HNFAS Faculty


FACULTY INFORMATION
Banna, Jinan
Professor in Human Nutrition  


see more...

Email:  jcbanna@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-7857
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Nutrition Education, Community Nutrition
Butel, Jean
Asst Spec  


see more...

Email:  jbutel@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-7069
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Cacpal, Kristina
Extn Agent  


see more...

Email:  kcacpal@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 567-6929
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Farm to School
Caires, Kyle
Associate Extension Agent  


see more...

Email:  kccaires@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 541-760-6317
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Beef cattle support, livestock, 4-H livestock program
DuPonte, Michael W
Emeritus  


see more...

Email:  mduponte@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 969-8201
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Livestock and Pasture Management
Esquivel, Monica
Associate Professor and Dietetics Program Director  


see more...

Email:  monicake@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-8691
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, community based participatory nutrition, child health promotion, food and nutrition security
Fukumoto, Glen K
Co Extn Agent  


see more...

Email:  gfukumot@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 322-0165
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Pasture, Livestock & Waste Management
Hackney, Lara
Instructor  


see more...

Email:  laraj27@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-3837
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

He, Yanghua
Assistant Professor of Genomics and Epigenomics  


see more...

Email:  yanghua.he@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-7090
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

1. Benchwork: Sequencing platforms: Illumina HiSeq; Mi-seq; 10*Genomics; Nanopore sequencing. Library constructions for sequencing: DNA-seq; RNA-seq; ChIP-seq and CUT&RUN; MBD-seq; MeDIP-seq; WGBS; RRBS; Bisulfite cloning sequencing; pyrosequencing; HiC; PLAC-seq; ATAC-seq. CRISPR-based technologies (Genome-editing and Epigenome-editing). sgRNA Library Screening. 2. Data analysis: Bioinformatics in Genetic and Epigenetic data analysis; Galaxy platform; Linux Operating System; Computational languages: Perl, Python, R, Matlab, SAS, C++
Ho, Kacie
Associate Professor  


see more...

Email:  kacieho@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-8286
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Jha, Rajesh
Professor and Graduate Chair of Animal Sciences  


see more...

Email:  rjha@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-4122
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Monogastric Animal Nutrition, Gut Health and Physiology, Feed and Feed Additive Evaluation
Jun, Soojin
Professor  


see more...

Email:  soojin@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-8283
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Food Engineering, Food Processing, Food preservation, Biosensing
Kim, Yong-Soo
Researcher  


see more...

Email:  ykim@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-8335
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Growth physiology; muscle biology ; meat science: Cattle-ProductionSwine-Production-all aspectsCattle-PostharvestSwine-Postharvest
Lee, Chin Nyean
Specialist  


see more...

Email:  chinl@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-4882
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Reproductive Physiology Dairy Science: Cattle-Dairy -Pasture ManagementForage Crops in gen.-MarketingCrops in gen.-Agricultural DevelopmentAnimals in gen.-Agricultural DevelopmentPasture in gen.-Management
Lee, Cheng Sheng
Researcher and Exec Dir Ctr for Trop & Subtrop Ag  


see more...

Email:  chenglee@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-3385
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Reproduction control in marine finfish and marine shrimp; Early life history of fish and shrimp; Ecology of live feed organisms; and Aquaculture Management in general.
Lee, Mi-Jeong
Associate Professor  


see more...

Email:  leemj7@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-9565
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Li, Yong
Professor  


see more...

Email:  liyong@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-6408
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Food Microbiology, Food Safety
Mishra, Birendra
Associate Professor  


see more...

Email:  bmishra@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-7021
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Reproductive Physiology of Domestic Animals and Poultry, Environmental stress on reproduction, Transcriptional regulation of egg formation in the laying hens, nutritional programming to increase the reproductive efficiencies.
Morgan Bernal, Lydi
Jr Extn Agent - Oʻahu Farm to School  


see more...

Email:  lydi@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-7095
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Farm-to-School, school gardens, teacher professional development, coalition building
Nakamoto, Stuart T
Extension Economist/Spec  


see more...

Email:  snakamo@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-8125
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Agribusiness marketing/adding value (marketing of Specialty crops and products), agribusiness management, agribusiness economics, risk management, tea, blueberries
Novotny, Rachel
Professor  


see more...

Email:  novotny@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-3848
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Community and global nutrition; Maternal and child nutrition; Public health nutrition; Field assessment of nutrition status
Odani, Jenee
Lecturer  


see more...

Email:  jsodani@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-7095
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Small ruminant support and general animal health; diseases of terrestrial and aquatic livestock; Board-certified in veterinary anatomic pathology
Oshiro, Melelani
Asst Extn Agent  


see more...

Email:  mabran@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 322-0165
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Small ruminant support and livestock
Reichhardt, Caleb Case
Assistant Professor of Livestock Animal Production  


see more...

Email:  CCReichh@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-7691
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Beef cattle management and muscle biology.
Seale, Andre P.
Researcher  


see more...

Email:  seale@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-8961
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Comparative endocrinology, fish physiology, cell and molecular biology, signal transduction, aquaculture.
Thorne, Mark
Specialist  


see more...

Email:  thornem@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 887-7625
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Grazing management and beef cattle support
Yang, Jinzeng
Professor & Chair  


see more...

Email:  jinzeng@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-6073
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Molecular biology, animal biotechnology, transgenic animals, genetics, gene regulation, muscle biology, lactation physiology, mammary gland biology
23 December 2019

What Will the Cattle Eat?

CTAHR tackles spittlebug infestations on Hawai‘i Island

What Will the Cattle Eat?

A recent article in Hawaii Tribune Herald noted that Mark Thorne, Extension specialist with the Department of Human Nutrition, Food & Animal Sciences, is working with the Kona livestock community to combat the two-line spittlebug (TLSB), a recently discovered pasture pest.

“Two-line spittlebugs pose a significant economic threat to the Hawai‘i livestock industry, the third-largest agricultural industry in the state, with an estimated $45,000,000 in production value,” says Mark.

Immature nymphs and adult bugs suck nutrient-rich juices from the grass leaves and roots. The grasses die, and there’s very little recovery. Nymphs are found at or just under the soil surface along grass roots or crowns within a mass of liquid and bubbles they secrete that resembles spit, hence their name.

The pest has destroyed thousands of acres of once-productive pasture land. Since 2016, their range has increased by 35,000 acres a year and now stretches 145,000 acres along the Kona coast and mauka ranch lands. Now the sustainability of Hawai‘i’s livestock industry is in question, unless measures are identified to slow their progress—not many tested management options are currently available.

Mark Thorne, Mark Wright in the Department of Plant and Environmental Protection Sciences, graduate student Shannon Wilson, and several research technicians are evaluating grass varieties bred for spittlebug resistance in Colombia, a country with several grass-specific spittlebug pests.

“We hope these grasses will be productive substitutes for the pasture grasses being wiped out by TLSB,” says Mark.

For now, ranchers are encouraged to use grazing management strategies that reduce the suitable habitat for the pest. This strategy will likely be a tool against TLSB even after suitable resistant verities of grass are planted.

If you see a spittlebug, please contact Mark Thorne at thornem@hawaii.edu. By reporting the problem, you can help scientists collect more data and advise the community on a solution.

Read the full article.

Print



HNFAS Department

1955 East West Road
AgSci 216

Honolulu, HI 96822

phone: 808-956-7095

fax: 808-956-4024


hnfas@hawaii.edu

 

Quick Links
 WebMail
 Laulima
 My UH
 Academic Calendar

UH Manoa

Video-Conferencing
  Halawai