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1. Vesicular Stomatitis Virus Confirmed in S. Dakota
South Dakota Animal Industry Board News Release
July 31, 2015
PIERRE, S.D. - Two confirmed cases of Vesicular Stomatitis Virus (VSV), a reportable animal disease, have been found in western South Dakota. USDA's National Veterinary Services Laboratory reported the disease to South Dakota state veterinarian , Dustin Oedekoven after testing samples that were submitted on Tuesday, July 28, 2015.
VSV infected horses and cattle have been found already in 2015 in Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, Wyoming and Arizona. VSV can also threaten other livestock species, including sheep, goats and pigs.
The main symptoms of VSV are slobbering, blisters, sores and sloughing of skin in the mouth, on the tongue, on the muzzle, inside the ears and on the coronary band above the hooves. Lameness and weight loss may also occur.
Flies and midges are the insect vectors responsible for transmitting VSV. The virus can also be spread through direct contact with infected livestock and indirectly through contact with contaminated equipment and tack. Fly and insect control is the most important step in preventing the disease. Good sanitation and bio-security measures can help avoid exposure.
Full text:
https://aib.sd.gov/News/PDF%20Files/2015.07.31%20VS%20News%20Release.pdf
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2. Two more deer test positive for chronic wasting disease [TX]
Austin American-Statesman
August 1, 2015
State officials said Saturday that two additional deer from a captive herd in Medina County tested positive for a contagious, degenerative neurological disease, a discovery that could lead to the annihilation of an entire herd of deer.
Two preliminary tests came back positive for chronic wasting disease, but confirmation will have to wait until samples are tested by the diagnostic laboratory in Ames, Iowa, officials said. Results could be available by the middle of next week, said Josh Havens, spokesman for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
State scientists with Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Texas Animal Health Commission took 35 deer - which included bucks, does and fawns - from a ranch near San Antonio owned by breeder Robert Patterson to be euthanized and tested. The postmortem testing of brain stems, lymph nodes and rectums began Tuesday [July28].
Full text:
http://www.statesman.com/news/news/two-more-deer-test-positive-for-chronic-wasting-di/nnBWn/
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3. Additional Equine WNV Cases Confirmed in Washington
By Edited Press Release
TheHorse.com
July 31, 2015
The Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) has confirmed five new cases of West Nile virus (WNV) in horses, bringing to six the number of cases so far this year and now surpassing the total number in the state for all of 2014.
The first case of West Nile virus in a horse this year was reported July 21 and involved an unvaccinated Quarter horse gelding in Kennewick. The horse's condition continues to improve.
Veterinarians reported five new cases since then, all confirmed as positive for WNV by the Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory operated by Washington State University in Pullman. They include:
A 2-year-old unvaccinated Andalusian stud colt from Harrah, Yakima County. The horse's condition is improving.
A 4-year-old unvaccinated Andalusian stud in Kennewick, Benton County. He has been euthanized.
A 3-year-old unvaccinated Quarter Horse gelding in Mesa, Franklin County. The horse died.
A 9-year-old Appaloosa mare in Othello, Adams County. It is unclear if this horse was vaccinated, but she appears to
be recovering.
A 3-year old Azteca male in Mabton, Yakima County. The horse was not vaccinated and appears to be recovering.
Full text:
http://www.thehorse.com/articles/36205/additional-equine-wnv-cases-confirmed-in-washington
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4. FedEx bans select agents after DoD anthrax lapses
Robert Roos, News Editor
CIDRAP News
July 30, 2015
In the wake of revelations that an Army laboratory inadvertently sent live Bacillus anthracis (BA) samples to scores of other labs, the shipping company FedEx recently stopped transporting select agents, a step that worries leading lab officials, USA Today reported yesterday.
The move leaves labs with very limited options for shipping select agents, meaning viruses, bacteria, and toxins that are strictly regulated because they could be used as bioweapons or otherwise pose serious threats, the story said. BA is the cause of anthrax.
Meanwhile, an editorial in Nature yesterday [July 29] said the Department of Defense's (DoD's) anthrax missteps point up gaps between the regulation of government labs and academic labs. The editors called for stricter oversight of government facilities.
Full text:
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2015/07/fedex-bans-select-agents-after-dod-anthrax-lapses
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5. As planned sale of Plum Island generates interest, livestock disease research continues [edited]
By Judy Benson
The Day
July 31. 2015
Southold, N.Y. - The federal agency charged with selling Plum Island has been receiving eight to 10 calls per month from people interested in the planned sale of the 840-acre property where the federal animal disease research laboratories have been located for the past 60 years.
John Dugan, project manager for the General Services Administration, said inquiries about the sale have come from a wide range of individuals and interests, but declined to characterize them further. His comments came during a tour and status update for the media of the Plum Island facility on Thursday.
The agency has been directed by Congress to sell the entire island, which is part of the town of Southold. It is located in Long Island Sound between Orient Point and Fishers Island. The island is slated to be sold once the $1.3 billion new National Bio and Agri-Defense Facility under construction in Manhattan, Kan., is completed.
Groundbreaking for the Kansas facility took place earlier this year, and construction is expected to be completed within five years. The labs, which currently employ 400 scientists and other workers, would complete the move to the new facility by 2023, said Larry Barrett, center director. About half of those employed at the Plum Island Animal Disease Center live in Connecticut, commuting there on a ferry that leaves from Old Saybrook, and the other half live in New York State.
Barrett said the pending move has not altered the pace of the work going on at Plum Island.
"We haven't slowed down on our research at all," he said.
Research at the lab focuses on foot-and-mouth disease, a highly contagious livestock illness, as well as classical swine fever and African swine fever. Luis Rodriguez, lead for agricultural research services at Plum Island, said a recently patented vaccine for foot-and-mouth disease that was developed there represents a significant breakthrough in controlling the disease, which is not present in the United States but is endemic in 100 countries in the world.
"This is the first licensed foot-and-mouth disease vaccine made in the United States," he said, adding that the lab is working in partnership with the animal pharmaceutical company Zoetis Inc. to make it commercially available. Because of the novel structure of the virus used in the new vaccine, immunized cattle can be distinguished through a blood test from infected cattle - something that was not possible with other vaccines, he said.
The new lab in Kansas will be about 580,000 square feet, more than double the size of the Plum Island lab. The existing lab houses up to 100 cattle and pigs used in the research in secure, enclosed building attached to the lab.
One of its major improvements over the existing facility will be that it will have higher-level biosafety labs where research on zoonotic diseases - those transmitted from animals to humans - can be conducted, Rodriguez said. That type of research cannot be done at Plum Island.
"For the first time we will have the capability to work on Ebola and rift valley fever and other zoonotic diseases," he said.
Full text: http://tinyurl.com/qhzy5zc
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6. Genetic Surveillance Study Finds Flu Viruses at Two US Swine Markets
GenomeWeb.com
July 31, 2015
NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) - A team from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Minnesota Department of Health, and the University of Minnesota has garnered evidence suggesting influenza A strains circulating at live swine markets in the US could potentially cross over to infect humans.
As they reported online this week in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, the researchers used a combination of real-time reverse transcription PCR (rRT-PCR), genome sequencing, viral culturing, and serological testing to not only track influenza A viruses at two mixed species swine markets in Minnesota over three months, but also to look at the possible risk of transmission to people working there.
The team found that influenza A viruses - including some seemingly reassorted viruses - turned up on surfaces at the markets and in more than half the swine lung or oral fluid samples. Meanwhile, some 65 percent of employees had influenza A virus DNA in their nasal swabs.
"At markets where swine and persons are in close contact, swine-origin [influenza A viruses] are prevalent and potentially provide conditions for novel [influenza A virus] emergence," senior author Ruth Lynfield, with the Minnesota Department of Health, and her co-authors wrote.
Full text: http://tinyurl.com/oasf2ku
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7. First case of whirling disease found in NC trout
By Karen Chavez
GreenvilleOnline.com
July 31, 2015
FOSCOE, N.C. - For the first time since the trout-killing whirling disease was found in fish in the United States, it has hit the waters of North Carolina, which has biologists and anglers in both Carolinas on high alert.
Whirling disease has been confirmed in rainbow trout collected from Watauga River between Linville and Boone, North Carolina - the first occurrence of the disease in that state, said Doug Besler, the N.C. Wildlife Commission's regional fisheries supervisor for the mountain region.
"We were alerted by anglers who were fishing on the Watauga River who noticed fish that had obvious deformities," Besler said. Crew members were sent out, fish captured, and some of the fish were sent to a disease lab at Auburn University in Alabama. Two of the fish came back testing positive for whirling disease.
Full text: http://tinyurl.com/o26nwy9
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