Cyanobacteria moitoring getting sophisticated

Abstract

I twas a tragic event that in 1996 briefly put the quiet Southern Cape farming community of Kareedouw in the headlines - an entire dairy herd poi soned,with 290 in-milk cows dead,and another 70 that had to be slaughtered to end their suffering from acute hypersensitivity. The culprit? A bloom of cyano bacteria, also known as blue-green algae , which had contaminated the livestock’s drinking supply with potent toxins. “These kinds of e vents are infrequent though, so cyanobacteria blooms are not on the national agenda,” says Dr Bill Harding, co-author of the recently pub lished WRC report, Cyanobacteria in South Africa:a re vie w. The report had its beginnings in 1999, when participants in two workshops convened by the WRC resolved that a review of South African experiences relating to cyanobacteria should be conducted so that new research proposals and needs could be meaningfully evaluated. Considerable research effort was focussed on cyanobacteria during a ten-year , multi-departmental investigation that included among its core team of researchers the WRC’s own CEO, Dr Rivka Kfir.

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