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1. Humans carry more antibiotic-resistant bacteria than animals they work with
Elsevier Health Sciences
EurekAlert
August 24, 2015
Philadelphia, PA - Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are a concern for the health and well-being of both humans and farm animals. One of the most common and costly diseases faced by the dairy industry is bovine mastitis, a potentially fatal bacterial inflammation of the mammary gland (IMI). Widespread use of antibiotics to treat the disease is often blamed for generating antibiotic-resistant bacteria. However, researchers investigating staphylococcal populations responsible for causing mastitis in dairy cows in South Africa found that humans carried more antibiotic-resistant staphylococci than the farm animals with which they worked. The research is published in the Journal of Dairy Science�
Animal agriculture is often blamed for generating antibiotic-resistant bacteria through the "widespread" use of antibiotics. "South Africa has one of the highest HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis rates in the world and the human health risk to immune-compromised individuals is therefore that much greater," explained lead investigator Tracy Schmidt, a PhD candidate at the Department of Medical Microbiology, University of Pretoria, and a veterinary researcher at the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in South Africa. "The rise of livestock-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (LA-MRSA) and reported cases of bacterial transmission between dairy cows and humans has raised concerns from both the agriculture/veterinary sector and public health officials. The lack of data about the occurrence of LA-MRSA in South Africa and the need to investigate possible reservoirs were part of the motivation for this work."
Staphylococcus aureus is a contagious udder pathogen that readily spreads between cows at milking. The main source is milk from infected quarters, with milking machine teat liners playing a significant role in the transmission of the bacteria among cows and mammary quarters. Infected cows need to be promptly identified and appropriate control measures need to be taken to curb bacterial transmission among cows.
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2. VSV strikes Sublette horses [WY]
By Joy Ufford
Sublette Examiner
August 24, 2015
SUBLETTE COUNTY - Two Sublette County horse herds with about 30 head total are currently under quarantine after vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) was confirmed, according to Wyoming State Veterinarian Jim Logan.
These reports bring the count to four Wyoming counties - Goshen, Platte, Laramie and Sublette - reporting the insect-transmitted disease, Logan said Friday.
Only horses have been confirmed in Sublette County to be positively affected by the virus, he said. It can also strike mules, cattle, sheep, goats and pigs.
"Owners seem to be doing alright with it," he said of the Sublette cases. "The animals are doing well and many are well on their way to healing."
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3. FDACS leads avian influenza planning efforts [FL]
Suwannee Democrat
August 24, 2015
TALLAHASSEE, Fla.-The country has seen the West and Midwest's poultry industry devastated by highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). While not detected in the state, Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Adam H. Putnam's department has been working with partners to keep the disease at bay. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers the risk to people from HPAI virus to be low, and no human infections with this virus have been detected.
"Avian influenza has wreaked havoc on the poultry industry in the West and Midwest, and the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services is going to great lengths to develop and implement plans to prevent an outbreak from occurring here and to respond quickly in the event one does occur," stated Commissioner of Agriculture Adam H. Putnam. "Surveillance and testing are integral parts of preventing the spread of disease, and at the Bronson Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory and in the field, our scientists and disease investigators are on the front lines of protecting animal health in Florida."
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4. 'Major step' toward universal flu vaccine
Global Post
August 24, 2015
Scientists have taken a major step towards creating a vaccine that works against multiple strains of influenza, according to two studies published Monday in top journals.
A "universal vaccine" is the holy grail of immunisation efforts against the flu, a shape-shifting virus which kills up to half a million people each year, according the World Health Organization.
There have been several killer pandemics in the last century -- the 1918 Spanish Flu outbreak claimed at least 20 million lives.
Existing vaccines target a part of the virus that mutates constantly, forcing drug makers and health officials to concoct new anti-flu cocktails every year.
In the two studies, published in Nature and Science, researchers tested new vaccines on mice, ferrets and monkeys that duplicate another, more stable, part of the virus.
Scientists have long known that the stem of haemagglutinin -- a spike-like protein, known as HA, on the surface of the virus -- remains largely the same even when the tip, or "head", changes.
But until now, they have not been able to use the stem to provoke an immune reaction in lab animals or humans that would either neutralise the virus, or allow the body to attack and destroy infected cells.
To make that happen, a team led by Hadi Yassine of the Vaccine Research Center at the US National Institutes of Health grafted a nano-particle-sized protein called ferritin onto a headless HA stem.
The next step was to immunise mice and ferrets, then injecting them with the H5N1 "bird flu" that has a mortality rate of more than 50 percent among people but is not very contagious.
The mice were completely protected against the flu, the researchers found.
And most of the ferrets, the species that best predicts the success of influenza vaccines on humans, did not fall ill either.
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5. FDA seeks comments on combination drugs
By John Maday, Editor
Bovine Veterinarian
August 24, 2015
The FDA is considering changing the approval process for drugs used in combination in medicated feeds. Currently, the use of combined drugs in a medicated feed requires an approved new animal drug application (NADA) for each drug individually, and a separate NADA for the combination. The FDA says it is exploring changes to allow combination drug medicated feeds available in an efficient manner while protecting public health.
The FDA published a Federal Register notice seeking comment on this initiative on September 9, 2014, and held a public meeting in March, 2015. The agency plans to publish draft recommendations based on stakeholder feedback, and the draft recommendations then will be open for public comment. The FDA now encourages interested stakeholders to submit comments to the docket (FDA-2014-N-1050) by September 9, 2015, prior to the development of draft recommendations.
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6. Investigation finds ground beef frequently contaminated
By DeAnn Smith, Digital Content Manager
KCTV5.com
KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) - Beef may be for dinner but if you don't cook it thoroughly you may have a side of harmful bacteria.
In 2014, Americans bought more than 2 billion pounds of ground from supermarkets and big-box retailers, but a Consumer Reports investigation found cause of concern.
The magazine tested 300 packages of ground beef purchased in stores across the country, and almost all contained significant amounts of fecal contamination.
More than 40 percent contained staph aureus. Almost 20 percent contained a bacteria that causes nearly a million causes of food poisoning annually. Many of them are related to beef.
In addition, Consumer Reports found a significant amount of the beef that their labs tested contained superbugs that are resistant to several classes of antibiotics.
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7. Synthetic DNA-based MERS Vaccine Shows Promise
By Anna Azvolinsky
The Scientist
August 19, 2015
A synthetic DNA vaccine targeting the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) protects rhesus macaques from developing symptoms of the disease. The vaccine also elicits antibodies against the spike protein of the virus in camels, which are thought to facilitate the spread of the pathogen to humans. These preclinical results were published today (August 19) in Science Translational Medicine.
"This type of vaccine [could allow] for a potentially more broadly neutralizing antibody response, which may protect against multiple strains of MERS-CoV circulating in the environment," virologist Matthew Frieman of the University of Maryland who was not involved in the study told The Scientist in an email.
David Weiner, a professor of pathology at the University of Pennsylvania who develops gene-based vaccines, and his colleagues took cues from previous vaccine studies of the related severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), which showed that the spike glycoprotein is immunogenic and induces neutralizing, infection-preventing antibodies. The researchers designed an artificial consensus sequence of the MERS-CoV glycoprotein based on sequences of isolates from past and ongoing MERS outbreaks. "[The sequence is changed slightly to emphasize conserved regions of the protein that provoke an immune response," said Weiner.
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