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1. Hunters, Landowners Encouraged to Report Suspected Cases of EHD [IL]
Illinois Dept. of Natural Resources News Release
September 18, 2015
SPRINGFIELD, IL - The Illinois Department of Natural Resources has received reports of 47 suspected cases of Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease (EHD) in wild white-tailed deer so far in 2015. EHD appears to be more prevalent in west-central Illinois counties including Adams, McDonough and surrounding counties. In all, reports have come from 17 counties (see map attached to this release at URL below). EHD was also confirmed in captive deer herds in Adams and Schuyler counties with heavy losses reported.
Scattered EHD cases were reported across the southern third of Illinois as well as two counties (Stephenson and Winnebago) in northern Illinois. EHD was also confirmed in multiple cattle herds in Jo Daviess County.
The worst year for EHD was 2012 when 2,043 cases were reported from 76 counties. In 2013, IDNR received reports of 403 cases from 51 counties. EHD was virtually absent in 2014.
IDNR continues to ask landowners, hunters, and concerned citizens to be on the look-out for dead or dying deer, and to report suspected EHD cases to their local IDNR field office, or to the Wildlife Disease and Invasive Species Program (WDIS). IDNR is especially interested in sick or recently dead animals as staff may attempt to collect tissue samples in order to confirm the presence of the EHD virus.
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2. New Technology Speeds Animal Disease Diagnosis
By University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Food, and Environment
TheHorse.com
September 24, 2015
Time can make all the difference in animal disease diagnosis. Early diagnosis can protect herd health, give veterinarians more choices, and save lives.
For many diseases, it's a waiting game to pinpoint the exact bacteria causing the problem. Traditional means of diagnosis heavily rely on culturing bacteria in old-school petri dishes. That's still a tried-and-true method, but now scientists at the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Food and Environment's Veterinary Diagnostic Lab are hailing a new technology as a game changer for Kentucky animal health.
MALDI-TOF, formally Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization-Time of Flight, has been used in human medicine for many years. Now, veterinary labs across the country are using the technology to aid in bacteria identification.
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3. How do you use antibiotics? A new survey wants to know
By Wes Ishmael in BEEF Editors' Blog
Beef Magazine blog
September 24, 2015
"I have a hard time accepting the fact that a CEO in a board room, who has not taken the time to engage and learn about our industry, should be allowed to make a snap decision regarding veterinary medicine and beef cattle health in the name of responding to activist groups masquerading as consumers," says Dan Thomson, DVM, director of the Beef Cattle Institute (BCI) at Kansas State University (KSU).
Thomson's frustration echoes that of many in the industry when it comes to the ongoing battle cattle producers face in preserving their right to provide animal care through the judicious use of antibiotics.
"We continually improve the best system for the judicious use of antibiotics in the world, including programs, such as the Animal Medicinal Drug Use Clarification Act. We have Beef Quality Assurance. We have ante-mortem and post-mortem inspections by state and federal agencies. Now we are moving forward with the Veterinary Feed Directive," Thomson says.
"The veterinary profession and the beef industry work hard with federal agencies to continuously provide safe, wholesome beef, while providing the best health programs for our cattle. We need a system in which people at all levels in the industry communicate with one another so that everyone understands the relative risks and the unintended consequences of making decisions without proper diligence."
Yet, he explains, pressure mounts against antibiotics and other animal health tools veterinarians and producers use to provide animal welfare.
Moreover, until now, no one has gone straight to the source of antibiotic use in the cattle business-the producer-to assess use.
That's about to change.
The National Institute of Animal Agriculture (NIAA) and BCI are joining forces to do just that with a survey open to all beef cattle producers. "This survey was developed to explore the issue of antibiotic use and resistance in the areas where food animal antibiotics are actually used-at the producer level," explains Tiffany Lee, DVM, a BCI graduate teaching assistant. "Many medical doctors and veterinarians, and even the companies that produce these antibiotics, have given their opinions and expert advice. However, we have not heard from all of the experts-those who use antibiotics as part of their care for the animals they raise."
Lee explains survey questions focus on use of antibiotics and producer opinions on the issues of consumer perception and antibiotic resistance. KSU veterinarians who represent the industry on the forefront of the national antibiotic debate developed the questions.
"Our aim with the survey is to illustrate the infrastructure that exists within the industry to use and monitor the judicial use of antibiotics, including the depth of the client-veterinary relationship," Thomson says.
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4. Hunters asked to submit deer samples for CWD testing [TX]
By Steve Lightfoot, Texas Parks and Wildlife
MyPlainview.com
September 24, 2015
AUSTIN -- With the recent discovery of Chronic Wasting Disease in two captive deer breeding facilities in south-central Texas, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department will be stepping up efforts to strategically sample hunter harvested deer at a greater level during the 2015-16 hunting season.
Hunters are encouraged to assist with this statewide monitoring effort by voluntarily submitting samples this fall. TPWD biologists will collect and submit samples to the Texas A&M Veterinary Diagnostic Lab at no cost to the hunter. Tissue samples from the heads of harvested deer must be collected within 24 hours of harvest, up to 48 hours if kept chilled. It is very important that the deer head not be frozen.
Since 2003, TPWD biologists have been monitoring the state's free-ranging deer population for CWD. Using statistical sampling tables commonly used by animal disease experts, biologists set a sampling goal that would detect the disease with 95 percent confidence if at least one out of every 100 deer was infected. Thus far, biologists have collected nearly 30,000 samples from hunter-harvested deer across Texas' eight ecological regions, in most cases surpassing 95 percent confidence standards. To date, CWD has not been found in Texas free-ranging white-tailed deer.
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5. UC Davis vets work around the clock to care for fire victims
By Rob Warren, Special to the Democrat
The Daily Democrat
September 23, 2015
As the Valley and Butte Fires begin to come under control, with both now being more than 70 percent contained, veterinarians from UC Davis worked day and night for the past week caring for animals from the fires.
A team of veterinarians from several entities of the School of Veterinary Medicine - the Veterinary Emergency Response Team, Center for Equine Health, the veterinary hospital's Large Animal Clinic and the International Animal Welfare Training Institute - performed search and rescue missions and cared for animals in the fire zones, while another team tirelessly treated animals back at the hospital.
In the field, CEH Director Dr. Claudia Sonder went door-to-door, ranch-to-ranch, looking for animals that had to be left behind as the fires approached so rapidly the residents barely had time to get out with their lives. Some weren't able to get out at all.
"I encountered one owner who was trapped on her ranch by the fast moving blaze," said Sonder. "She and her dogs survived by riding out the fire in her water trough."
She covered her head with a wet pair of blue jeans, recalled Sonder, while water funneled out of the trough by the fire's updraft. She watched as her horses gathered in a small pond nearby, with all but their noses submerged in the water. Miraculously, they all survived.
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6. NIH awards $1.55 million to further Purdue bird flu vaccine work
Purdue University News
September 23, 2015
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -The National Institutes of Health has awarded $1.55 million to a Purdue University-led avian influenza vaccine project.
The funding will allow the continuation of vaccine research led by Suresh Mittal, a professor of comparative pathobiology in Purdue's College of Veterinary Medicine, and includes collaborators at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Mittal and CDC collaborators Suryaprakash Sambhara and Ian York created a vaccine in 2006 for the H5N1 bird flu virus. The team is now focusing on developing a broad spectrum vaccine capable of covering emerging influenza viruses that have the potential to cause the next influenza pandemic in humans, including H5N1 H7N3, H7N7, H7N9 and H9N2. The new H7N9 influenza virus was found in China in 2013 and is responsible for 229 deaths and 665 cases as of May 2015, according to the World Health Organization.
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7. Judge Rules Against New Mexico Horse Processing Plant
By Pat Raia
TheHorse.com
September 24, 2015
A New Mexico district court judge has sided with that state's attorney general by expanding a 2014 injunction to include the new owners of a plant that was once intended to process horses.
Horse slaughter has not taken place in the United States since 2007 when a combination of court rulings and legislation shuttered the last two processing plants. Since then, American horses have been transported to Mexico and Canada for processing.
Horse processing once again became possible in the United States in 2011 when Congress passed an appropriations bill that did not contain language specifically forbidding the USDA from using federal dollars to fund horsemeat inspections. Shortly after that bill became law, horse processing operations were proposed in several states, including at a Roswell, New Mexico, facility owned by Valley Meats Company. In June 2013, Valley Meats' owners announced that, after months of waiting, the company had received a USDA Food Safety Inspection Service permit, which allowed USDA personnel to conduct horsemeat inspections at the plant.
In late 2013 New Mexico's then-Attorney General Gary King filed a lawsuit seeking a temporary restraining order and an injunction preventing the firm from launching its horse processing operation. In January 2014, the court issued a primary injunction stopping Valley Meats from opening its plant.
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