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1. Turkey growers express frustration with U.S.D.A. in roundtable on avian flu [edited]
Radio Iowa
August 26, 2015
Turkey producers from northwest Iowa are raising several concerns about how the federal government handled this spring's bird flu outbreak, costing Iowa's economy an estimated $1.2 billion.
During a roundtable discussion in Storm Lake on Tuesday afternoon, Cherokee County turkey farmer Rod Parker said there was "mass confusion" from U.S.D.A. and other governmental personnel who were sent to affected farms.
"A guy will come out today and tell you one story, another guy will come out tomorrow and tell you another story on how it's 'supposed' to be done," Parker says. "I don't know if the rules are changing that much from day to day or if those guys are making up their own rules as they go or what. We're not on a unified basis."
Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley hosted the roundtable meeting and discussed the indemnity program. Grassley questioned if the value-per-bird formula is accurate and if there are any problems with how it works. Grassley said he isn't sure a lot of new legislation is necessary, unless the possibility of an insurance program is a reasonable outcome of the bird flu. He says at least three key issues came out during the discussion.
"Biosecurity is a much more important issue now than it's ever been before," Grassley says. "Secondly, for the federal government, to euthanize within 24 hours. Third, to make sure that when the farmers have questions, they get their questions answered. The words they used at this meeting was the government ought to have protocol, it ought to be in writing, they ought to treat everybody fairly and it shouldn't be changed in the midstream."
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2. The growing global battle against blood-sucking ticks
Scientists have no shortage of ideas about how to stop tick-borne illnesses. What is holding them back?
By Melinda Wenner Moyer
Nature
August 25, 2015
On a balmy day in late June, Scott Williams waits for a white-footed mouse (Peromyscus leucopus) to fall asleep. Williams, a wildlife biologist with the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven, has just transferred the animal from a trap to a plastic bag containing a cotton ball doused in anaesthetic. As soon as the mouse's breathing slows to one breath per second, Williams will take it out, draw blood, weigh it, put an ear tag on it for identification and check the animal for ticks, saving any that are engorged with blood. He must work quickly. The mouse will wake up in about two minutes, and she might be grumpy.
Williams is testing whether vaccinating mice against Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease in the United States, can reduce the proportion of ticks that are infected. Health officials are looking on with interest. Connecticut has one of the highest rates of human Lyme disease in the country, and June is peak time for transmission. Borrelia burgdorferi infects an estimated 329,000 people in the United States each year, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia. And although most people who get prompt treatment recover quickly - Williams has had Lyme three times - up to one in five develops long-term and potentially life-threatening symptoms, including heart, vision or memory problems, or debilitating joint pain.
Williams's approach is one of several strategies being tested in an attempt to thwart the spread of tick-borne diseases. Some, like the mouse vaccine, interrupt the pathogen's ecological circuitry by targeting the wild animals that pass along and amplify the disease. Others, such as efforts to revive a human Lyme vaccine, aim to protect people from infection directly. A more radical approach could hamper the ability of ticks to bite humans or animals, potentially protecting against dozens of illnesses spreading across the United States, Europe, Africa and Asia.
That the field needs creative solutions is clear. Many long-recommended interventions, such as pesticide application or controlling populations of deer, which are an important host for adult ticks, have had mixed success in scientific studies. Even the time-honoured protective strategies that most people use are not evidence-based. "We tell people to wear repellents, to do tick checks and to shower if they've been in the field, but there's very little data to show that these things reduce human illness," explains Ben Beard, chief of the CDC's bacterial-diseases branch in the division of vector-borne diseases.
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3. Chicken registration mandate isn't going over easy [NC]
Posted by Josh O'Conner
Mountain Xpress
August 26, 2015
Owners of backyard chickens have had their feathers ruffled by a new state mandate.
A recent requirement from the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services will require all chicken keepers to register with the state, regardless of the size of their flock. The requirement is being met with accusations of "fowl play" from some chickeners who say the registry is part of a larger effort to subvert agricultural autonomy and prop up a regulatory system that favors Big Ag.
In July, Gov. Pat McCrory greenlighted recommendations from state veterinarian Dr. Doug Meckes to implement statewide emergency measures to prevent and control the spread of avian influenza. The virus causes catastrophic illness and death within affected poultry, overcoming the birds within hours or days. An outbreak of bird flu swept through 21 states earlier this year, resulting in the loss of around 50 million birds, and is considered to be the worst animal virus outbreak in U.S. history.
Though there are no known cases of human infection from bird flu, the virus does stand to have a devastating effect on North Carolina. The state's poultry industry includes some 4,200 poultry farms and an additional 4,000 backyard chicken flocks, spawns approximately 100,000 jobs and has a collective economic impact of close to $18 billion. Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project also reports that 41 percent of cash agricultural purchases in the region in 2007 came directly from the sale of poultry and eggs.
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4. BLM to Conduct Emergency Gather of Idaho Wild Horses
By Edited Press Release
TheHorse.com
August 26, 2015
Boise, Idaho, Acting District Manager Jenifer Arnold announced Aug. 25 that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will conduct an emergency gather of the Sands Basin, Hardtrigger, and Black Mountain wild horse herds as a means to maintain the health of the herds and protect rangelands which have been impacted by the Soda fire.
To date, the Soda Fire has swept across 285,000 acres of land in southwestern Idaho, including 100% of the Sands Basin and Hardtrigger wild horse herd management areas (HMA) and a third of the Black Mountain HMA. Last week, 29 horses were killed by the fast moving fire, and six more had to be euthanized due to injuries sustained in the fire.
All of the horses within the Sands Basin and Hardtrigger HMAs will be removed to ensure their health and safety during the upcoming winter months. Approximately 65 horses will be gathered from Black Mountain, reducing wild horse numbers to a sustainable level for the remaining forage in that HMA. In all, approximately 285 horses will be gathered.
"Throughout the duration of the fire, BLM teams were monitoring the condition and whereabouts of the horses," Arnold said. "A patchwork of unburned islands within the HMAs provided limited forage, but not at a sustainable level. It is critical that we see to the horses' nutritional needs by bringing them in to the Boise Wild Horse Corrals until the range recovers."
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5. African swine fever spreading in Europe
National Hog Farmer
August 24, 2015
African swine fever, and its impact, is spreading overseas.
According to a report from Pigs in Ukraine and in the World, this year has been challenging as ASF has been found in several northern regions of the Ukraine, mostly in wild boars and in backyard settings.
But then on July 28, the disease was detected in one of the largest commercial hog operations in the Kiev region. Per Ukrainian instructions on handling ASF outbreaks, all animals (almost 63,000 head) were killed and burned.
Speculation of how the farm became infected with ASF center on three theories: neglect of biosecurity, transfer through feed or wild boars.
On its website, the Kyiv Post reports the spread of ASF throughout Ukraine.
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6. Mislabeling found on meat products
By Jacqui Fatka
Feedstuffs
August 26, 2015
In a study on identification of species found in ground meat products, 48 samples were analyzed and 10 were found to be mislabeled, according to the small research study conducted by Chapman University's Food Science Program.
A total of 48 fresh and frozen ground meat products representing a variety of species were collected for the research and tested using a combination of DNA barcoding and real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The study speculates that the presence of multiple species commonly found in ground meats suggests the possibility of cross-contamination at the processing facility. Unintentional mislabeling may occur when several species are ground on the same manufacturing equipment, without proper cleaning in between samples. Another trend observed in the study indicates the possibility of lower-cost species being intentionally mixed in with higher-cost species for economic gain.
Overall, mislabeling was found to be most common in products purchased from online specialty meat distributors (versus supermarkets), which showed a 35% rate of mislabeling and included products labeled as black bear and yak burgers.
Of those 10, nine were found to have additional meat species and one sample was mislabeled in its entirety.
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