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1. 118 properties affected by livestock disease across Wyoming [VS]
The Associated Press
WTHItv.com
October 16, 2015
RIVERTON, Wyo. (AP) - More than 100 premises in nine Wyoming counties have been affected by a virus that can cause painful sores in infected animals this year.
The Ranger of Riverton reports (http://bit.ly/1NM0S6y) that officials from the Wyoming Livestock Board fielded questions about vesicular stomatitis at a public meeting at Central Wyoming College. There are more than 50 confirmed and suspected cases of the virus in Fremont County.
The Livestock Board has ordered some individual premises quarantined to help control the outbreak. The board cannot disclose the exact locations of the quarantines unless there is a need to protect the vicinity.
All Wyoming ranchers may have limited ability to move and sell their livestock due to the outbreak.
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2. Vesicular Stomatitis infecting horses in El Paso county [CO]
By Macy Egeland
Fox21News.com
October 15, 2015
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - A virus that affects horses and other livestock is quickly spreading across El Paso county.
It's called Vesicular Stomatitis or VS, and the Black Forest community alone has several cases. VS is a highly contagious virus that's spread between livestock by insects, like flies, or through direct contact. It normally causes painful sores in the mouth that prevents the animal from eating, but it can also spread to other areas like their utters and hooves.
Since it's a virus, there is no treatment, so when a horse is infected, owners just have to let it run its course.
Right now horses in 615 places across the nation have been affected by the virus and half of them are in Colorado. Last week in El Paso county, we didn't have any infected horses reported, but now there are nine places under quarantine with more on the way.
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3. Biosecurity Improving as Flu Threat Looms [PA]
By Philip Gruber, Staff Writer
Lancaster Farming
October 16, 2015
Poultry farmers and ag service companies have been heeding the dire warnings about bird flu, upgrading biosecurity before the virus hits Pennsylvania.
"I think people are starting to understand," said Robert Owen, director of technical services for Best Veterinary Services.
Most farmers that Owen works with have put in Danish entry systems, where a bench presents a physical barrier between clean and dirty zones in the poultry house entry room.
"We had zero before the start of the summer," Owen said.
The bench can be as simple as a board laid across cinder blocks. People can sit on the bench to take off their outside shoes, then swing their legs over and put on their poultry house shoes.
Coveralls and foot pans can also be used on the bird side of the bench, Owen said.
Another easy, inexpensive fix: Farmers need to seal up any holes they find in their poultry houses where wild birds and rodents can bring in the virus, Owen said.
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4. NIAA's antibiotic symposium develops vital relationships, common ground
By NIAA
Drovers CattleNetwork.com
October 16, 2015
"Animal agriculture, veterinarian medicine, human medicine... we are all seeing that our new antibiotic pipeline is going to be much, much more limited," says Kansas State University veterinarian Mike Apley. Apley was interviewed for SwineCast this week on his involvement with the upcoming NIAA Antibiotic Symposium.
Apley says the Symposium's purpose of working to build a bridge between animal health and human health is important for both mutual fact-checking and to build relationships. "We are all in this together," he says. "We can learn a lot from how each is approaching this. We can't let this break down into Us vs. Them, with lines drawn. We have to make sure we are talking about things together."
The Symposium's theme this year is Antibiotics Stewardship: From Metrics to Management. Apley admits that coming up with a definitive yardstick to measure risk benefits that all parties can agree on will be very difficult. However, the opportunity to have the conversation, face to face, in the same room is what he finds exciting about NIAA's Symposium.
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5. As flames scorch trees and homes, scenes of animal rescue shine [TX - edited]
By Asher Price - American-Statesman Staff
Austin American-Statesman
October 17, 2105
BASTROP - The show barn in this community scorched by fire looks like a veritable Noah's ark.
Here, a pair of peacocks peering about; there, some potbelly pigs lying on their side. Shetland ponies, goats and their kids, chickens and roosters, and a prized black steer named Razzmatazz are in their separate pens. More than a dozen horses kick the dirt in a nearby corral.
Each of these animals were rescued from the fire that fast swallowed up thousands of acres this past week. Some were brought in by fleeing owners, others were picked up by caring neighbors who loosed gates or cut through fences to allow creatures reprieve.
The scene here suggests not only the very rural nature of Bastrop County, a fast-growing area on Austin's eastern fringe that still includes sheriff's deputies tasked with shooing cattle off roads, but also the neighborliness endemic to a horsey community as it battles through a rough week.
Still, there were harrowing episodes of rescue.
On Wednesday night, Chris Dauphinais, a member of the Texas Lost Pines Riding Club, led a seven-truck caravan onto Gotier Trace Road in response to an SOS call from a livestock owner.
"We went and saddled up," he said.
It was about 8 p.m. when Dauphinais, in his white, one-ton Chevy dually pickup, and his team pulled up to the property, escorted by sheriff's deputies, state parks officials and firefighters. It was already dark - except for the leaping flames about 150 yards away.
He turned to his 15 year-old daughter, Danielle, and told her to set a timer in the truck for 15 minutes - about all the time he figured they had - and "to wonk him over the head" when it ran out.
The horses were "excited, but not in a positive way," he said. Instead of looking relaxed and docile, they were twitchy, with big eyes and ears pinned back.
Dauphinais, his 17 year-old son, Drew, and other volunteers, worked quickly to wrangle the horses, leading seven of them into trailers.
And then it was time to go.
The left-behind livestock - other horses, some cattle - survived, as it turned out.
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6. The FDA Issues Final Guidance to Help Evaluate Effectiveness of Drugs to Reduce Pathogenic Shiga Toxin-Producing E. coli in Cattle
FDA Ctr. for Veterinary Medicine
October 16, 2015
UPDATED October 16, 2015: The FDA has issued the final version of Guidance for Industry #229 Evaluating the Effectiveness of New Animal Drugs for the Reduction of Pathogenic Shiga Toxin-Producing E. coli (STEC) in Cattle.
February 23, 2015
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued today draft Guidance for Industry #229: Evaluating the Effectiveness of New Animal Drugs for the Reduction of Pathogenic Shiga Toxin-Producing E. coli (STEC) in Cattle. GFI #229 provides recommendations on study design and criteria drug manufacturers should use when evaluating the effectiveness of animal drugs intended to reduce STEC. The draft guidance addresses topics including:
protocol development;
study conduct;
animal welfare;
nutritional content of experimental diets;
the assessment of drug concentrations in experimental diets;
experimental parameters; and
substantial evidence of effectiveness.
The draft guidance also provides recommendations for acceptable indications, as well as study designs and analyses that sponsors should use to verify the effectiveness of drugs intended to reduce pathogenic STEC in cattle.
STEC is a foodborne pathogen found mostly in cattle, but can cause serious human illness if contracted. In the U.S., E. coli O157:H7 is the most common type of STEC associated with foodborne E. coli outbreaks, but other serotypes of STEC may also cause illness in people. Most foodborne E. coli infections can be prevented by thorough hand washing, cooking meats to the appropriate temperature, and preventing cross contamination in food preparation.
The FDA is accepting public comments on this draft guidance beginning on February 24, 2015. To submit your comments electronically to the docket, go to www.regulations.gov and type FDA-2015-D-0235 in the search box. Please note that the docket will not be open to accept comments until this date. The comment period will close 60 days after it publishes in the Federal Register. While comments are welcome at any time, you should submit them by the closing date for the FDA to consider your comments in drafting the final guidance.
To submit your comments to the docket by mail, use the following address. Be sure to include docket number FDA-2015-D-0235 on each page of your written comments.
The Division of Dockets Management
HFA-305
Food and Drug Administration
5630 Fishers Lane, Room 1061
Rockville, MD 20852
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7. IFIF, FAO collaborate on critical feed, food issues [edited]
By World Grain Staff
World-Grain.com
October 16, 2015
ROME, ITALY - The International Feed Industry Federation (IFIF) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) held their 14th annual meeting at FAO headquarters on Oct.12-13 to further strengthen their collaboration on critical issues to ensure safe, nutritious and sustainable feed and food.
Ren Wang, FAO assistant director-general for agriculture and consumer protection, welcomed delegates and highlighted the importance of private partnerships to support the FAO strategic goals to the IFIF delegates representing over 80% of global compound feed production.
The meeting was officially opened by Berhe Tekola, director of the FAO animal production & health division and Mario Sergio Cutait, IFIF chairman, who reiterated their commitment to this longstanding partnership and agreed to continue to strengthen their work together to tackle the challenges facing the feed and food chain.
"FAO and IFIF have a long standing partnership and this meeting addressed a number of critical issues of common interest, such as the need for capacity development to ensure feed safety," Daniela Battaglia, Livestock development officer at the animal production and health division of the FAO, said. "FAO is committed to work with the private sector and feed operators and believes that they can valuably contribute to make the livestock and food sectors more responsible and sustainable to achieve important goals such as public health, and animal health and welfare."
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