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1. INFORM: HPAI Biosecurity Training Materials Available in Spanish
USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Bulletin
October 13, 2015
In collaboration with the Center for Food Security and Public Health at Iowa State University, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has translated biosecurity training materials for highly pathogenic avian influenza into Spanish. These documents can help the poultry industry train employees and implement effective biosecurity practices. These resources are posted on the U.S. Poultry and Egg Association website at http://www.poultrybiosecurity.org/.
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2. AVMA issues report on veterinary capacity
American Veterinary Medical Assoc.
AVMA@Work
October 8, 2015
The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) today released its 2015 AVMA Report on Veterinary Capacity.
The fifth installment of the AVMA's six-part 2015 Veterinary Economic Report series, the report focuses on the capacity of the market for veterinary services.VetCapacityEXECSUMCover
Are there too many veterinarians? Some in the profession think so. But if you take a closer look at the numbers, that's not necessarily the case. In fact, the AVMA takes the position that there are not too many veterinarians in the workforce. What the U.S. veterinary profession is experiencing is a situation of excess capacity, in which a certain percentage of veterinarians' capacity to provide services is going unused. Excess capacity means that services are being provided in excess of the quantity demanded at a specific price.
The concept of excess capacity is new to the veterinary profession, having been first introduced in the 2013 AVMA Workforce Study. The confusion over the difference between an oversupply of veterinarians and excess capacity continues to linger in the profession. The difference between the two is the use of price in determining what excess capacity is versus oversupply.
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3. Iowa's Harrisvaccines gets bird flu vaccine order from USDA
Christopher Doering
DesMoines Register
October 14, 2015
WASHINGTON - Harrisvaccines will supply its vaccine to the U.S. Agriculture Department to help prevent poultry from getting the deadly bird flu virus that battered Iowa and 14 other states this year, the Iowa company said Wednesday.
The USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) awarded the Ames livestock vaccine manufacturer a $6 million, two-year contract to provide 48 million doses, 25 million of them by the end of November.
France-based Ceva Corp. also was awarded a $6 million contract to manufacture its vaccine.
"We are very close to people very worried about what could happen" if the virus returns again, said Joel Harris, a vice president with Harrisvaccines. "(We're) in a position to rapidly produce additional vaccines if the virus changes or a new strain emerges."
Harris said the contract from USDA was "a very significant order for us and it just validates the potential value this company could have," citing its success in developing a vaccine for the fast-moving porcine epidemic diarrhea virus.
He said the 45-employee company is looking at using its platform to develop vaccines for other species such as foot-and-mouth-disease in cattle and canine influenza in dogs.
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4. Iowa State University animal scientists identify mutations that led to pigs that lack immune systems
Iowa State Univ. News Service
October 14, 2015
AMES, Iowa - Animal science researchers at Iowa State University have identified a pair of genetic mutations that cause immune deficiencies in pigs that make them uniquely good models for testing potential medical therapies for people.
The discovery of the mutations will pave the way for researchers to further develop a genetic line of pigs with severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) at Iowa State and to improve husbandry and management practices for the pigs.
Christopher Tuggle, an animal science professor, said pigs born with SCID make ideal models for studying vaccines, potential cancer treatments and stem cell therapies for human medicine. That's because their deficient immune systems can't reject cells introduced experimentally.
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5. Davos World Zoonosis Summit: Ceva Warns Against Rising Risks from Avian Influenza
Ceva
ThePoultrySite.com
October 7, 2015
SWITZERLAND - Dramatic changes in avian influenza (AI) are posing an increasing threat to animal welfare, the global economy and human health. This was the key conclusion of a presentation to the world's leading experts at the 3rd Global Risk Forum on public and animal health in Davos yesterday by Marcelo Paniago, Director Global Veterinary Services Poultry at Ceva Sant� Animale.
Mr Paniago said: "Avian Influenza has changed dramatically in the last few years. To date, 2015 has seen 309 individual outbreaks of avian influenza reported to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), which is a staggering 147 per cent increase on outbreaks reported in 2014. Seventy five per cent of emerging human infectious diseases, of which AI is one, come from animals."
This increase in outbreaks has resulted in increasing costs for Governments and industry as well as having a significant impact on animal welfare. In a major outbreak of the H5N7 strain in the Netherlands in 2003, some 255 separate incidents were managed, with 30 million poultry birds culled at a cost of 500 million euros.
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6. Why insects could be the ideal animal feed
By Kai Kupferschmidt
Science Magazine / AAAS
October 14, 2015
Mick Grant is a farmer in Roos, U.K., a burly fellow with strong hands and a quick smile. His great-grandfather started out with a shop and two cows. Out of that grew Elm Farm, a 450-hectare estate on which Grant is raising pigs and growing wheat, peas, and oil seed rape. Recently, Grant has added a new species of livestock: housefly larvae, also known as maggots.
In two blue shipping containers a short drive from the farmhouse, Grant is raising them by the tens of thousands. They grow on manure from a nearby chicken farm-the fresher the better, Grant says: "As it gets older it crusts and gets fungus in it." Maggots from old manure, he says, "are not as good a maggot as they are at the beginning."
Grant has produced hundreds of kilos of dried maggots in the last few months as part of an E.U.-funded research project called PROteINSECT. They are now being fed to fish, pigs, and chickens in large trials designed to answer an increasingly urgent question: Are insects the animal feed of the future?
Some scientists are convinced the answer is yes. The world's appetite for meat is growing, and the production of animal feed is an increasing strain on land and water. Insects could provide much of the protein animals need at a much lower environmental cost; many insect species can feed on manure, like Grant's maggots, or other types of organic waste, such as leftover food, offal, and grains discarded by breweries.
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USAHA News Alert Summaries is a service provided to its members as a timely, up-to-date source of news affecting animal health and related subjects, intended for personal use by USAHA members. Information in these articles does not necessarily represent the views or positions of USAHA.
Sources of articles are state, national and international media outlets, press releases, and direct from organizations or agencies. Each article includes direct citation and link. Comments, questions or concerns about the information included in each article should be directed to the source in addition to USAHA. While USAHA strives for accuracy in the information it shares, the News Alert Summaries should be treated as a tool that provides a snapshot of information being reported regarding animal health and related subjects.
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