The Aphid: A Virus Vector CD-ROM

Video (MPEG-1 and MPEG-2) on CD-ROM  Running time: approx. 13 min  ISBN 089054316X      £68.00

Please note: VAT of 17.5% is payable on all CD-ROMs purchased in the UK

Winner of the 2004 Comenius Award!

The oldest German and European Award for excellent educational media, the Comenius Award is given annually by The Society for Pedagogy and Information, a renowned scientific society for multimedia, educational technology, and media didactics. The recipient of this prize is selected in an independent review process according to didactic and scientific merit.

Get ready for classes with this outstanding teaching tool! Due to their rapid development and explosive rate of reproduction, aphids rank among the most important crop plant pests. They extract phloem sap from their host plants and excrete the excess in the form of honeydew. In addition, many aphid species damage their hosts by transmitting viruses: aphids are virus vectors. Yield losses due to viral diseases are often more serious than the direct damage due to sap extraction.

The most important vector of plant viruses worldwide is the green peach aphid, Myzus persicae. When it leaves its winter host, the peach tree, it colonizes numerous crop plants, e.g., beets, potatoes, and vegetables, and infects them with various viruses. Other aphids, such as Sitobion avenae, are specific to cereals and transmit the Barley yellow dwarf virus.

In a combination of fascinating macro sequences and 3D animations, this educational film impressively illustrates the life cycle of aphids, their behavior on winter and summer hosts, and their feeding habits. The different behavior patterns during feeding probes and prolonged feeding, which influence the mode of virus transmission (non-persistent, persistent), are presented in clear, lucidly explained video sequences. A paper insert of additional references on the interactions between plant viruses and their aphid vectors during the process of virus transmission is also included.

The Aphid: A Virus Vector addresses a wide audience, including lecturers, students of agronomy, biology, ecology and their related disciplines, as well as governmental and non-governmental advisory bodies, and last but not least, farmers.

Educators: use an LCD projector to show the video in class or set it up for students to use one-by-one in the lab.

System Requirements
This CD-ROM contains a video in two digital standard formats: MPEG-1 (low resolution) and MPEG-2 (high resolution). When you insert the CD-ROM, the digital format supported by your computer is recognized automatically.

System requirements for running MPEG-1 format:
Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP, DirectX 3 or higher, Pentium 160 MHz or faster, min. 64 MB RAM, 800x600 pixel 16-bit high-color display, sound card, 4x CD-ROM drive or DVD drive. The MPEG-1 format also runs on a Mac computer with Quicktime player.

System requirements for running MPEG-2 format:
Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP, DirectX 7 or higher, Pentium III 500 MHz or faster, min. 128 MB RAM, 800x600 pixel 16-bit high-color display, sound card, 20x CD-ROM drive or DVD drive.

Scientific Advisors
Prof. Dr. Urs Wyss, Dr. Gunnar Mölck, Dr. Gert Petersen,
Institute of Phytopathology, Christian-Albrechts University Kiel, Germany

Virological Advisor:
Dr. H. Josef Vetten
Federal Biological Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry (BBA) Institute for Plant Virology, Microbiology and Biosafety

With contributions by:
Hans-Helmut Petersen

Macro photography:
Prof. Dr. Urs Wyss, Maria Wagner

Scientific animations:
Axel Schultz, Sven Rabe

Production Manager:
Nikolaus W. Weissenhorn

Written and directed by
Dr. Trude Hard, Dr. Rolf P. Stumm

Video Production:
STUMM-FILM Dr. Rolf Stumm Medien GmbH