|
* * * * * * * * * *
1. FDA, USDA, and CDC Holding Public Meeting on On-Farm Antimicrobial Use Data Collection
Registration deadline for public comment extended, final agenda now available
FDA Ctr. for Veterinary Medicine News Release
September 18, 2015
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration continues to accept registration for a joint public meeting with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on plans to collect data on antibiotic use in food-producing animals. The meeting will be held on September 30, 2015 from 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. at The USDA Jefferson Auditorium (South Building), 1400 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20250.
A final agenda and other details about the meeting are available at http://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/NewsEvents/WorkshopsConferencesMeetings/ucm456380.htm.
Registration for public comment has been extended from September 18 to September 23, 2015. To register for the meeting, or to register to give public comment, please send your name, title, organization, address, and telephone number by email to Kelly.Covington@fda.hhs.gov. Registration is free. Attendees are encouraged to arrive at 7:30 a.m. the day of the meeting to allow for time to pass through security.
Gathering information on the way medically important antibiotics are used is essential to measuring the impact of the FDA's judicious use strategy as outlined in Guidance for Industry #213. On-farm use data collection is consistent with objectives outlined in the National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria to enhance monitoring of antimicrobial-resistance patterns, as well as antimicrobial sales, usage, and management practices, at multiple points in the production chain for food-producing animals and retail meat.
This data collection plan is intended to provide the data needed to 1) assess the rate of adoption of changes outlined in the FDA's Guidance for Industry #213, 2) help gauge the success of antibiotic stewardship efforts and guide their continued evolution and optimization, and 3) assess associations between antimicrobial use practices and resistance trends over time.
********
|
|
2. USDA, industry prepares for fall avian flu
By Jacqui Fatka
Feedstuffs
September 18, 2015
Earlier this year, highly pathogenic avian influenza resulted in the depopulation of 7.5 million turkeys, 42.1 million egg-layer and pullet chickens and costs taxpayers $950 million. The U.S. Department of Agriculture as well as industry groups such as the National Turkey Federation and National Chicken Council have compiled a comprehensive response manual to help coordinate and respond against future HPAI infections.
"APHIS is keenly aware of the significant impact the spring outbreak has had on all parties-poultry producers, allied industries, federal and state governments, and the American consumer. As we near the beginning of the fall season, APHIS is confident that its surveillance programs in commercial and wild birds, which are the strongest in the world, will enable us to detect the disease early. If HPAI should reappear in the coming months, APHIS is ready to respond and committed to helping those affected by the disease," APHIS said.
The decline in HPAI detections provided an opportunity to enhance prevention efforts and prepare for additional backyard and commercial poultry cases that may occur in the fall when birds migrate south from their northern breeding grounds, USDA said in its Fall 2015 Preparedness and Response Plan*. While HPAI infections since December 2014 have been identified in three of the four U.S. flyways, USDA said it expects HPAI viruses will be brought to the Atlantic flyway by migrating ducks, if they are not already present but as yet undetected in the resident wild duck population.
[*See: http://tinyurl.com/owkk2cr ]
USDA said it learned many things through this spring's outbreak and have assumed a worst-case scenario beginning in mid-September 2015, with HPAI occurring simultaneously in multiple sectors of the poultry industry throughout the nation. Under this scenario, 500 or more commercial establishments of various sizes could be affected.
The Fall 2015 HPAI Influenza Preparedness and Response Plan organizes information on preparatory activities, policy decisions and updated strategy documents into four key areas:
preventing or reducing future outbreaks;
enhancing preparedness;
improving and streamlining response capabilities; and,
preparing for the potential use of AI vaccines.
Full text:
********
|
|
3. FDA Basics Webinar - September 23, 2015: The National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS): Protecting the American Public from Foodborne Illness
FDA News Release
September 18, 2015
The National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) was established in 1996. NARMS is a partnership between FDA, CDC, and USDA to track antibiotic resistance and foodborne Salmonella, Campylobacter, and other bacteria that are among the leading bacterial causes of foodborne illness. This national public health surveillance system tracks changes in the antimicrobial susceptibility of certain enteric (intestinal) bacteria found in ill people (CDC), retail meats (FDA), and food animals (USDA) in the United States. The FDA arm of NARMS provides data about resistance in bacteria isolated from retail meats. This is important, because these data represent the major route of human exposure. NARMS produces annual summary reports on antimicrobial resistance among bacteria isolated from humans, retail meats, and food animals
Please join us on Wednesday, September 23, 2015 at 2:00, eastern standard time (EST) for an overview of the program and how the data that is collected helps to keep the American public's health safe.
Presenter: Heather Tate, Epidemiologist, Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM)
********
|
|
4. Horse with possible contagious virus euthanized at 4-H Horse Show [MN]
By Allie Johnson
KMSP.com
September 19, 2015
ST. PAUL, Minn. (KMSP) - A horse at the Minnesota State 4-H Horse Show at the state fairgrounds was euthanized Friday after it exhibited symptoms consistent with a potential contagious and deadly virus.
The University of Minnesota equine extension program said in a statement the horse was displaying neurological symptoms.
The Associated Press reported the affected horse was from Clay County.
The state's 4-H veterinarian Jessica Hasemann told Fox 9 the horse was tested for EHV-1. EHV-1 is a virus that can cause fever, respiratory signs and often neurological signs in horses. The sometimes-deadly virus is contagious and spreads easily between horses.
Hasemann said they will not receive the results of the test until next week.
Full text:
********
|
|
5. U.S. may kill poultry with heat stress to stop bird flu
By Tom Polansek
Reuters
September 18, 2015
CHICAGO - U.S. agriculture officials seeking ways to control deadly bird flu have approved the use of a method to kill poultry by turning up the heat in their barns and shutting off ventilation systems.
The Agriculture Department will consider using the method, condemned by animal rights groups as cruel, if there are no other ways to kill flocks within 24 hours of flu infections being detected, according to a statement.
The agency has set a goal to cull infected flocks within a day to prevent the virus from spreading, after nearly 50 millions chickens and turkeys died from December through June in the nation's worst-ever animal disease outbreak.
More than two months have passed since the last infection was detected. However, officials are preparing for the potential return of the flu this fall because wild ducks, which are thought to carry the virus, will begin migrating.
Shutting off ventilation systems is "considered by some to be less humane than other methods" of culling flocks, the USDA said in a statement this week.
However, the method, known as ventilation shutdown, is a "necessary alternative" because of the need to control and eradicate the virus, according to the agency.
Full text:
********
|
|
6. Horse in Wayne County tests positive for EEE [NY]
By Mary Chao
Rochester Democrat & Chronicle
September 18, 2015
The Wayne County Public Health Department has received notice of a positive report for Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE) in a horse in the town of Galen in Wayne County, according to the New York State Department of Health Arbovirus Laboratory.
Four horses died of EEE in September 2014 and now Wayne County Public Health is actively trapping mosquitoes in the town of Rose and Galen and sending them for testing on a weekly basis. Currently, no pools of mosquitoes have tested positive for EEE or West Nile Virus. Unvaccinated horses are very vulnerable to the EEE virus and die from the disease if infected, the health department said.
********
|
|
7. Bacterial pneumonia resurfaces in North Dakota bighorn sheep [edited]
Associated Press
Tampa Tribune
September 18, 2015
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - Bacterial pneumonia that killed dozens of bighorn sheep in the western North Dakota Badlands last year has resurfaced this summer, sparking fears it will become an even bigger problem in the region.
The re-emergence of the illness has state wildlife officials reconsidering how to issue bighorn hunting licenses.
The Game and Fish Department called off the fall hunting season for the first time in more than three decades after pneumonia killed about three dozen sheep last year. The bighorn population managed by the state is not large - an August survey counted about 300 animals - and many that became sick and died last year were mature rams, which hunters seek.
Officials are not sure why pneumonia has surfaced the past two summers. Contact between bighorns and domestic sheep is one possibility. The illness also occurred after the transplant of bighorns from the Canadian province of Alberta, though Williams said the bacteria has never been in the Alberta population and has not occurred in herds of transplanted sheep in other states.
The Badlands herds hit by pneumonia this summer are the same three herds that were affected last year, according to Game and Fish big game biologist Brett Wiedmann.
"Many adults and lambs showing signs of disease in August likely will not survive the winter," he said.
********
|
|
