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1. A Statement from Maryland Department of Agriculture Animal Health Program [EHV]
MDA Press Release
March 31, 2015
ANNAPOLIS, MD (March 31, 2015) - A horse from Pennsylvania that appeared in a Maryland horse show on March 15 has tested positive for the equine herpes virus (EHV); however, none of the horses that were in the Maryland show and none of the horses that live with the sick horse in Pennsylvania are currently exhibiting any signs of illness. One horse that was reported to the Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA) with a fever on March 29 tested negative for EHV.
The horse that is sick did not exhibit any symptoms until March 22 and did not exhibit any signs of illness while in Maryland. The officials of the Maryland show have contacted all trainers of horses in the division that the sick horse was shown in to alert them of the risk and recommend they monitor their horses through April 5, which is the end of the 21 day incubation period for equine herpes.
MDA's Animal Health Program is monitoring the situation closely. Owners should contact their private veterinarians to arrange for EVH testing if a horse exhibits significant temperature elevations or neurologic signs. Veterinarians are required to report equine neurologic syndrome to MDA.
As of right now, there is no indication that any other horses that had contact with the sick Pennsylvania horse are ill. The Pennsylvania horse is reportedly improving.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/pqavsm8
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2. More avian flu in US birds; Asian H9N2 found in Alaska
Robert Roos, News Editor
CIDRAP News
April 1, 2015
The highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) viruses H5N2 and H5N8 are continuing to turn up in US birds, with the latest detections in Montana and California, while an Asian H9N2 virus was found in wild birds in western Alaska, according to recent reports.
In Montana, the HPAI H5N2 virus was found in a captive gyrfalcon in Columbia Falls in the northwestern part of the state, the Montana Department of Livestock reported in a statement yesterday. The report apparently is the first discovery of the strain in the state.
The agency said the falcon died of unknown causes and was sent to a state wildlife lab in Bozeman for analysis. The H5N2 finding was later confirmed by a US Department of Agriculture (USDA) lab in Ames, Iowa.
The bird was owned by a falconer who has about 50 other captive birds, according to a story today in the newspaper The Missoulian. Martin Zaluski, DVM, state veterinarian, said the rest of the birds would be tested for the virus. It appears that the dead falcon was exposed to the disease through contact with a harvested wild duck, he reported.
Full text:
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2015/04/more-avian-flu-us-birds-asian-h9n2-found-alaska
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3. Second Ohio white-tailed deer tests positive for deadly brain disease
By D'Arcy Egan, The Plain Dealer
Cleveland.com
April 1, 2015
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- As state officials try to legally force Holmes County deer farmer Daniel Yoder to euthanize a herd of expensive white-tailed deer, a second deer has tested positive for chronic wasting disease (CWD) on Yoder's properties near Millersburg.
The first positive test ever for CWD in Ohio was from a deer killed Oct. 22 at Yoder's hunting preserve, World Class Whitetails. The second positive result came a few days ago while testing another Yoder deer that had died.
The National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa confirmed the results.
"It has always been a case of not if, but when another deer would test positive on those properties," said Communications Director Erica Hawkins of the Ohio Department of Agriculture. "This wasn't unexpected. We expected to find positives at his facilities and, with de-population, we expect to find more."
Full text:
http://www.cleveland.com/outdoors/index.ssf/2015/04/second_ohio_white-tailed_deer.html
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4. Addressing BVD at the source
By John Maday, Editor
Bovine Veterinarian
March 30, 2015
Bovine viral diarrhea (BVD) can lead to significant outbreaks of respiratory disease in stocker and feedlot operations, and that is where the disease often is most visible. Control at the cow-calf level however, can help prevent those losses, while also reducing the risk of costly reproductive problems. But, says, Kentucky State Veterinarian Robert Stout, cow-calf producers often do not see or recognize the signs of BVD in their herds.
During the recent National Institute for Animal Agriculture (NIAA) conference in Indianapolis, Stout presented to the NIAA Bovine Committee, discussing Kentucky's efforts to control BVD.
Stout says 60 to 80 percent of cattle in Kentucky probably are exposed to BVD at some time, with huge impacts on productivity and the state's agricultural economy. Many of those exposures result in transient, or temporary infection in cows, but BVD exposure also suppresses immunity and is a leading cause of bovine respiratory disease in stocker and feeder cattle.
Many of those infections occur as a result of persistently infected (PI) calves, which shed the virus constantly, being shipped from farms and ranches. PI calves occur when the gestating cow is exposed to the BVD virus during gestation, generally between days 30 and 110 of pregnancy, and becomes transiently infected. Her calf, if it survives, will be PI at birth and can spread the virus within the cow herd, leading to reduced calving rates, and among other calves it encounters later as it moves through the marketing, backgrounding and finishing stages. Stout says transient infections of the dam account for about 90 percent of PI calves, with the other 10 percent resulting from a PI cow, which will pass the infection on to all her calves.
Diagnostic testing can identify PI animals for culling and isolation. PI animals should be removed from the marketing chain, either by euthanasia, shipping directly to slaughter or being finished in a quarantined facility away from other cattle. But, as the committee heard, some producers have knowingly sold and shipped PI calves without disclosing their disease status.
Kentucky, Stout says, is different from most states in that BVD is a reportable disease, meaning producers, veterinarians and diagnostic labs in the state are obligated to report positive results to the state Department of Agriculture. Also, Kentucky has had a law in place for years that forbids sale and transport of animals with communicable diseases.
Full text:
http://www.bovinevetonline.com/cattle-disease-diagnostics/addressing-bvd-source
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5. Purdue Center for Animal Welfare Science to present symposium [edited]
Purdue Agricultural Communications
March 31, 2015
Purdue University's Center for Animal Welfare Science will bring together researchers, producers, government officials and others in its first symposium exploring how science can help allay mounting public concern over the well-being of animals.
The daylong event, "Addressing Current Animal Welfare Issues: Scientific Challenges and Their Societal Context," will be held May 21 at the Stewart Center, 128 Memorial Mall, on the West Lafayette campus.
"This inaugural symposium examines why animal welfare remains a matter of growing public concern and why it is important to put science in its appropriate social context to help resolve socially contentious animal welfare issues," said Candace Croney, associate professor of animal sciences and director of the center. "It also will highlight Purdue's unique capacity and leadership relative to science-based policy development and decision-making on animal welfare."
The program is intended to be useful for scientists, students, veterinarians, animal producers, various animal industry personnel, legislators and interested members of the general public.
Topics to be explored will include agricultural, companion and laboratory animal welfare challenges and opportunities.
The event will start with breakfast and registration at 7:30 a.m., followed by welcoming remarks by Croney.
The keynote address will be delivered by Bernard Rollin, a distinguished professor of philosophy, animal sciences and biomedical sciences at Colorado State University. He will give a presentation on the topic of putting current societal debates on animal welfare into context.
There also will be presentations from scientists from Michigan State University, the University of Pennsylvania, Purdue and Stanford University. They will speak on use of genomics in the housing and care of animals, the biological bond between humans and animals, and real versus perceived problems involving companion animal welfare, among other topics.
Officials from McDonald's Corp. and Cargill Meat Solutions Corp. will address corporate considerations in animal care and welfare policies.
Registration information for the symposium is available at http://bit.ly/1N5BcOE.
Full text:
https://extension.purdue.edu/Pages/article.aspx?intItemID=9703
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6. FDA Announces Pending Withdrawal of Approval of Nitarsone
FDA Ctr. for Veterinary Medicine
April 1, 2015
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced that it has received a letter of commitment from Zoetis Animal Health that, by the fall of 2015, the company will suspend sale of Histostat (nitarsone) and formally request that the FDA withdraw the approval for the drug by the end of 2015. Nitarsone is the only arsenic-based animal drug that is currently approved for use in food animals. Nitarsone is approved for the prevention of blackhead disease (histomoniasis) in turkeys and chickens, but is predominantly used in turkeys.
Arsenic is in the environment as a naturally occurring substance or as a contaminant and is found in water, air, soil, and food. Published scientific reports have indicated that organic arsenic, the less toxic form of arsenic present in the arsenic-based animal drugs, could transform into inorganic arsenic, a known carcinogen.
In 2011, Alpharma, then the sponsor of 3-Nitro (roxarsone), suspended marketing of that drug after an FDA study measured higher levels of inorganic arsenic were present in the livers of chickens fed roxarsone, compared to those of untreated control chickens.
The FDA formally withdrew the approvals for three other arsenic-based animal drugs: roxarsone, arsanilic acid and carbasone, in February 2014. FDA has since completed additional studies that affirm the findings of its 2011 roxarsone study.
Full text: http://tinyurl.com/nftd7eh
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7. Antibodies From Camels Could Protect Humans From MERS
Infection Control Today
March 30, 2015
Antibodies from dromedary camels protected uninfected mice from Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), and helped infected mice expunge the disease, according to a study published online March 18th in the Journal of Virology, a journal published by the American Society for Microbiology. MERS, which emerged in humans last year in the Saudi Arabian peninsula, causes severe respiratory disease, with a high mortality rate of 35 percent to 40 percent. No specific therapy is currently available.
"Our results suggest that these antibodies might prove therapeutic for MERS patients, and might protect uninfected household members and healthcare workers against MERS," says corresponding author Stanley Perlman, MD, PhD, a professor in the Departments of Microbiology and Pediatrics at the University of Iowa.
Passive immunization, a procedure where you inject a former patient's antibodies into a new patient to fight the disease, has been used in the past, including last year in a small number of cases of Ebola, but in the case of MERS, few former patients are available to donate antibodies. Additionally, their antibody titers are often too low, and many former patients are not healthy enough to donate.
Suspecting that humans and dromedaries were likely infected by the same virus, first author Malik Peiris, DPhil, professor of medical science in the School of Public Health at the University of Hong Kong, SAR, China suggested that camel sera might be used to combat MERS. The vast majority of dromedaries on the Arabian peninsula are infected, and many have high antibody titers. The investigators decided to test dromedary antibodies against virus taken from humans. They tested the antibodies in mouse models infected with the latter virus.
The study, a successful proof of concept study, showed that prophylactic or therapeutic treatment with high titer MERS immune camel sera diminished weight loss and pathological changes in lung tissues, and cleared the infections in the mice.
Full text: http://tinyurl.com/njz9kvu
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