strains praising its quality and paying top prices The commercial production of genetically altered nicotine-enhanced tobacco may have implications for the pending $368.5 billion tobacco settlement between cigarette makers and attorneys general of 40 states The biggest stumbling block to the settlement is whether the FDA should regulate tobacco as a drug Tobacco companies contend that nicotine isn't addictive and insist that they vary nicotine levels in cigarettes solely for taste The FDA views nicotine-enhanced tobacco as a tool for deliberately controlling the dosages of an addictive substance The story of how fumo louco leaped from a laboratory experiment in the United States to a cash crop in Brazil also raises questions about government efforts to regulate the biotech industry's use of genetically altered material Department of Agriculture was trying to develop a "safer" cigarette the USDA wanted to create a tobacco that would be low in tar Cigarette companies knew how to reduce tar by chemically treating the tobacco but this also removed much of the nicotine a breeder at the USDA's Tobacco Research Laboratory in Oxford thought the answer was to create a strain abnormally high in nicotine the removal of the tar would still leave plenty of nicotine behind At a cost of about $2 million in USDA money Chaplin crossbred several wild and commercial tobacco varieties in an effort to boost nicotine levels who worked for an affiliate of Brown & Williamson Hardison said his only involvement was to plant the seed You send me some tobacco seed and I grow them." a longtime colleague of Chaplin's at the USDA in Oxford and the highest nicotine -- between 4 and 5 percent," he said Hardison brought Y-1 and Y-2 seed to Brown & Williamson who resigned from the USDA in 1986 to work for Brown & Williamson Brown & Williamson took Y-1 to DNA Plant Technology a biotechnology company founded that year in Cinnaminson scientists used state-of-the-art breeding techniques including processes known as protoplast fusion and hybrid sorting did not respond to requests for interviews The company did not respond to a list of questions it had a nicotine level of 6.2 percent -- double the amount of any tobacco commercially grown in America "What they had done was unheard of," said the FDA's Zeller you had tobacco that was twice as powerful as anything out there." law would have prohibited Brown & Williamson from growing this new tobacco in America a quality-control agreement between growers cigarette makers and the government stipulates that tobacco with nicotine levels lower than 2 percent or greater than 4 percent is not eligible for federal price support That means American farmers would have little interest in growing it Brown & Williamson CEO Thomas Sandefur would say in 1994 growing Y-1 in the United States would make it too easy for competitors to get the seed Y-1 and Y-2 seed first arrived in Brazil in 1983 a former Souza Cruz soil expert and tobacco researcher who worked on the project from 1983 to 1992 Mondardo is now a professor of agronomy at Unisul Seed was shipped to Souza Cruz in boxes marked "samples." More was stuffed in plain envelopes and sent by air mail said Mondardo and two other Souza Cruz agronomists who worked on the project told FDA investigators that she personally shipped more than 10 pounds of Y-1 seed to Brazil in one calendar year prior to 1991 a former Brown & Williamson vice president for research (and the highest-ranking executive to turn against the industry) who was in charge of tobacco blending and testing for Brown & Williamson in Louisville flew to Brazil "several times" with Y-1 seed hidden in cigarette packs though he continues to work as a part-time consultant for the company -- declined to comment pollen or live plants without a special USDA permit Permits could be granted only for quantities of a half-gram or less Neither Brown & Williamson nor DNAP ever sought such permits an administrator at the USDA's tobacco division The permit requirement was eliminated by presidential decree on Dec after tobacco companies lobbied for the change Souza Cruz distributed Y-1 and Y-2 seed to 100 plantations and harvested more than a ton of the leaf Souza Cruz distributed seed to hundreds more farms most of them in the state of Rio Grande do Sul said production reached 4.5 million pounds by 1990 Since it takes a pound of tobacco to make 20 cartons of cigarettes blended with weaker tobaccos in a 1-to-5 ratio would be enough to make 450 million cartons "had a stronger stalk and lost fewer leaves in the wind and rain Brown & Williamson employees came to Brazil to observe the progress too," in cigarettes blended with other tobaccos Y-1 was too susceptible to some plant diseases it produced fertile seeds that could be easily stolen and used by competitors The company couldn't get patent protection for the plant because U.S law permitted patents only for species altered by recombinant DNA -- a technique that had not been used to develop Y-1 Souza Cruz used crossbreeding on plantations to create hardier versions of Y-1 and created hundreds of new lines of tobacco from the breed "Each one had a secret code number," said the source who worked on the project for about 10 years "We weren't just working for Brown & Williamson," said Volnei B the agricultural operations manager for Souza Cruz in Rio Negro from 1987 to 1990 "An objective was to improve our own lines." Mondardo said that by the time he left the company in 1992 and selected the best for commercial purposes." a Souza Cruz field technician from 1991 to 1993 said he saw company reports showing the nicotine level of one hybrid at 8 percent -- nearly three times pre-Y-1 levels world demand for quality tobacco outpaced production a supervisor in Souza Cruz's tobacco experimentation department from 1986 to 1990 weaker tobacco and blend it with the hybrids "to keep nicotine levels up where they needed them," he said both farmers and former Souza Cruz agronomists said the company was handing out seed from some of these new hybrids for farmers to grow in their fields both Souza Cruz and DNAP had succeeded in producing sterile varieties of Y-1 -- plants that could not reproduce without the artificial addition of special pollen was that DNAP had used recombinant DNA techniques to map the genes of Y-1 Pollen and seed for the sterile Y-1 created at DNAP were soon shipped to Brazil Seventy grams of pollen were sent in three shipments in 1990 according to export certificates obtained by the AP Fifty pounds of seed were legally shipped in 1993 you could blanket all of Europe in tobacco," said Dr a leading Brazilian agronomist at the Federal University of Rio Grande do!Cul A 1981 Brazilian law forbids growing of foreign plants capable of "causing irreversible damage to genetic banks ecosystems or humans." A 1995 law prohibits the cultivation of imported genetically altered plants or hybrids made from them without government permission Growing large quantities of Y-1 and its hybrid cousins may have violated those laws a law professor and President of the Brazilian Society of Environmental Law Pinheiro and Machado said that large-scale growing of the genetically altered plants "could change the gene pool of our native tobacco species," and might pose unknown health risks to farmers Fontes said Souza Cruz never applied for permission to grow those varieties Souza Cruz attempted to destroy all fertile high-nicotine varieties to protect itself from competitors But it was too late; the company had lost control of the varieties who had taken a liking to Y-1 and its offspring because they brought high prices and cut about six weeks off the growing season already had begun producing their own Y-1 seed and were swapping it among themselves "Souza told us to stop planting louco," said Laury de Oliveira a former Souza Cruz field instructor who grows fumo louco on an 8-acre farm said "The company line is that what we're planting today is different tobacco but anyone who works with the stuff knows that's just a story." Fumo louco brings the best price from the company's buyers A sting in the back of the throat tightened into a knot A queasiness spread from the pit of the stomach up through the chest "is the bite of fumo louco."Randy Herschaft a tobacco farmer in Brazil's Rio Pardo Valley sprays pesticides on maturing tobacco plants Some of his plants produce tobacco containing high levels of nicotine carries bales of leaf that will be cured and sorted Part of his crop is a nicotine-rich tobacco that is exported in blends.