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1. Deer Breeder Movement Standards Plan Finalized [TX]
Framework Addresses Chronic Wasting Disease Management, Industry Needs
Texas Animal Health Commission News Release
August 11, 2015
Media Contacts:
Steve Lightfoot, Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, 512-389-4701, steve.lightfoot@tpwd.texas.gov ;
Bonnie Ramirez, Texas Animal Health Commission, 512-719-0710, bonnie.ramirez@tahc.texas.gov
AUSTIN - Texas deer breeders will be able to resume animal movements under a plan finalized today by staff of the Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC) and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD).
The Breeder Deer Movement Qualification Standards Plan will take effect upon the filing of Emergency Rules by TPWD and will be in place through the 2015-16 Texas hunting season. Details of the plan are available online at www.tpwd.texas.gov/cwd .
Key elements of the plan include:
A framework giving breeders who met previous movement qualified standards an option to move and liberate deer. Movement qualification is also dependent on administrative compliance with deer breeder permit regulations and statutes.
Enhanced options for closely-monitored herds with a status of "fifth year" or "certified" in the TAHC Monitored Herd Program. There are no additional release site requirements for ranches that receive deer only from these herds.
Additional Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) testing in deer breeding facilities. Under the plan, the vast majority of the 1,300 permitted deer breeders in Texas can gain movement qualified status by testing two or fewer animals.
There will be CWD testing requirements for a proportion of deer that are harvested on some release sites.
The goal of the Movement Qualification Plan is to provide deer breeders with options prior to the September 22 deadline for movement and liberation of bucks and before the 2015-16 hunting season. This is just one of many steps Texas is taking to mitigate the spread of CWD after it was detected in deer from a Medina County deer breeding facility earlier this summer.
"We have received and tried to be responsive to the extensive feedback from the state's many and varied deer management interests in developing this revised plan," said Carter Smith, TPWD Executive Director. "In the development of this framework, both agencies are balancing the need to minimize the risk of unwittingly allowing the movement or liberation of Chronic Wasting Disease-positive deer on the Texas landscape while adopting reasonable movement qualification standards that allow qualified deer breeders to begin moving and liberating captive deer. The complexity associated with the development of this framework is immense."
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2. Platte County Horses test positive for VSV [WY]
By: Amanda Fry
Platte County Record-Times
August 12, 2015
Seven premises in Platte County have been quarantined after horses tested positive for Vesicular Stomatitis Virus (VSV). The virus was first detected in Wyoming in July, when a horse at Cheyenne Frontier Days contracted the virus.
"To date, Platte County has 7 premises quarantined for having horses infected with VSV," Wyoming Assistant State Veterinarian Bob Meyer said. He added that there is a "very suspicious" case also being investigated in a cattle herd, with samples being collected for testing yesterday morning.
Two of the seven locations had samples collected from the horses and sent to the laboratory, where infection was confirmed in both locations.
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3. What's happened to federal money in fight against chronic wasting disease in deer? Outdoor Insider
By Marcus Schneck
PennLive.com
August 10, 2015
With chronic wasting disease, an always fatal disease of deer, now detected in 22 states and two Canadian provinces, why has federal funding for research into the disease continued to drop? asked Craig Dougherty in his blog on the Outdoor Life website.
He notes that the federal government was appropriating more than $18 million per year for CWD research in the early 2000s, but today spends just $1-3 million per year.
Bryan Richards, emerging disease coordinator at the USGS National Wildlife Center, suggested that "with humans and cattle no longer a concern, the funding has all but disappeared."
Read Dougherty's full report at the Outdoor Life website.
[ See: http://tinyurl.com/nqv7g46 ]
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4. Additional Equine WNV, EEE Cases Reported in Texas [edited]
By Edited Press Release
TheHorse.com
August 12, 2015
Since July 3, the Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory (TVMDL) has reported multiple positive cases of West Nile virus (WNV) and Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) in horses located across that state.
Heavy rains this spring created an ideal breeding environment for mosquitoes, the transmission vector for both WNV and EEE. From the Gulf Coast to the panhandle, horses are susceptible to these two potentially fatal neurologic diseases in all parts of the state.
As of Aug. 11, the TVMDL has confirmed that seven horses have tested positive for WNV. The affected horses are located in the following counties: Houston, Atascosa, Jefferson, Roberts, Sterling, Parker, and Randall.
Another viral disease, EEE also normally cycles between wild birds and mosquitoes. As with WNV, EEE cannot be transmitted from horse to horse, or from a horse to a human. Horses and humans are considered "dead-end" hosts, meaning if infected they cannot transmit the virus back to feeding mosquitoes.
As of Aug. 11, the TVMDL has confirmed that seven horses have tested positive for EEE. They are located in the following counties: Orange, Newton (two cases), Liberty (two cases), and Jasper (two cases).
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5. Ames workshop will examine stewardship of antimicrobial drug use in livestock
By Farm Foundation
High Plains Journal
August 12, 2015
Stewardship of medically-important antimicrobial drugs in food animals is the subject of workshop targeted to livestock producers, their feed suppliers and veterinarians in seven Midwestern states. The workshop will be Sept. 16 at the Gateway Hotel, 2100 Green Hills Drive, Ames, Iowa.
This free workshop is an opportunity for participants to gain a comprehensive understanding of two Guidance for Industry issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regarding the use of medically-important antimicrobial drugs in food-producing animals, as well as FDA's revised Veterinary Feed Directive. The workshop is also an opportunity for other stakeholders, such as state and federal agencies, colleges of veterinary medicine and university extension personnel, to gain insights into the changes needed to meet the requirements.
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6. Lessons from PEDv lead to future disease optimism
By Angela Bowman, Associate Editor
PORK Network
August 11, 2015
Since it was first identified in the United States in 2013, Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus (PEDv) has killed roughly 8 million pigs. Now, with positive cases dwindling, concerns look to potential, future disease outbreaks. Thanks to the lessons gleaned from the PEDV outbreak, this future is looking bright.
Dr. Paul Sundberg, head of the Swine Health Information Center, explained in a Farmscapes report [http://tinyurl.com/o8t67lz], that PEDv exposed the importance of sharing information.
"I think that experience of sharing information and also the realization of that we continue to be at risk and we need to be better prepared for the next one to come so we don't have to start from zero like we did with PEDv," Sundberg said.
Dr. Matt Anderson with Suidae Health and Production agrees with Sundberg and praises the industry for coming together to fight back against the disease.
"Never in my experience have I seen an industry come together cooperatively as quickly as in this case," Anderson explained. "We are a competitive industry, but competition in this case went out the window. Companies were helping each other out; farm [owners and managers] were helping each other. I was really proud to be part of the industry during that period in time. It was full of challenges, but all of the producers and everyone who supports producers really stepped up. That allowed us to make progress."
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7. WTO will consider COOL retaliatory proposals next month
Farm Futures
August 11, 2015
The meetings to consider Canada and Mexico's proposed retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. for its Country-of-Origin-Labeling policy will be held Sept. 15-16, the World Trade Organization announced last week.
The meetings will be held by WTO's Dispute Settlement Body in Geneva, Switzerland. They will be open to the public, WTO said, a limited number of seats will be available.
Canada and Mexico are seeking more than $3 billion in retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods, following a May decision by the WTO Appellate Body, which ruled that the mandatory COOL law and regulations violate U.S. international trade obligations and illegally discriminate against imported livestock from Canada and Mexico.
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