College of Agricultural Sciences

The Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences offers 17 undergraduate majors, 23 minors, and graduate programs in 18 major areas.

College News and Information

A "questing" female Ixodes scapularis (blacklegged tick) reaches out in hopes of climbing aboard a host. Researchers say the blacklegged tick, the primary vector of Lyme disease, was almost nonexistent in Pennsylvania in the 1960s but now is the state's dominant tick species. Image: Joyce Sakamoto/Penn State

More than 100 years of data show Pennsylvania tick population shift

May 3, 2019

The prevalence of the most abundant species of ticks found in Pennsylvania has shifted over the last century, according to Penn State scientists, who analyzed 117 years' worth of specimens and data submitted primarily by residents from around the state.

Matt Thomas, professor and Huck Scholar in Ecological Entomology, along with collaborators in Europe and Africa, have received a five-year, $10.2 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to investigate a method for preventing the transmission of malaria. The method involves limiting mosquito access to houses by blocking openings and installing “eave tubes” that contain a unique type of insecticide-laced mosquito netting that kills the insects as they attempt to enter. Image: Penn State

Stopping Malaria at its Source

April 30, 2019

Penn State’s Matthew Thomas and an international team of researchers have developed an in-home solution aimed at preventing the spread of malaria.

Researchers tested mixed-species cover crop stands such as this one to see if they could balance the nitrogen-fixing and nitrogen-scavenging capabilities of individual species. Individually, cover crop species excel at either reducing nitrogen leaching or increasing nitrogen supply to cash crops. But they fail to excel at both simultaneously. Image: Catalina Mejia / Penn State

'Right' cover-crop mix good for both Chesapeake and bottom lines

April 29, 2019

Planting and growing a strategic mix of cover crops not only reduces the loss of nitrogen from farm fields, protecting water quality in the Chesapeake Bay, but the practice also contributes nitrogen to subsequent cash crops, improving yields, according to researchers.

White-throated sparrows are among the best-studied North American songbirds. With a typical wingspan of 6 to 7 inches, it breeds primarily in northern boreal coniferous and mixed forests and, a short-distance migrant, winters mainly in the southeastern U.S. To make these migrations, the bird's body changes significantly. Image: Paul Bartell / Penn State

Songbird-body changes that allow migration may have human health implications

April 24, 2019

Songbirds that pack on as much as 50 percent of their body weight before migrating and that sleep very little, exhibit altered immune system and tissue-repair function during the journey, which may hold implications for human health, according to Penn State researchers.

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