The 2011 ASHS Annual Conference

The mission of the IR-4 Project is to facilitate registration of sustainable pest management technologies for specialty crops and minor uses. IR-4 has focused on pest control products that are identified as “Reduced Risk” or have significant risk reduction characteristics. The research objective of the Tifton IR-4 Analytical Laboratory is to perform magnitude of the residue analyses on samples from food-use research sites throughout the United States and Canada.  This residue laboratory analyzed plant tissue samples from 285 field trials encompassing 35 pesticide/commodity combinations from 2006 to 2010.  Analyses were conducted for the fungicides captan, famoxadone + cymoxanil, metconazole, propiconazole, tebuconazole, and tetraconazole; the herbicides halosulfuron and imazosulfuron; and the insecticides buprofezin, fenpropathrin, imidacloprid, and pyriproxyfen.  In addition to the parent compound, analyses were also conducted for secondary metabolite residues of captan, imidacloprid, metconazole, propiconazole, tebuconazole, and tetraconazole.  Magnitude of the residue data generated from each pesticide/commodity combination is submitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the establishment of a tolerance or maximum residue limit (MRL) for ultimate field use.